Like Father, Like Son?
Many of you commented in class about the relationship between Antonio and Bruno. Bruno admires his father at the beginning of the film, imitates his gestures and actions, looks at him with admiration. Yet the search for Antonio's bicycle puts a strain on that relationship. Antonio often fails to notice that Bruno is in harm's way and even strikes him. Furthermore, Bruno watches as Antonio himself becomes a bicycle thief and is humiliated by a crowd. What do you make of this relationship How does it evolve (or devolve) over the course of the film? What does the film tells us about fathers and sons? About family?
The Bicycle Thieves shows the transition that many children have from admiration of their parents, to acceptance of their flaws, and finally to wanting to be better than there parents. At the beginning of the movie, Bruno blindly follows his Father into the search for the bike. He doesn't fully understand what the bike means for him and his family, he just knows that his Dad wants to find it, so it must be important. Additionally, whenever the father-son-duo encounter an obstacle, Bruno's first reaction is always to look up at his Father, constantly waiting for some sign on how to handle the situation. Bruno does this because he has a deep admiration for his Father. His Father is not just a role model to him, but the perfect example of who and what every man should be. As the movie progresses, however, Bruno begins to see his Father's mortality. At every turn, Antonio is thwarted, left with less hope of finding his bicycle than he had originally started with. Whether it be in the church when the old man escapes from right under their noses, or when Antonio accuses the man he suspects to be the thief of stealing his bicycle. In these and many more situations, Antonio is left with no idea on how to handle the situation in front of him. He continues to make worse and worse decisions, ultimately leading to him striking Bruno and trying to steal the bike off the street. All this time, Bruno is watching, taking in these experiences. No longer is Antonio a hero to Bruno, he is revealed to be an ordinary man, just like any other. He shows his own in-competencies, flaws, and emotions, a side of Antonio that Bruno had never seen. How then is a child to react when their pinnacle role model proves to be but a man? In Bruno's case, he makes the decision to be better. Bruno could have run from his father after he is caught stealing the bike, leaving him on the streets humiliated and defeated. However, this is not what Bruno does. Instead, he charges into the angry crowd surrounding his father, desperately trying to claw his way through. And at the very end of the movie, when Antonio has lost all hope and enters the crowd on the street, Bruno makes a decision to be better than his father. Bruno chooses not to shun his loved ones in times of need or lash out in anger at them. Instead, he grabs his Father's hands, resolute on helping his Father. Bruno's transition is a rough one, but he ultimately makes the very important choice to acknowledge his Father's flaws and learn from them.
ReplyDeleteThe Bicycle Thieves is an allegory of how children change their views on parents over time. After the inciting incident where Antonio’s bike gets stolen, Bruno blindly goes with his father to search for the bike, getting into trouble by merchants as he searches for the different parts. While he doesn’t know the impact of Antonio’s actions on him, he still goes anyway because of how he views his father as an all-knowing authority figure. Bruno’s blind actions symbolize how young children will view their parents as though they had all the wisdom in the world and know what the consequences of their action are on their children. However, as they continue to search for the bicycle, Bruno grows more cynical of Antonio’s actions because he begins to see that many of the actions Antonio takes to find his bike are flawed. For example, when Antonio followed the old man into the church because he believed to have recognized someone talking to him as the thief before he elusively escaped from them or when Bruno challenges Antonio’s thinking during their conversation in the restaurant, showing how a child’s mind develops a sense of autonomy as a child matures. Moreover, Bruno’s cynicism in his father reaches a climax when Antonio strikes him out of being overwhelmed. At this moment, Bruno had so little faith in his father that he refused to be near him and ran away to sit on the steps, symbolizing the height of mistrust children have with their parents, especially during adolescence. However, Bruno’s outlook on Antonio shifts during the falling action, such as when Bruno gets police involved when Antonio accuses Alfredo of stealing. The audience really begins to see how Bruno sees his father as more than a wise parental figure when he grabs onto Antonio when he gets caught stealing and holds his hand when he’s released, showing how he has loved his father all this time. This is connected to how children will always have a bond with their parents, even as they grow more cognitively autonomous. Additionally, this scene also demonstrates how children implicitly forgive their parents after their mistrust against them reaches a height and they acknowledge the parents are just doing what’s best for their children.
ReplyDeleteAntonio and Bruno’s relationship as father and son in Bicycle Thieves is an example of the development of the relationship between father and son. In the early stage, Bruno, the son, admires his father, Antonio, so much to the point that he sees no wrong in him and asks no questions of him, but their relationship develops and becomes one where Bruno sees Antonio’s flaws and wrongdoings and has the independence to disagree with him. In the beginning of the film and their relationship, Bruno has so much admiration for his father that he copies his every move and follows his father on his pursuit of his stolen bike. Bruno is oblivious to the significance of the bike, but the time he can spend with his father is time he values. Not only does Bruno follow him because he enjoys being with him, but Bruno follows his father because he sees the determination in his father’s eyes for finding the bike and wants to be just as determined to find it. When Antonio and Bruno visit the old wise woman, Bruno takes a page out of Antonio’s book and skips the line to ask her questions before others. Bruno’s quick action shows that he is admiring his father so much to a fault. However, he is not yet aware of the negative implications of his and his father’s actions. As the film progresses, Bruno grows more and more aware of how exactly Antonio’s actions impact others, and he begins to disapprove more and more of him. For example, Bruno watches Antonio try to steal the bike and get caught, and that utmost respect and admiration he had for his father began to disappear. In the scene when the owner of the bike lets Antonio go free, Bruno is still seen standing with the mob of people angry at Antonio. Whether intended by the director or not, this scene helps visualize Bruno’s moral dilemma. For the first time, he sees his father’s flaws, and he is left wondering if he can truly support his father in this one. Bruno disagrees with his father’s actions, and that shows when he appears to be siding with the mob over his father based on where he is standing. Yes, Bruno does not actually side with the mob, but the author gets his message across that Bruno has gained the independence to disagree with his father.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the film, Bruno had all the respect in the world for his father, Antonio. He looked up to him and the two were shown to do many things together. Bruno appeared to be a miniature version of his father especially at the beginning, frequently helping him with his work and making similar comments as him. He would often times act as his shadow, in a way, following him around and helping him with whatever he needed, even if it meant running around a church like a lunatic. However, as the film continued, Bruno began to lose respect for his father as Antonio’s desperation spiraled out of control. The more that Antonio wanted to get his bike back, the more he neglected Bruno and his own moral values. Antonio at first deeply cared about his son and loved him more than he loved anything else in the world or so it appeared. However, as more and more time passes after losing his bike, he begins to become more and more desperate and willing to do anything to get it back. This desperation is shown to really set in when he asks a man who is selling bikes for the serial number on the bike he was selling. It was highly unlikely that this was Antonio’s bike however, he still felt the need to call over the police and insist that the bike’s serial number is checked. While this is all happening, Bruno is looking at other shops as a stranger creepily offers to buy him a bell. He could have been in danger however Antonio was more concerned with the very small chance of finding his bike that he neglected him. Although Bruno was in danger, he was still in less danger than at other times in the film as Antonio was in close proximity and knew where Bruno was. However, over time, Antonio neglects his son even more and the physical and emotional distance grows between them. Later in the film, when Antonio strikes Bruno, the distance between them grows as Bruno realizes that his father has negative qualities and may not be the perfect hero that he thought of him as at the start of the film. Despite this, Bruno forgives his father, but definitely realizes that his father is not always the best man. At the very end of the film, when Antonio has reached full desperation, he sends Bruno back home alone, which could be very unsafe for a child at that age, while he steals a bike. Although Antonio cared enough about his son to not want Bruno to see him steal the bike, he still did it while endangering his child. When Bruno sees this despite Antonio’s efforts to keep him away, Bruno clearly loses some respect for his father as he cries and reaches out for his hand. However, it is clear that Bruno still loves his father very much and would do anything for him. The ending scene is the moment where Bruno loses his innocence, realizing how cold the world can be along with the truth about his hero. Bruno also realizes at this moment that his father’s financial circumstance will one day become his own due to the chain of poverty that appears to be impossible to escape, another clear theme of the film. The film tells us that relationships between familial relationships can be complicated and despite making mistakes, family should always love and forgive each other.
ReplyDeleteThe Bicycle Thief shows how children mature into someone with free will, no longer naively believing that their parents are always correct. At the beginning of the film, we see Bruno imitating everything that his father did. When his father tucked in his sandwich into his shirt pocket, we see Bruno tucking his little sandwich in as well. Bruno had no free will, since he saw his father as the perfect role model, someone he wanted to be like in the future. Often throughout the movie, we can see that when Bruno is confused or feeling lost, he physically looks up to his father. His father was a perfect role model, an all knowing wise parent who was always in control of the situation. However, this image of his father slowly whittled away, beginning with his father losing his shiny bike. Bruno asks, "Dad, is our new bike in for a repair?", to which Antonio responds, "yes, now go home". After this, Bruno follows his father and his father's friends into a public bike parts shop, where Bruno starts to realize that his father was lying. However, Bruno naively ignores his father's lies, and continues to look for parts at the shop. As the film progresses, Bruno's childlike mind progressively grows, as he learns new information about the situation, portraying his maturing. Bruno learns more and more that his father is not a perfect human, but was desperate and full of flaws. This was especially shown when Antonio brutally and unjustly slaps Bruno out of frustration. As a result, Bruno runs away out of fear and confusion, realizing that he was unjustly punished for something that was beyond his control. Bruno is watching and learning, but he never becomes resentful of his dad. In the restaurant scene, Bruno learns that his dad truly loves his family, and desperately needs the bike so his family can afford to eat. Even though Antonio far from perfect, however, he still loves his family. Bruno takes note of all of this, but Antonio does not realize how fast his son is growing. At the end of the film, Antonio, out of desperation, saw a lone bike ripe for stealing. Giving Bruno enough money to catch a fare home, Antonio rushes to steal a bike - the very action that put his family in their predicament. Bruno sees his father being beaten by a group of civilians who had stopped his father's crimes, but instead of disappointment, Bruno holds his dad's hand. He knows that his father was trying to support his family, and this is where Bruno truly grows free will. His reaching out to grab his father's hand symbolizes his growth and forgiveness of his father. Bruno knows that a stolen bicycle was what put his dad in this tough situation, but rather than shunning his father, he accepts him and walks home with him. He is no longer the naive boy that will do anything Antonio wishes, but instead, is able to see his father as a human with flaws, and make decisions on his own.
ReplyDeleteThe Bicycle Thieves is a perfect representation of how children often change their views about their parents, as they no longer believe that their parents are perfect. In reality, adults are just grown-up children (to an extent), but children are taught to follow their example and respect their actions. Over the course of the movie, Antonio’s questionable actions and obsession with his bicycle instead of paying attention to his son deteriorate the relationship between the two of them. At the beginning of the movie, Bruno admired Antonio and copied just about everything he did because he wanted to be just like his father, who he looked up as though he were his hero. However, Antonio let his obsession of finding the bicycle thief take control of his entire life, and he did not care about much other than finding his bicycle. He even hit his son out of frustration and had to buy him back by buying him a mozzarella sandwich because of the guilt he felt. Unfortunately, Antonio did not rectify his actions, as he continued to be an irresponsible father. He lose track of where Bruno was several times, as he did not pay nearly enough attention to him. Finally, stealing the bicycle was the deciding factor that made Bruno lose a lot of his respect and admiration for Antonio. Seeing his father so desperate likely made Bruno realize that his father was not the same person he idolized him as and that looking up to his father is not a given in a father-son relationship.
ReplyDeleteUpon losing his bicycle, Antonio starts to lose faith in himself. The Fides bicycle that Antonio owned for only a short bit of time represented much more than just a vehicle. Having a bicycle in 1940s Rome, symbolized a common sense of wealth. Even though Antonio was not wealthy, this was the only thing that he had going for him. Antonio had been unemployed for almost two years, but after obtaining a job as a poster, his life was starting to fall back into place. In the depressed post-WW2 economy of Italy, the unemployment rate shot through the roof. Many men were unemployed and had no way of supporting their families. This was an opportunity of a lifetime. However, on his first day, his bicycle was stolen. Antonio along with his son, Bruno, look for his bike everywhere. The search was unsuccessful, the bike was nowhere to be seen. Antonio had asked his friends to help him search but it was no use. Antonio and Bruno never wanted to hear the words that his bicycle was gone because it was all that they had. While searching, Bruno rarely left Antonio’s side except for a couple of times. Bruno was comparable to Antonio’s little companion, he would follow him everywhere and would help him out on the way. Antonio tried to be as nice as possible to Bruno but when he got flustered, there was not any hope. Bruno and Antonio seemed to separate as father and son throughout the film. The brand name of the bicycle Fides represented their whole journey throughout these couple of days. Even when looking for something that seemed like it could never be found, they looked anyway. Antonio tried extremely hard to keep faith in himself and Bruno, but it just was not enough. Unlike all other feature films, there is usually a happy ending, but not in Bicycle Thieves. The ending illustrates that not all movies need to end with the protagonist succeeding. Even though Antonio never found his bicycle, I believe that he did find one thing, a stronger relationship with his son.
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