Norman Geras has a couple of entries which comprise his review of the Roberto Benigni film, Life is Beautiful. Part 1. Part 2. I recommend the review to you, as Geras's feelings are very similar to mine on the subject (disclaimer: the reverse may not be true) - feelings I will amplify a bit now.

I saw the film only a few months ago, so my take may be a bit different than it may have been had I seen the film when it first came out - world events having made certain feelings engendered by the film even more acute since its release in '98. There's nothing unusual in that. Art, entertainment and history's meaning - that is, how we perceive it and what we take from it - often varies over time.

To name a few quick examples: I recall that when 10,000 Maniacs released the album In My Tribe, it included the Cat Stevens song Peace Train. When Stevens became somewhat infamous later for his support of Ayatollah Khomeini's call for the death of Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, lead singer Natalie Merchant stated that she regretted they had put the song on the album. It was, as I understand it, removed from future re-pressings. The taste of the tune had soured with age.

For another example, take a look at James Lileks' description of the DVD version of Python's Life of Brian:

Follow the link to see the photo that accompanies this text. You'll see why, if the JPF wasn't a great idea at the time, it seems in even worse taste now.

I'm sure the reader can think of a number of examples of artistic creations who have suffered the fate of having events catch up with and surpass them.

One counter-example by way of leading us back to Benigni: I also had recent occasion to see the Charlie Chaplin's 1940 classic, The Great Dictator. Filmed in 1939, it was the first film in which the silent era star's voice is heard, and in a way, one could say it risks suffering from some of the same problems that afflict the Benigni film...but to me it didn't.

In the film, Chaplin plays both a satirized Hitler figure and a Jewish Ghetto dweller. While life is shown as hard and unfair in the ghetto, it is nothing more than an antiseptic, bowdlerized version of same, in which one is expected to laugh at the idea of Chaplin's girlfriend saving him from harm by bonking clumsy stormtroopers on the head with a frying pan. It's classic slapstick stuff that would be OK for a laugh in any other context. In the context of the reality of the Ghetto, however, it becomes nothing more than sad and absurd...until one remembers when it was made, and then it seems OK to chuckle.

Released in 1940 and filmed in 1939, The Great Dictator was a brave film. At that time, no one in America wanted to be bothered by the fate of the Jews, in fact, Hollywood wasn't exactly falling all over itself to make films about Jews as main characters generally. At a time when America was studiously staring at its toes and trying to mind its own business over what was happening in Europe, and even Jewish film producers were sensitive of being accused of being the ones trying to drag America into a fight, this wasn't exactly a sure-fire popularity winner.

To say that Chaplin presented a "bowdlerized" version is unfair, however, as it implies the omissions were intentional. The fact is that in 1939, Chaplin had no idea of the true scope of the horror going on inside Hitler's Reich - few people did. In fact, as I understand it, Chaplin later remarked that had he known the truths that he and the world later learned, he would not have made the film.

Still, watching it in the knowledge of when it was made, even with the full knowledge we now have of events, The Great Dictator remains a brilliant classic. The film itself is simply naive, and so it retains its purity.

Life is Beautiful has no such excuse, and for a full discussion of that, see Norm's postings at the links given above.

I had a particular feeling of ill-ease watching the film in mid-to-late 2003 and considered blogging about it at the time, but as I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time I didn't do so. My feelings on the subject have solidified a bit since then, enough to get a few thoughts down. I'm going to paint with a broad brush here, but those who have followed recent trends with respect to the current rise in anti-Semitism and the sources of the differences between American and European treatment of the State of Israel (particularly with respect to Holocaust Guilt), will find these strokes familiar.

Life is Beautiful is a Holocaust film even a European can enjoy. It's safe. The first part of the film is a wonderful, simple comedy in the old style. The viewer can imagine he is watching a film made in the '40's or '50's. It works. It's cute. The trouble is that it never breaks out of that mold, and when we arrive at the slave-labor camp the style fails miserably.

What we end up with is such a dumbed-down version of anything approaching a Nazi slave-labor camp that it belies all credulity. What we do have is a version of the Holocaust with the true horror of camp life (barring one very quick and passing flash of horror) that masks the viewer from the full reality of history. One may be granted the illusion that what one is watching "the Holocaust," when really what one is seeing is as much related to real history as the game "Operation" is related to the real blood and guts of actual surgery.

This is a ticket for the modern European (and others, of course, including Americans) to wring his hands, "tsk, tsk," pronounce that yes, the Holocaust was bad, but see, it wasn't *that* bad and not lose a minute's rest over it. The fact is that the images and stories broadcast daily by the world media out of such places as Israel (and now Iraq) are far worse than anything seen in this film. Now think about that for a moment. The result is that people can say, "You see, it was bad back then, but they should get over it, and anyway, what they're doing now is at least as bad - maybe worse." It's a comforting thought for many, many people, and it's abetted by this movie. The trouble is it's not true.

It's not a hateful film. I don't believe there's any evidence that Benigni intentionally made a piece of Holocaust-minimization theater.

But Life is Beautiful is the ridiculous towing behind it the dangerous.

And that's why I didn't like the film.