Powerful

Overrated

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Saw this when i was a kid. Revisited it recently on a blu ray. In post-war Rome, Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) is offered a job of putting posters up in the city but that job requires a bicycle. Antonio hails from a poverty stricken class n he cannot afford to miss this job as unemployment is very high. Trouble is he had already pawned the bicycle to put food on the table for his family. His resourceful wife sells the bed linens in order to get the money to get his bicycle back. One of the most touching scene is when Antonio and his small son Bruno goes to work carrying their egg sandwiches. Antonio drops the kid at the gas station n so its implied that the kid works there, while he goes in the city to paste the posters n on the very first day his bicycle is robbed by a thief who manages to get away. Director Vittorio De Sica captured the working class lifestyle to perfection by avoiding professional actors and going for real, everyday people n real locations with the everyday hustle and bustle. The film succeeded in capturing the grim realities of regular working people and the everyday struggle. Lamberto Maggiorani being a non professional actor did a terrific job. We as audience empathize with him n his struggles n in the final act in spite of him doing a wrong thing, we want him to succeed. Another noteworthy thing is the small kid. The hotel lunch scene was also very touching. The dialogues before the lunch scene, lets go down in style & everything has a cure except death by Antonio to his son is really encouraging. This film is relevant today due to people living in ghettos.

On the surface Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves doesn't appear to have a story worth filming about, since it is about a poor man whose bicycle gets stolen while on the job, but de Sica has somehow given this neorealistic motion picture such depth and such emotion that it has turned into such a great and personal film which is loved by many.It has to be noted that this is a neorealism picture, meaning that none of the actors in the film were really actors, but random people who are usually associated with their respective role. I did not find out about this until after i watched it, and i was not beginning to doubt it since the actors in this film are just as good as professional ones. Lamberto Maggiorani, who was a steel worker, captures the inner struggles and desperation of his character perfectly with his exceptional facial acting and his true energetic relentlessness in searching for his stolen bicycle.One has to ofcourse understand the struggles of post WWII italy in order to relate to the financial situation of this film, since there were a lot of poor struggling families like the one we follow in the film, and their tale of forlorn attempts to improve. We also have some great black and white cinematography which visually also creates a narrative of its own of how poverty seems to reign in Rome, with many shots of poor homes. The screenplay is as simple as the movie but still consists of so many morally questionable and realistic dialogue such as 'There's a cure for everything, except death'. Also worth a mention is the incredible score by Alessandro Cicognini, whose violins accurately enhance the sad story that is being played out on screen.Especially the final thirty minutes are absolute world class, and the final climax ( Without spoiling anything ) shows its inevitable ending so greatly. The events that unfold in the film might be simple, but it's the kind of film that will make a great emotional impact on you even when the simplest things happen due to the truly realistic depressing feeling and the great connection with the characters.

4,75 / 5 - This is cinema. Bicycle Thief is probably the best report on the hardship and despair that Europeans, in this case Italians, went through after all death and destruction caused by the WWII. The grainy black and white photography is heartbreaking and the many amateur actors just adds to the truthiness. It was a big surprise to know that the main part is played by an amateur actor, maybe that is why the film hits its mark so well and comes across so realistically. The big question raised on the film is how far misery, hunger, poverty and inequality will push you apart from honor and dignity. Will the father be able to maintain his honor and role as a inspirational role for his son on such an extreme situation?The film is intense from start to end and it will keep you on edge of your seat through the more intense moments. This is a huge counterpoint to what Hollywood was producing at the same period of time. It is an honest portrait of the struggle for life and self-respect.

Set in Italy after the second world war, Bicycle thieves is an example of Neo-Realism Italian cinema, looking at broken Italy and its broken people trying to survive in poverty.From the opening shot we can see Antonio Ricci as lost all hope. He is in the margins of society and suddenly there is a job opening for putting up posters that requires having a bicycle. However he has no bike, he pawned it. His wife Maria pawns their bed sheets and uses the money to get the bicycle back.For the first time in a long time Antonio believes life is on the up. With the wages and the family allowance he reckons he can look after his family. He finally has hope.This hopes come crashing down when his bicycle is stolen by an opportunistic thief and he searches all over Rome with his son Bruno looking for the bike and thief.Antonio gets increasingly desperate in the search for his bike, by the end he is humiliated and fatalistic. See Antonio almost get knocked over by a truck he does not care.There is a key scene at a restaurant with his son where Bruno eats a pizza and drinks water and Bruno sees a wealthy family eating a sumptuous lunch. Antonio explains to him how important this job was and the money he was going to make meaning he could afford treats like this for the family.Antonio may not had been good in his job but the film explored the men who were marginalized in Italian working class society and it was their wives who had to be practical in order for the families to survive.This is a raw film it is not an easy watch, you suffer as Antonio goes on his fruitless search and you will him to steal a nearby bike and just ride off.