by Elliot Fogarty

Created on: August 11, 2008

In a world of cinema dominated far too frequently by happy endings that you can see on the horizon during the film, it is refreshing to see a film that makes no qualms for its soporific finale. In 'Ladri di Biciclette' (The Bicycle Thief) there is no American Dream' ending, and things don't work out the way either the protagonist Antonio Ricci or the audience hopes. What occurs instead is a film demonstrating both the depression filled era of post-war Italy and one that reflects the contemporary social concerns that Neo-Realism films aim to produce. Upon Ricci and his wife trading in their bed sheets in order to fund the purchase of the bicycle, there is footage of the thousands of sheets others have traded in for money. This indicates in a non-outlandish manner that the Ricci's are not alone, that there were thousands of people at the time desperate for money to try and ride out the economic problems 1940's Italy was going through.

Andr Bazin stated that upon watching an Italian film, there is the feeling to change things by persuading those ...whom only blindness, prejudice, or ill-fortune had led to harm their fellow men.' In fact, we witness an example of the people Bazin refers to in the shape of Ricci, with his ill-fortune of losing his bike and therefore potentially his livelihood ensuring he harms his fellow man, via resorting to stealing and hitting his son. In most circumstances, should the protagonist hit their child and attempt to steal, he would be condemned and disliked by the audience. However, it is difficult not to feel sympathy for Ricci, essentially due to the realisation that he is a good man on a desperate struggle to ensure he and his family's future isn't bleak.

There is perhaps an all too typical feeling of wanting good to prevail within this film, and for reveling in the growing bond between Antonio and his son Bruno, even after Antonio hits him. This would appear to make the film and its political message an illusion of reality and detracts from what a Neo-Realist film initially sets out to portray. However, Bazin is right when he states that On the screen everybody in the film is overwhelmingly real.' This may be due to director Vittorio De Sica hiring non-actors for the roles, but nonetheless, the actors give a stark indication about the struggles of everyday life during the era in which it was set.

Upon the film's conclusion, there is a feeling of both empathy for Ricci and initial surprise that the film climaxed in the way it did. However, to end it any other way would have been an injustice, and all the emotion built up during watching Ricci's ever-growing difficulty to find the bike would have been largely wasted. Ricci's tears and quiet despair as he walks with his son in front of the hoards of other faces is a poignant reminder that without the bicycle and therefore income for his family, he is merely just like everyone else behind him in the crowd, another face for which money is ultimately the dominating force and worry in their lives.

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