Bicycle Thieves Response
Films about working class life
• The opening scene with the poor people crowding around the man giving out a job.
• Antonio struggles to feed his family at home.
• Antonio must sell his sheets to buy a bike.
Set in a culture of poverty
• Maria gives money to a woman for her spiritual blessing and advice.
• There are many poor Italians fighting for the same limited number of jobs.
• Antonio must sell his sheets to buy a bike.
• Bruno, who is very young, must work at a gas station to make money for his family
Critical of Italian culture of the time
• The Italian transit system is overcrowded.
• Many bikes were stolen in the city at the time.
• The police officers are not very helpful.
• The gas station closed at 6 o’clock. This seems odd. I didn’t know
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• Italians yells quite a lot, they also have large markets.
• Italian has a lot of diversity. There were some monks/rabbi in one scene.
• Many odd jobs like putting up posters.
Focus on mundane – day to day tasks
• Maria had to carry water from the well to her home.
• There was a lot of footage of Antonio looking for his bike in the market. It seems unnecessary.
• Putting up posters as a job.
Children important in story, they suffer – often observers of adults and events unfolding
• Bruno had to have a job at a very young age.
• Bruno always looked up to his dad, but his dad was only focused on finding his bike.
• Antonio thought that Bruno jumped off the bridge.
• Bruno fell in the street.
• Creepy man tried to talk to Bruno at the market.
• Antonio hits Bruno
• Antonio wants to get drunk with Bruno.
• Bruno wants to get soup but Antonio won’t let him.
Themes suggest society would be better if the wealth were more evenly distributed.
• The church was the only organization that was willing to give handouts.
• There were a very small percentage of rich people.
• Very few jobs for the