Bicycle Thieves Analysis

The ‘Bicycle Thieves’ was released in 1948 and directed by Vittorio De Sica. It is often associated with the neo-realism film movement. Neo-realist elements helps it succeed as a humanist film with its honest comments on the social conditions in post-war Italy. The film is heavily impacted by the state of affairs in Italy and around the globe. Characterised by the war, unemployment, labour control, poverty and social injustice; the ‘Bicycle Thieves’ shows the poverty of the Roman working-class and emerged as an assessment of Italy's severe situation. Antonio evolves into an effective metaphor for the average Italian working man. In this response paper I will argue that through the use of neo-realism elements, the film advocates sever problems
Antonio Ricci is played by Lamberto Maggiorani, who was initially a factory worker. His physique suggests that of an ordinary unemployed male, making him an appropriate choice for the role. This successfully adds another layer of realism to the film. In addition, realism was often emphasised through them being shot in the streets with hand held cameras as a result of film studios being destroyed during the
This ‘film movement’ arose at a precise moment in post war society, supporting morality and humanism over spectacle. Circumstances of Roman life and society shape the protagonist's choice to become a bicycle thief. The film shows how circumstances and obstacles of everyday life can make a good person succumb to a moral bad. Suggesting an underlining covert Marxist perspective; the political philosophy that the working man can’t achieve what he wants, despite how hard he tries. In this way the film the film expresses the desperation and destitution at the end of the war with vast social problems and suggests the need of some of force, interpreted as the government. The film highlights the need to resolve social problems and help to revive the economy, in a way the film explains the advent of the welfare state in later years as a consequence of the war. In this way Antonio represents an ordinary man; victim of the social problems in Italy and in need of governmental intervention to revive the