The Bicycle Thief Essay Example for Free

The Bicycle Thief Essay The Bicycle Thief is probably the best known and most highly praised of all the Italian Neorealist films of its era. The films of the Neorealist movement were characterized by several primary ideas. Instead of featuring stories focusing on glitz and glamour, Neorealist films focused on the poor and the working class. Instead of building and fabricating complex sets to film on, they did their filming on location. And instead of trying to get the most well known, highly paid celebrity actors, they frequently used people that weren’t even professional actors and had no training for their starring roles. This all helped lend a sense of realism and weight to the stories. The Bicycle Thief takes place in Rome during a period where the unemployment rate was high and men struggled to support their families. In the film, an unemployed man, Antonio Ricci (played by factory worker Lamberto Maggiorani, in true Neorealist fashion), catches a lucky break and manages to land a job pasting up posters around the city. The only catch is that he needs to own a bike. Being that he already sold his bike to a pawn shop for much needed cash, his wife sells all the bed sheets from their home to scrounge up just enough money to get the bike back. There’s a great shot in this scene where we see an enormous shelf containing hundreds of sheets; a subtle way of showing us that the protagonist is just one of many in similar desperate situations. Antonio gets his bike back and starts his job the next day. Unfortunately, just like in real life, things usually don’t go as planned. While he’s gluing up a poster, a hoodlum dashes by, snags his bike, and takes off with it. Antonio desperately chases after the man, knowing that if he loses his bike, he loses his job, and his family will starve. Try as he might however, the thief manages to escape. He reports the theft to the police, confident that they can help him recover it, but they basically tell him to go look for it himself. The film really tries to highlight the social and moral landscape of the time; if you’re at the bottom of the totem pole, you’re either a target or just one of the faceless millions to be ignored. With no other choice, Antonio takes to the streets and searches for his bike for hours, but comes up empty handed. The scene where he and his son are caught in the rain, soaked and downtrodden, as all around him people on their bikes are riding away really makes poignant the hopelessness of his situation. After trying everything he can think of to get any leads on the thief or the location of his bike, go so far as to even spend what little money he has left on a fortune teller, he happens to bump into the thief in question walking down the street. He chases and finally corners him, but the thief refuses to confess anything and his family and friends defend him from the furious Antonio. The cops arrive, and yet again, they are of no help. They can’t do anything for Antonio as he has no concrete evidence of the crime. Pushed to the final point of desperation, Antonio realizes he has no choice left but to stoop to the lowest level and steal a bike if he doesn’t want his family to starve. He tries to snatch one but is almost immediately taken down by witnesses and held until the police arrive. Seeing Antonio’s son distraught and in tears, the man doesn’t press charge and lets him off the hook. Antonio and his son walk off, both of them in tears, completely hopeless and beaten by society at every turn. This is what Italian Neorealism is all about. For millions upon millions of people living in poverty, real life doesn’t have a happy end. No matter how hard you struggle, sometimes there’s ultimately nothing you can do to alter your fate. And The Bicycle Thief really shows an extremely poignant example of this in the small vignette of Antonio’s life.