Movie #31 ........................."The Bicycle Thief"

I rated it 5 stars
Average rating: 3.819
The Bicycle Thief
Ladri di biciclette
(1948) NR
Widely considered a landmark Italian film, Vittorio De Sica's tale of a man who relies on his bicycle to do his job during Rome's post-World War II depression earned a special Oscar for its devastating power. The same day Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) gets his vehicle back from the pawnshop, someone steals it, prompting him to search the city in vain with his young son, Bruno (Enzo Staiola). Increasingly, he confronts a looming desperation.

Movie #31 "The Bicycle Thief" is truly a classic, filmed in the streets of Rome (since I'm going there in November, that made it doubly nice), black and white (my favorite) it truly showed the desperation of the poor. The bicycle gets stolen about 17 minutes into the film, and Ricci (and his little 7 year old boy) spend 70 grueling minutes film time in search of it ------- he must find it ------and he loses personal dignity along the way. The film speaks to us in our desperate times of a jobless world. I had read a lot about this one, and it's worth 90 minutes of anyone's time. The film truly draws you into this poor man's lot in life. And the son is every bit as good as the kid in "The Champ". I'm glad I finally got to see this gem of a film