I have never seen a film so well entrenched into the ugliest side of life, war, that comes out smelling like roses and putting a warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy!

As Italy is invaded, all the Italian Jews of the village Guido lives in with his wife Dora(Nicolleta Braschi) and son Joshua (the incredibly cute Giorgio Cantarini) are captured.

Unlike father and on, Dora is not Jewish, so is not wanted by the Germans, but not willing to be separated from her husband and son, she volunteers to be taken with the Jews, even though this means going to the ‘Nazi death camps!’.

Not wishing his son to know what is really happening (as he is so young) Guido makes out like their capture is really part of a game ,one that they are set out to win!!! Guido’s passion for life and that of his son and wife result in him going to great lengths and risks to see they do not suffer from the effects of the war and their imprisionment.

While Hollywood blockbusters may cost millions and make millions at the box office, Life is Beautiful is true film making at it’s finest… So good is this film that even the Pope himself lists this as one of the best top ten films ever made!

Life is Beautiful was the proud winner of 3 Academy Awards. Best Foreign Film, Best Actor (for Roberto) and Best Music Score. While I personally find Roberto Benengi himself to be no more than 2 minutes worth of entertainment at least when not on-screen (from sheer exhaustion of watching him abe a complete boob), he is simply wonderful in the lead role as father, husband and moral booster! His real-life misses, Nicoletta Braschi, and onscreen son also match him scene for scene.

.I can’t say enough about this truly touching filmic masterpiece! Don’t bother reading the rest of this review, just go buy the damn DVD!

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

VIDEO
You still here? I though I told you not to bother with this part? Fine have it your way then!

This Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer is pretty much breathtakingly beautiful! Sans a few minor spots of alaising and a very very little bit of compression artifacting (and I mean minor, during the opera..red walls!) this is a gorgeous transfer! In fact I was far from expecting a piccy that looked this good!

Thiere is a deliberate use of diffusion for the picture and even so, is incredibly sharp and detailed. Colour Saturation is perfect without a hint of image bleeding or any other nasty you could think of! Black level is also very ygood. Near Reference quality would be the easiest way to sum this up!

AUDIO
Complimenting this smashing Video is an audio mix that comes well above par!.
Available in it’s native Italian tongue (Dolby Digital 5.1), OR in a redubbed English 5.1 mix, you’ll find both to be most impressive. The Italian Mix was very wisely made the default audio track (and so English subtitles are automatically turned on…) My recently firmware enhanced Pioneer 717 only shows up a very slight lag in audio sync here and there, and so is hardly worth bothering with as it’s more than acceptable to this reviewer (and I get really cranky with crap syncing! :) The Oscar winning music score captures the on-screen action beautifully, and has a very nice wide front stage presence and a pleasant, but low level of ambience in the surrounds! Centre Driven dialogue is always clear and intellegeble, even with the hyper-induced speech pattern of Roberto! (though was a little ‘ADR’ sounding at times.)
It was only at the end of the film that I noticed any actually sound effects coming from the surrounds (in the form of the tanker). Other than that all sound effects and dialogue seemed to come from up front only! (T’was very nice and spacious sounding though!:)

NOTE : the english 5.1 mix was redubbed with leads Roberto and Nicolleta speaking their parts…nice touch!)

EXTRAS
Sadly, there are not a great deal of extras for Life is Beautiful, and all we get are a theatrical trailer, Cast and Crew Bios (with a truckload of info!) and the Aurora Dolby Digital Trailer!  The Music backed Menus are all very nice with the main Menu incorporating a very nice textual Morph of "Life is Beuatful" in English and Italian

So I see you actually bothered to read the whole review, Well get off your arse and order this DVD now! Can’t recommend this DVD enough!