How are victims, villains and heroes of tragedy and trauma valued and given a voice?
We need to apply this key question to Life is Beautiful:
- What is a tragedy? A tragedy is a sad happening in life.
- How is Life is Beautiful a tragedy? Life is Beautiful is a tragedy in that someone died - 'dying is a sad happening.'
- Could it also be a comedy? Yes it could also be considered a comedy because there's a humerus ignorance about Guido. For example, in perhaps the first scene in the movie, Guido's friend's uncle's car has no brakes and they're going to crash into a group of people surrounding a Nazi parade. To get them to move, he waves his arm albeit (ignorantly) the same way the Nazis salute. It's those small scenes and parts of the movie that also make it humerus.
- What is a villain? What is a hero? What is a victim? Give examples of each both from real life and from fiction. A villain is someone who is unlawful, cruel and is main antagonist (gives movie dikotamy). A hero is someone who is protagonist helps victims, is devoted to serving other and (generally) defeats villains.
- Who are the villains, victims and heroes? The villains are the Nazis, Dora's fiance and doctor (could also be victim or hero; is a grey area), the victims are the Jews (most specifically Joshua and Uncle Leo), and the heroes are the surviving Jews, Dora, Guido, uncle Leo.
- What value do each of these characters play in the movie? What role do they play in the plot? What role do they play in connecting the movie to history? What role do they play in evoking a reaction from the audience? (List the important characters in the movie and label them as either villains or heroes. Then, in dot points, list the important role they play in regards to plot, history, and to the audience.)
- Guido: is the driving force of story and pushes it along and keeps Joshua along; is main protagonist. Being Jewish, his character relates back to history
- Joshua: is the complication. He is a victim and completely innocent. Makes the audience feel sorry for him and have a lot of sympathy for him; this young kid who's done nothing wrong ends up in a concentration camp
- Germans: no one villain. As a nation/army they went and offed many people. They play the villain and makes the audience dislike them.
Scene in concentration camp: What's happening is that the Germans are giving orders and they want someone to interpret what they say. Guido is worried about they effect what they say will have on his son so he agrees to translate the orders. What he 'translates' is some rules he wants his son to go by in order to survive.
The heroes in this scene are Guido and one of the other men in striped pajamas. Guido risks his life in translating lies to help Joshua along and the other Jew translates what the Germans actually said. The Villains are the Germans and the victim is Joshua
The Heroes and villains are amplified in importance in this scene by being put up the front of the room and give orders.The villains are also able to be told apart by the way they enter the room, how they hold themselves, their uniform and their guns. They're also higher up on a platform and they're organised, (standing in formation). The Hero is more relaxed, on lower platform and not so organised. When on stage, the hero and villain have a line between them. Also the smaller of the 2 guards in the formation is on the heroes side and the larger on the villain's side to make the villain look bigger. Tone says that villain is talking down to Jews (statement of power). Joshua is elevated in importance in this scene. He's the center of the scene and Guido is risking his life to speak to him. The close ups on Guido then Joshua amplifies the fact that Guido is almost talking to him. Body language also says a lot. Guido is expressive in his stance but the German is stiff and his facial expression makes him all the more aggressive. The guard is also a little fat and well-fed when all the Jews are thin and starving.
^juxaposition
No comments:
Post a Comment