This movie was made in post World War-II period which marked a period of transition for many European countries. Vittorio De Sica, director of the movie is attributed for bringing neo-realism to the world of cinema and inspiring a whole lot of movie makers of that period to bring about a paradigm shift in way movies were made and the social reality portrayed. The period (1948) when the movie was made marked the beginning of Italian neo-realism as a literary and cinematic movement that flourished after WW-II. Neo-realism demanded to deal realistically with the events leading to the war and the problems that the public faced during and after the war. The Bicycle Thieves was perhaps the first Italian movie to bring that reality to the celluloid in an unabridged manner.
A new genre of cinema had emerged with this movie, with non-professional actors, lots of outdoor shootings encompassing public and a story that truly depicts the hardships of working class life in a city after war. Imagination, grandeur & romanticism were now replaced with realities of daily life and the crisis of survival.
The story is set in the outskirts of Rome where Ricci finds a job after lot of struggle amidst several unemployed people looking for the jobs, but the job profile requires him to have a bicycle. As his bicycle had been pawned long back, his wife pawns household items to get back the bicycle. Disaster strikes and the bicycle is stolen the next day. Ricci looks for the bicycle all over the place but in vain. In utter dismay, he decides to steal a bicycle, but is caught and beaten up by mob in front of his son Bruno. The delicate father-son relationship is at a strange point now. Both disappear in the streets of Rome weeping. The moral confusion of stealing is showed in a realistic manner. Despair has turned Ricci into a thief but the moral assumptions leading to the theft are complex.
The kid Bruno is very impressive throughout the film. He is a smart city kid and understands well the family situation. He’s a constant companion of his father in the search for the bicycle. Ricci is a caring man for his family, but is torn apart from hardship of losing his only hope for job i.e. bicycle. While searching for bicycle he even turns to the fortune-teller (for visiting whom he’d earlier scolded his wife)in superstition. He’s a typical representative of person dealing the hardships that follow in a nation torn apart by war.
Although it’s not very evident, some people have blamed the movie of having a “Marxist undertone”[IMDB discussion thread] as if to say that religion is incompatible with real problems of the struggling working class. The open mockery of the young man who kneels in front of the altar while chasing Ricci in the church might have led to this notion. But I don’t think this was a deliberate attempt of the director. The conditions after WW II were harsh for economies and even harsher for the working class dependent upon industries driven by capitalism.
The movie was a critical inspiration for Satyajit Ray as it was after watching this movie he decided with certainty that he’d make Pather Panchali the way he’d planned. The reason it influenced him so much might have been Ray’s affinity towards social realism and naturalism. He always wanted to do things breaking the conventions and outdoor shootings, use of non-professional actors and a realist theme in Bicycle Thieves made him believe that what he’d conceived can not only be done but done with absolute precision and clarity. If Sica had done it in Rome, why couldn’t he in India.
