The Beauty of Knowing (4): From The Lives of Others to Life is Beautiful
Let’s face it. Since the day we started watching Hollywood movies we would have relied heavily on subtitles. If not for those life-savers, what would have happened! Even today, when I feel I know at least some English, in walks Benedict Cumberbatch! Tell me honestly now, those of you who have watched ‘Sherlock’, can one do without subs! But on the bright side, from my read-subsi-watch-film hardwork, I learnt that you need not know a language to know the essence, and thus I tried my hands at other language films as well, and man, what a joy!
Ever wondered what all this “cold war” meant? Basically, after the second world war was over the two mighty winners (The USA and the Soviet) started quarelling (impssively, through spies, technology and sports) for the claim of the position of the don of the world. The world was torn apart between communalism (The USSR) and capitalism (The USA) and those who talked against general opinion was called a traitor (in both The USA and The USSR) and a number of great movies have been filmed on that subject. But this movie, ‘The Lives of Others’, sticks out as my favourite. It’s a German movie and in those days Germany was divided into East Germany and West Germany (football fanatics must know!), the former under USSR and the latter under USA. This film takes place in The East and is centered on a playwright who is suspected of not being loyal to the Communist regeme, and if so, to either eliminate him or silence him. How funny! In fact, that was the condition of the so-called suspects (speaking against capitalism) in The USA (what with all those Communist witch-hunts and all). Thus, this film could very well be regarded as the beacon holder of the freedom of the press. This film seems to mock the idea of those in power stiflying ideas because they were against their point of views. It could either mean they thought they were superior to the common man and wanted to shield him (as if he did not have a sense of his own) or they were afraid that they would lose their power. But this film is not at all a steriotype spy movie of that era. It shows how, those in power, betray the multitudes for their personal benifits (here love). At the end of the movie you will come to the conclusion that life is beautiful when one does his duty with his conscience as his judge.
Now let us time travel both in time and space. Let us go to the midst of the second world war itself, not to Germany, but to Italy. We are in the midst of brutality in it’s vilest. The most horrific thing was the holocaust, that murdering of SIXTY LAKH people for ethinic and racial reasons. Just imagine yourself as a father (of a very jovial kind), and are a jew at a Nazi concentration camp where you either work or you die, and most important of all you have a tiny son whom you should both hide and comfort, without letting him know the truth, the truth of how low humanity can sink to, you get the story-line of the story. How unbearably sorrowful it must be! But could you believe that the title is ‘Life is Beautiful’? I think this is reason enough for you to give this movie a try. I also remember one more thing; when asked to prove the racial superiority of the so-called Aryans, (the hero has come in disguise of an official to impress his lady love), how sarcastically the hero answers, “We have the best ear-lobes, the best belly-botton”, and shows to all those superiority-addicts that there is no superior race, religion, nation, caste or sex, but that all are human beings.
Let me finish quoting J.K. Rowling’s Dumbledore: “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
