Bicycle Thief Movie Analysis

This essay will delve into the Marxian concepts of class struggle and alienation based on the classes that he has theorized in his capitalist theory of society that is the bourgeoisie and proletariat and will discuss these concepts in reference to the Italian movie "the bicycle thief".

Karl Marx took up the concept of the ancient Greek method of resolving conflicts and disagreements through arguments and applied it specifically to the changing economic base of society which according to Karl Marx is the common method of producing goods by humans, therefore production is the real base of the society. Development in production leads to change in economic structure which in turn leads to change in the superstructure that includes political, religious,

This leads to conflict and is hence called class struggle. when these concepts are taken in reference to the bicycle thief a movie which is a depiction of the struggles of a man belonging the working class, in terms of the Marxian theory the proletariat in a post war Italian society. The plight of the proletariat from unemployment to poverty is seen clearly in the movie right from the opening scene which shows a number of workmen waiting outside the government employment office in search of employment which ranges from permanent jobs to menial labor for daily

The sheer number of bed sheets and personal belongings that have been pawned off which is seen in the back shot shows the state of poverty the proletariat are living in which is in contrast to the luxurious lifestyle that the bourgeoisie adopt, this is seen in the scene in the tavern where Antonio treats himself and his son to a fine meal, there you see a rich family treating themselves to a feast as Bruno in his tattered clothes looks on with desire in his eyes and is told by his father that a meal of that grandeur will cost at least a million lira which shows the imbalance between the two classes when it comes to distribution of