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Summary: One of the Greates Films of All Time!
Review: The Bicycle Thief is a powerful and emotional film set in post WWII Italy. Filled with irony and political critique, this film explores the deepest forces of human nature. De Sica's long takes bring the viewer directly into the story. After viewing this film once, it will stay with you forever.
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Summary: Incredible
Review: The Bicycle Thief is an incredible piece of post-war Italian filmmaking. Vittorio De Sica beautifully captured the tumultuous and depressing times that were Italy after WWII through his settings and the pure despair that is expressed through the performances. De Sica has mastered the use of mis-en-scenic elements such as lighting. His ability to tie so many things together leads to this flawless work, winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1948. It is considered by many to be the best film ever created, and it is easy to see why. Though depressing, it is a must-see for anyone with an interest in film.
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Summary: A "must have" DVD for anyone's collection!
Review: The Bicycle Thief, is perhaps one of the greatest examples of Neorealism (an Italian style of filmmaking during the 1940's). This film is beautifully crafted and Directed. It captures your heart and fulfills that hunger we all share for great cinema. The distributor has done a marvelous job with the transfer of this film to DVD formatt, my hat off to them. This DVD is worth buying and a "must have" for your collection.
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Summary: Great Film, Okay DVD
Review: The Bicycle Thief: a very simple, straightforward story, told straight, no plot-twists or fancy story tricks like false endings, etc. This is a simple story: a man who's work requires him to use his own bicycle or lose his job has his bike stolen from him. The rest of the movie is his and his son's attempt to find the thief and get the bike back.
I understand the plot, but I find it just a little hard to imagine life being so harsh as to put a man out of work for having his bike stolen. I'm not saying it's unrealistic; I didn't live in Italy after WWII. But I found it a tad extreme to be honest. It's a great movie, but I don't think it hits its point home as sharply as Rossellini's "Rome Open City".The DVD is ok - I agree with some reviewers that it could (and indeed should) be transferred at a higher bit-rate with less compression. This film truly derserves the Criterion Treatment if any Italian classic does! It is a better transfer than "Open City", but that's not an excuse. I agree it's time for a quality restoration with more extras and a nice commentary track. But overall, this is a wonderful classic film full of heart and is a fine product worthy of inclusion in any tasteful home movie collection.
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Summary: 5 stars on movies, 3 stars on DVD
Review: The movies is no doubt a great one. But I am a little disappointed with the DVD quality which is no improvement from the previous Leaser Disk. I hope someday Criterion will remaster this movies and add audio commentary or other bonus extra. We can learn a lot from this movies.
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Summary: Welcome to Pure Cinema
Review: The opening shot tells it all. Vittorio De Sica throws us into his world of nihilism and despair within a matter of seconds. For the next 89 minutes he will have the audience hooked and hypnotized by his simple personal story. How? He tells his story visually without the usual preachy "western" techniques of strained dialogue and "Freudian" explanations. Most dramatic American films with serious themes love to have thier actors stand around and talk. "Pure Cinema" is a term that the Europeans coined and was endorsed by Francois Truffaut. The theory is that you can tell a more compelling story by using strong visuals, as opposed to lengthy dialogue, to progress the narrative of the story. For example, The story line of the Bicycle Thief is this: Man gets a job, but needs a bike. Man loses his bike. Man tries to find his bike...That's it. Yet De Sica creates a masterpeice out of nothing by the use of stirring visuals and expertly crafted montages of previous presented imagery. Only a handful of directors have perfected the art of pure cinema. And I only mean a handful, maybe 6 to 8 in the 100 year history of cinema. F.W Murnau, Hitchcock, Truffaut, Peterson, and Godart come to mind...Scorsese(too fragmented) and Welles (too egotistical) are not in that class of directors and certainly don't have or never did have the talent to express "Pure Cinema". This "classic" should be studied by all film makers, students of film, and historians. There is a lot of benefit of learning that you can make a film with deep meaning and heartfelt human emotion with a simple premise and an even simpler story. It's all in the presentation of your visual story telling.
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Summary: A Movie that inspired generations of film Directors
Review: The setting of the movie is post war Italy. The emotions and simple aspirations of a wage laborer father and son have been projected with the power of realism that inspired several scores of art directors the world over. Excellence has been achieved in the form, the content being real life itself. The powerful style and tradition that originated with Sergei Eisenstein has been sharpened by vittorio de sica. A must see for every body.
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Summary: I wish the video quality was better
Review: The story was mostly great although the ending left me hanging. The directing and acting were good, the characters were likeable, but, geez, was the poor video quality a production tool to make the picture even more bleak than the story?
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Summary: One of the finest Italian films ever!...
Review: There can only be three things that can summarize this film, in my opinion. The expression of the human soul, the strength of love between father and son, and the life of poverty. This film, the director and the players truly have done a superb job in expressing and revealing the human soul, however the audience interprets it to be. Taking kindly to stranger but yet having the need to do the immoral; the love of the father for his son both expressed deeply here and reveals them through their eyes by both actors; the timeliness (post-WWII Italy) of the setting could not be any better to express and develop the character of this film. The Bicycle Thief is an extraordinary film that touches the viewer's intrinsic soul. I highly recommend buying this film in any format or platform. Just see and enjoy.
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Summary: One of the best movies ever ...
Review: This film is extraordinary in so many ways: it's basic humanity, it's tastefulness, it's honesty ... I could go on and on. It is just a perfect film. Favorite part: the close-up of the son taking his father's hand after they have quarrelled. Not a word is spoken, but so much is said. Understanding his father's frustrating situation, the son's forgiveness ... this part never fails to bring a tear to my eye. This is one of the great moments in all of film.
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