Bicycle Thieves Response

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

• 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