The Bicycle Thieves: Post-WWII's Misery

“The Bicycle Thieves” is a very sad and meaningful movie. It did not make me cry like Titanic but it touched into my heart about an event after WWII of how Italians had to live in poverty and their only valuable property was a bike.

Source: IMDb

Antonio Ricci, a man of the family, found a job as a posterman and all it required was a bike. But life never smiled at him or his family. He lost his bike and the journey to find the bike with his son began. Antonio’s son, Bruno, played a key role in telling this story. He did not narrate the movie but in this movie, the boy is the symbol of a family. Throughout the movie, Bruno followed his dad and did whatever his dad told him to do. Sometimes he got bored and tired but he did not give up or complain. Like his dad, Bruno also cared for his father’s bike. In every first scene, Bruno helped his father to clean the bike and their expression was excited about what would happen next without knowing the trouble in front of them. It would be a big mistake if he did not appear so much inside this movie. If the movie only focused on the father, the audience would soon get bored because they only watch the view of the father without knowing what his family was really thinking about him. The presence of the boy had changed the movie. I think that Bruno showed the audience that Antonio had forgotten the most valuable thing that he had ever had was his family. Even though the bike was important because it was only stuff. Family is the true value here and Bruno had shown Antonio what he had become after he lost his bike through a scene. It was when Antonio and Bruno got out of the church to find the old man after he ran away. Bruno wanted to stay back to eat the soup in the church but Antonio did not agree and he got angry. He slapped Bruno and Bruno started to be scared of him. That scene showed that Antonio was being blind for the bike he had to find out and he forgot that his son was there to help him to find the bike. When a person is being blindfolded of something, they will forget everything and will do anything to get what they want. And Antonio was not an exception, especially when he was in poverty.

In a scene, where Bruno looked at the rich family having a good meal, meanwhile he was just having a sandwich. It touched my heart deeply. His family was so poor that they did not have enough money for living. Even the bike was the only valuable thing in the family. The rich family could eat the meal deliciously and did not worry about anything. Bruno stopped eating because he felt this sandwich might be so expensive but his father told him to continue eating because he knew that his son and him would not have this type of meal anytime soon. The true reflection of the poor and the rich in this movie through that scene. Families like Antonio when they lost a bike, they must find that bike by any chance because it was the only thing that could save a family. And the rich when they lost something, they could purchase a new thing. Poor could not afford a thing and the rich could buy anything they wanted.