The Bicycle Thief

Okay, so I'll be the first to point out that there seems to be a pattern with me and watching movies lately...particularly the ones I post on this site (yes, this one and the one before both have the word "cycle" in the title but i promise that wasn't planned). Anyways, I've heard about this film since spring of 2003 when Kris, our screenwriting prof told us it was one of the greatest screenplays around in film history (and i think he said one of the greatest films he's ever seen, too). So granted, my hopes were high after finally getting around to seeing it. I mean, it won a special Oscar the year it came out, and I believe it was one of the films that made the Academy Awards consider doing a "best foreign language film" category (since this is an Italian film). But among the numerous awards, it was named best picture of the year by the National Board of Review in 1947, which is saying a lot. Since then, it's been included in international film top ten lists around the globe, and is most likely one of the most "agreed upon cinematic masterpieces of all time."

How can a movie live up to that? Well, you'll have to see it, let it sit in for a few hours (or days) and then maybe, you'll catch a bit of how a movie like that can. The plot is as simple as can be, and since it's part of the neo-realist style of moviemaking, you can easily draw parallels to the bigger scheme of life from it's tiny, allegorical and metaphorical moments. Although the film drags a bit in the first hour or so, the last 25 minutes (it's short, only 88 minutes) is where it really comes full circle and where the rest of the images in the film previously slowly begin to sink back into the brain. When the film comes to end, I sensed a timeless truth that I'm sure will carry through to this generation and the next and the next. And if you're remotely human, you will too.