Vittorio De Sica's 1948 classic about a poor family in Rome's post-World War depression era embodies the truth, difficulty and desperation of ordinary people struggling to survive. The main symbol of survival and hope is the bicycle.Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) is lucky to have gotten a job as a "poster boy", but to take this job he must own a bicycle. To buy a bicycle, him and his wife sell their bed sheets. Their happiness, joy and free spirit on the bicycle as he puts up Rita Hayworth posters, is short-lasting. To be exact, it lasts one day. The same day his bicycle is stolen and the De Sica's tale becomes a tale of desperation and chase. Antonio and his son Bruno (Enzo Staiola) desperately look for the bike, street after street.
In one of my favorite scenes, Antonio tried to forget his troubles - for just a moment. After offering his son to pause the hunt for the bicycle thief and go for some pizza (with the very little leftover cash), he says: "Why should I kill myself worrying when I'll end up just as dead?". "Let's forget everything. We'll get drunk!""We'll eat and be happy for now". And as they enter the loud and lively restaurant, knowing that this is not and will never be their daily life, they try to forget, really forget. "There's a cure for everything except death". As his son proudly eats his spaggeti, while constantly looking behind towards a boy of his same age who is eating these kinds of meals daily....
Reality comes back quickly, even during the meal. "See why we must find it? Otherwise, we don't eat. "
At the same time, this tale is one of family bonds. In moments where the father is scared that it might have been Bruno who was found under the bridge, you can feel that the chase for the resources and the job embodied by the bike flees his mind and his focus is only on his son's survival. Similarly, at the end of the film, Bruno rescues his father from being taken to the police station for a true act of desperation of steeling another bike. No words are spoken, but the screen and the actors' faces speak - it would be unbearable to break the son and the father. "It is a painful realization for the protagonist's son, Bruno, that his father is human and not the super hero that he considers his father to be."
