Bicycle Thieves

Bicycle Thieves is a simple but powerful film. It follows a man and his son, Ricci and Bruno, on their journey to find Ricci’s stolen bicycle. Without this, he’s unable to retain a coveted job that he so needs to provide for his family. As an Italian Neorealism film, it meant to portray events of real life and real people. The film captures a documentary-like feel, while it’s actually fully planned and shaped to look that way.  It illustrates the hardships and struggles of poverty. It does a good job of making the audience feel for and identify with the characters helping it achieve its goal of realism. The editing and sound help to cue the viewers what to think and feel. For example, in the last scene of the film before Ricci steals the bike. Here, there are many cuts going back and forth between Ricci and the bikes surrounding him. We can feel the tension build with the increasing cuts along with the music picking up as well. What feels like millions of bikes surround Ricci, almost taunting him, and we as the audience feel this with him too. Ricci is forced to become the thing he hates most, and steals a bike. It’s heartbreaking, because up until this moment there’s still a glimmer of hope that he may get his bicycle back. But once he rides off on the stolen bike, we realize he’s not going to make it. The film ends with Bruno comforting a crying Ricci as they walk amongst a huge crowd. There’s a focus on the crowd throughout the entire film, so much so that the crowd feels like almost it’s own character. The interplay between Ricci and Bruno and the crowd emphasizes how alone they are. At the end, even though they’re surrounded, they feel more alone than ever, walking home empty handed without Ricci’s bicycle.