Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful: Perspectives of North American Non-Professional Online Movie Reviewers

Benigni's Life is Beautiful gained a controversial reputation, yet managed to locate itself as one of the main pillars of Holocaust cinema of the recent decades. Prior studies had addressed the movie's reception among academics, professional movie critics, and to lesser extent, university students. Here, the perspectives of North American non-professional online movie reviewers were assessed, as this group gains an increasing role in shaping the ways consumers of goods, including cultural goods, relate to various products. These reviewers were found to be very favorite of the movie, and especially emphasized its' emotional appeal and capability to bring viewers to experience deep reflective processes, and point these characteristics to be the most crucial elements of the movie which should bring potential consumers to watch it. Future studies are needed to find how non-professional online movie reviewers of other nationalities react to the movie, as well to other Italian films reaching the global audience.