BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Fella_shibby Saw this when i was a kid. Revisited it recently on a blu ray. In post-war Rome, Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) is offered a job of putting posters up in the city but that job requires a bicycle. Antonio hails from a poverty stricken class n he cannot afford to miss this job as unemployment is very high. Trouble is he had already pawned the bicycle to put food on the table for his family. His resourceful wife sells the bed linens in order to get the money to get his bicycle back. One of the most touching scene is when Antonio and his small son Bruno goes to work carrying their egg sandwiches. Antonio drops the kid at the gas station n so its implied that the kid works there, while he goes in the city to paste the posters n on the very first day his bicycle is robbed by a thief who manages to get away. Director Vittorio De Sica captured the working class lifestyle to perfection by avoiding professional actors and going for real, everyday people n real locations with the everyday hustle and bustle. The film succeeded in capturing the grim realities of regular working people and the everyday struggle. Lamberto Maggiorani being a non professional actor did a terrific job. We as audience empathize with him n his struggles n in the final act in spite of him doing a wrong thing, we want him to succeed. Another noteworthy thing is the small kid. The hotel lunch scene was also very touching. The dialogues before the lunch scene, lets go down in style & everything has a cure except death by Antonio to his son is really encouraging. This film is relevant today due to people living in ghettos.

ptyagi-13755 It is the exuberance of the dramatis personae of the movie that exhort me to say that despite having no element of piquancy, this is assuredly a masterpiece of profound ingenuity.

robobalboa To be completely honest I came to this film as just another movie to cross off the list that everyone talked about. It was almost a joke. If you wanted to get into foreign films it was this and The 400 Blows, and maybe Seven Samurai. And I watched this film with the expectations that it was a CLASSIC, or Untouchable or a film without a peer, after all in Robert Altman's "The Player", the thought of remaking this film is a joke, and as a character says "You'd probably give it a happy ending." So I came into it expecting a depressing, black-and-white-foreign-language film that was completely removed from me and unrelatable in the sense that I would never know what it felt like to be a father in post-war Italy. I was wrong. In plain and simple terms I couldn't have been more wrong. This film, apart from being engaging and full of pathos and tragedy, represented so many disturbing and uplifting facets of the world that for every fear there was angel, for every danger was a comfort. This should always and forever be remembered as the Greatest Street Casting of all time and it should also be remembered as the Greatest Father-Son-Film of all time. Whether you have a wonderful relationship or a strained relationship with your father this film could go a long way to explaining a lot of the simplicities and complexities of relationships that have haunted humans for generations. This is a pure film. It's honest. It's real and it's magnificent. It will stand the test of time, and it unfortunately has never been topped. I can't give you historical reasons or even reasons based on the creators' filmography why this film is so magnificent, I can't even give you a non-emotional reason why this film is just so damn good, all I can say, or recommend is that this film goes deeper than you expect it to, further than you want it to, and represents a slice of life than hopefully none of us will ever know, and in that creates a beautiful piece of art that has lasted 70 years and could easily last 70 more.

Tyson Hunsaker Bicycle Thieves is an older Italian classic from filmmaker Vittorio De Sica. The film centers on a struggling working class father and husband who recently landed a job only to have his bicycle stolen and can no longer carry out his assignment. First of all this story is extremely simplistic. It's one of the most basic and easy to understand stories I've ever seen and that has its profound benefits. The lack of convolution allows the audience to feel the emotions of the circumstances these relatable characters go through while still maintaining a feel of rhythm and pacing for the thin plot. Most people watching these struggles can most likely empathize with the character about job hunting, providing for loved ones, being an example to children, and dealing with a chaotic environment that is both unmerciful and unpredictable. Performances were honestly wonderful from every performer (the child especially was surprisingly brilliant). Thankfully with the straightforward narrative, the audience is allowed to see the full range these actors can deliver. Another solid positive is the score. I found the music incredibly emotional and beautiful to hear. Having seen it, I see how the style of filmmaking has influenced other more popular and widely seen Italian releases like "Life is Beautiful" and "La Dolce Vita". Any disappointments I have with Bicycle Thieves inevitably fall under the expectation shattering category. I admittedly expected a more positive and hopeful vibe with an ending that felt optimistic. Both of which were untrue so these "negatives" if I can call them that, are more self- inflicted than one would care to admit. Despite the "depressing" and realistic approach the film takes to handle its story and subject matter. I found Bicycle Thieves a truly great film and would recommend it to anyone. Especially for those studying film and foundational Italian art-house filmmaking.