Antonio Ricci and his family are suffering in a post-war world. The economy is poor. There is mass unemployment. The police authorities are unwilling to help. When Antonio has his bicycle stolen, no one helps him chase the thief or find him. When Antonio goes to find the thief in his neighborhood, a large angry crowd stops him. For some reason they are protecting the thief and don't care about a poor man who lost his job because of the thief. Antonio uses several ways to try and find the bicycle. He goes to an after-hours club, a church, the police, a psychic and a market. None of those places had helpful people. All the people there were angry, and telling him to be quiet.
When he finally resorts to stealing a bicycle of his own, suddenly the whole neighborhood is against him. No matter what he does the world is against him, keeping him from succeeding. All of that is made even more clear by the name of the bicycle, "Fides" meaning hope. Hope was literally stolen from him, and everyone around him is keeping him from having it.
Besides all of the social-economic commentary, family values also has a big role in this movie. Through everything, the family learns how to struggle together and I think that is the only thing keeping them alive.
I agree with you that this is a better film than Rome Open City and I also think that the film's viewpoint that everyone is against him is just so hard. Someone else said in their blog that this film is depressing and that's very much true but it's also true that in life sometime's you just get screwed over and for Antonio at least he has Bruno to lean on, not as a crutch but more as a symbol of hope.
ReplyDeleteI was very upset when at Ricci tried to steal a bicycle and suddenly the entire world had it's eyes open. I'm not sure what to label such a circumstance. Throughout the entire movie people didn't care what had happened to him, so long as they were safe and smug in their own lives.
ReplyDeleteYou also have to wonder what it was that Ricci was thinking. I'm sure that at the time it was only about one thing -- his family. He knew that in order to keep the job and be able to provide for them he would have to steal the bicycle. What he wasn't thinking about was the fact that he was turning into the very person he hated. He was taking away someone else's chance at life and happiness.