This 80% RT World War II Masterpiece Returns to Streaming 29 Years Later (original) (raw)
Roberto Benigni leans out of a train in Life is Beautiful
Image via Miramax
Published Mar 29, 2026, 5:15 PM EDT
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There are war movies that leave you stunned, and then there are war movies that completely wreck you. Life Is Beautiful has always belonged in that second group. For all the debate the film has sparked over the years, its emotional power has never really gone away. It is tender, funny, devastating, and somehow able to hold those tones together without collapsing under the weight of its own ambition.
That enduring classic is coming to Paramount+ on April 1, giving the platform one of the most acclaimed international films in its April movie lineup. It is the kind of addition that stands out immediately, not just because of its awards history, but because of how deeply the film still hits nearly three decades later.
Directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, the 1997 film follows Guido, a Jewish Italian man who uses humor, imagination, and love to shield his young son from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. What begins with warmth and whimsy gradually transforms into something much more painful, without ever losing sight of the father-son bond at the center of it. That emotional balancing act is exactly why the movie continues to resonate.
The cast includes Benigni as Guido Orefice, Nicoletta Braschi as Dora, Giorgio Cantarini as Giosuè Orefice, Giustino Durano as Eliseo Orefice, and Horst Buchholz as Doctor Lessing.
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Is 'Life is Beautiful' Worth Watching?
Roger Ebert stated that Life Is Beautiful pulls off an incredibly difficult balancing act. The film begins as a playful romantic comedy, following Roberto Benigni’s Guido through a series of charming, Chaplin-like misadventures, before shifting into something far more painful and profound.
"The movie actually softens the Holocaust slightly, to make the humor possible at all. In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But Life Is Beautiful is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future. About the necessary human conviction, or delusion, that things will be better for our children than they are right now."
Life is Beautiful arrives on Paramount+ on April 1.
Release Date
December 20, 1997