How others will see it. Life Is Beautiful won Academy Awards, and has a legion of fans to this day. They find Guido/Benigni entertaining, and admire his ability to find positives in crushing negatives. They are charmed by his romance with Dora, and are uplifted by his efforts on behalf of his family while imprisoned in a death camp.
The film is subtitled, and this inevitably alienates those who want their entertainment as convenient as possible. There may also be a few who have doubts about the movie, perhaps similar to those expressed in the paragraphs that follow. But, such hard-liners are in the minority. Most will find Life Is Beautiful heartwarming, rather than dubious.
How I felt about it. Benigni is a comedian in the tradition of Danny Kaye, rather than an actor. He performs, instead of playing a character. He is like Will Rogers in that he has yet to meet a man he didn't like, with the exception of a bureaucrat who gets a flowerpot dumped on his head (which would kill him in real life). By a spectacular coincidence, this bureaucrat is the fiance of Dora, Benigni's conquest.
We learn the purpose of gags such as falling keys and hat switches when they become props for his courtship of Dora. He tells her how he wants to make love to her, over and over again, and she stands there in awe, smiling, rather than laughing (the American reaction). Earlier, Guido knocks her down with his bicycle, and it is certain that only in a movie would she consider this to be something magic, rather than stalking or assault.
What I am getting at is the improbability of events and reactions throughout the movie. At the Nazi camp, Guido commandeers a P.A. system and compels his child to speak over it. In real life, that would lead to a thorough search of the camp until the tyke is discovered and executed, likely along with his father.
Another doubtful scene has the unwashed concentration camp child dining with German children, none of whom report that a dirty unknown child who refuses to speak is among them. And none of the caretakers notices the additional child? One also seriously doubts that camp workers made anvils, which they transported by hand over flights of stairs.
It may be harsh to retitle the movie, Life Is Bogus. Some semblance of reality exists, since Guido and his uncle are killed. Proponents will continue to embrace the basic theme of turning lemons into lemonade. But enough added sugar will sweeten anything.