Bicycle Thieves (1948)
A man and his son search for a stolen bicycle vital for his job (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Vittorio De Sica
Written By: Vittorio De Sica, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Cesare Zavattini, Luigi Bartolini
Starring: Lianella Carell, Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Giulio Battiferri, Fausto Guerzoni, Gino Saltamerenda, Elena Altieri, Vittorio Antonucci, Giulio Chiari, Carlo Jachino, Michele Sakara, Emma Druetti
AKAs: The Bicycle Thief, Ladri di biciclette
Country: Italy
Where to Stream
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Bicycle Thieves belongs to 183 collections
1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 232 stars)
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Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 31 |  |
Pickpocket | 10 98th |
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I wish all films were this great. The story is so simple yet so pure, so easy to relate to. It's one of the saddest things you will ever see (stick around for the ending to get punched in the gut). I love Cary Grant but I love how De Sica turned down a million bucks to not use him and keep his art pure and use a no name actor in the role instead. It just wouldn't have worked as well with Grant. A must see.
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| 9 |  |
Alex Watkins | 5 91st |
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One of the most gripping and emotionally wrenching stories of any film I've ever seen. The Bicycle Thief reflects Orson Welles' statement that: "What De Sica can do, that I can't do...the camera disappeared, the screen disappeared, it was simply life."
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| 8 |  |
Magb | 70 39th |
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I know I'm in the minority here, but this movie didn't do much for me. The end is most definitely one of the greatest ever and it's not that the movie doesn't have things going for it, it's just that I found a large part of the searching-for-the-bike section (which makes up a significant portion of the movie) tedious and uninteresting. Oh well, no one can be in love with every single "greatest movie ever" candidate.
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| 8 |  |
CCLZA | 95 98th |
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Amazing on every level. The ending scene makes you feel things you've never felt while watching a film.
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| 7 |  |
doctor7 | 93 96th |
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Heart breaking, touching, cinematic masterpiece. It's a tragedy about a simple man in a desperate situation and it's so genuine you can't not be moved. The feeling you get when the movie finishes is indescribable after you've seen what the father and son have gone through.
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| 7 |  |
TonythePony | 96 98th |
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The most affecting film I've ever seen. The honesty and truth captured by De Sica with these amateur actors is stunning. The ending - heart surgery without anaesthetic.
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| 6 |  |
frederic_g54 | 10 97th |
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The last film that left me speechless like that was "To Kill a Mockingbird", both excellent in human characterization. The final sequence, both sad and unexpected, works well on an emotional level (felt a bit like a Deus Ex Machina moment for it didn't really pay regard to the film's internal logic of the man finding his bicycle). The film will probably affect me more after I've seen it twice, because I'll feel bad in the start for Antonio, knowing these were his only moments of happiness.
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| 6 |  |
TimeCapsule | 80 83rd |
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In second grade somebody stole my bike, so like...I think I can kinda relate to this story just a tad bit. Except I got lucky, and the older kids in the neighborhood heard about it, and tracked my bike down for me. While my 7-year-old self may have been lucky enough to avoid any real emotional turmoil after a nice happy ending, this simple Italian neorealist drama led nearly-30-year-old me to shed a few tears over somebody else's fictional stolen bike. I guess, the power of cinema and all that.
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| 5 |  |
cagedwisdom | 25 17th |
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I honestly couldn't buy the end. How does it make sense that when something bad happens to Antonio there's noone in to help, but when the same thing happens to someone else EVERYONE WITHIN 500 METERS rushes to his aid? That and more just.. Didn't make sense to me. I realize that they wanted to display Antonios misfortune, but I expected more plot-realism for a neo-realistic film. It's as if Antonio is the only person whom bad things happen to. I didn't buy it completely, although it is good.
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| 5 | WoozyB | 100 98th |
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Simple, heartbreaking, shot with non-actors and in public spaces, it defines cinema verite.
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| 4 |  |
Anomaly | 94 98th |
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Touching, crushing, depressing. The simplicity and slow pacing begets the same feelings the characters are going through, and it really hits you hard.
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| 4 |  |
Duder | 90 99th |
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Unbeliavable. A crash course on neo-realism and such a heartbreaking story.. The last 10 minutes are simply soul crushing.. Bruno is superb! Loved him.. Everything was perfect in this movie.
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| 4 |  |
purgatos | 96 97th |
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A very straightforward, but genuinely touching story.
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| 4 |  |
JakeAesthete | 41 38th |
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I figure I needed to bone up on my Italian Neo-Realism at least a little bit if i'm ever going to be able to call myself an adequate cinephile, but honestly i found this altogether pretty dull and unspectacular. Not bad by any means, just ordinary. Of course i guess it's unadorned cinematography is an aspect of it's "realism", but it just feels devoid of any particular style or directorial voice whatsoever. I guess i'm supposed to won over by it's compassionate humanism, but mostly i was bored.
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| 4 |  |
Hawkins | 80 69th |
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Super effective ending (spoilers ahead?) that betrays the realism (which I'm not against), it's just more of a bad dream. Guy pedals like he's stuck in jello and everyone else turns into Robocop to tackle him. I might actually have nightmares about this film. Recommended double-feature with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to complete the cycle of catharsis.
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| 3 |  |
Farzan | 97 98th |
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The Bicycle Thief has such an extremely linear story. The story is simple, man needs bike for work, man loses bike, him and son go try and find said bike. But De Sica's direction is absolutely incredible, he keeps you captivated, and cheering for the father and son who are looking for hours on end for the bike. The characters are some of the most deeply texturized characters I've ever seen, and the ending is so heartbreaking. It actually makes you think for days and weeks on end. Incredible!
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| 3 |  |
TedDedon | 97 97th |
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The Bicycle Thief is a great post-war drama about a man who is tough on his luck and gets his only mode of transportation from work to home stolen, his bike. The story follows his son and him searching all day for the thief who took the bike, and through their adventure you are faced with a very touching and emotional ride. Excellent film.
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| 3 |  |
emtilt | 100 99th |
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A simple story and cinema mastered.
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| 3 |  |
Barthalen | 90 97th |
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Has a simple structure, but a ton of emotional depth. Rarely have I felt such sympathy and sadness for a character at the end of a movie. I'm getting misty-eyed just thinking of it.
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| 3 |  |
SirStuckey | 100 99th |
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A beautiful and touching film that squeezes the heart of the viewer until the last scene and you can't help but get choked up. I'm not the person to say that all old movies are better than new ones, and that the classics are the only thing worth watching; but this could quite possibly be the best made film of all time. If you are looking for a movie to start your experience with classic foreign cinema this is what I would recommend.
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| 3 |  |
glumpy_99 | 98 95th |
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Low-key, simple masterpiece of direct emotional storytelling captures the fear and desperation of the poverty line (and its inhabitants) with unadorned and gracious insight. Maggiorani's hero is a good man, but no saint; it's painful and harrowing to see the effect his station eventually has on his character - his climactic infraction and its immediate aftermath is a wrenching heartbreaker. Unaffected performance by Staiola also helps this object lesson in being able to get a lot with a little.
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| 3 |  |
Armilio | 85 94th |
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Remember: this film, and neo-realism, start from a marxist point-of-view, opposed to the unrealistic fascist propaganda-movie where Italy laid for 20 years. Antonio is a proletarian, with even a sympathy for communism. So, all that journey throughout Rome is not useless, is a "society picture" of a post-war Italy. The end, is the cry of pain of the people. The guilty is the social injustice. I think that in the mind of De Sica, all this came first, above the eternal story of a father and a son.
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| 2 |  |
DrxCapio | 89 91st |
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Haunting and beautiful. The tragedy is keenly felt as the father realizes that he can't get his bicycle back. A very touching movie.
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| 2 |  |
nandorizzi | 90 94th |
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A film very simple but extremely catchy, with very striking and memorable scenes. No doubt, a great classic.
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| 2 |  |
Attached Eon | 95 99th |
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An astounding piece on the desparation of poverty and life in the city. neo-realism at its best.
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| 2 |  |
Jeb | 97 90th |
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Man that ending.......
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| 2 |  |
jmarkthespot | 45 34th |
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Honestly, I didn't enjoy it a whole lot and found it quite uninteresting. Just because bad things happen to a character doesn't make it that emotionally engaging. There was nothing to really make me root for Antonio, and to me he just seemed like a passively unlikeable character. And having nothing but amateur actors doesn't make a film incredible because of its realistic simplicity, not too mention its totally unrealistic plot... I get why people like it, but it just isn't for me.
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| 2 |  |
deaddilly | 85 84th |
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The all time life's-a-bitch movie.
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| 2 |  |
billkerwin | 100 99th |
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A naturalistic masterpiece that--perhaps more than any other fiction film --artfully creates the illusion that it is reality.
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| 2 |  |
Noblet | 88 91st |
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A simple, heartbreaking tale about the desperation brought on by poverty. It's also incredibly effective in its use of non-actors. This seems like a movie that people will be able to relate to for a very long time.
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| 2 |  |
CMonster | 53 30th |
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DId he really think that he could go home and then go back into Rome the next day and just stumble across his bike? I mean, I see it's significance in film history, but lets be honest, is this really one of the best films you've ever seen? It takes 25 minutes to get to the inciting incident because we get to watch them dicker over the price of sheets. I did think Maggiorani and Staiola were both good, but I didn't really give a shit about the characters.
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| 2 |  |
goremeat | 100 99th |
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The final character corruption felt so justified; yet so heart-wrenchingly disappointing. Exactly as it should have been.
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| 2 |  |
Gnalkhere | 90 91st |
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man the blueprint for Peewee's Big Adventure hurts a lot
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| 2 |  |
lex | 90 80th |
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A towering pinnacle of neorealist storytelling.
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| 1 |  |
Actionberg | 95 97th |
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It is almost unanimously considered the best of neorealism for very good reasons. What is more sacred than the trust between a father and son?
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| 1 |  |
Kavu | 47 23rd |
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One of the most underwhelming "classics" I've ever seen. The amateur actors do a good job, though.
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| 1 |  |
krmr | 88 83rd |
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Everything is simply good until the final 10 minutes. Then, one of the best scenes in movie history happens and ties every theme together and really blew me away.
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| 1 |  |
TheDiceman | 80 95th |
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Great film.
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| 1 |  |
Nathan S | 5 93rd |
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Its essential simplicity belies an emotional cascade - unforeseen until the viewer is crushed beneath it - of compassion and empathy for which the film is justly hailed. Its social consciousness and human insights are demonstrated with such clear purity that it doesn't feel like an aesthetic demonstration at all. It is among the most successful implementations of neo-realist philosophy. The ending is absolutely devastating.
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| 1 |  |
parcaliham | 95 95th |
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27 Aralik 08, yonetmenin izledigim ilk filmi & bir basyapittir ve her zaman da oyle kalacaktir. cunku donemi ve sartlarini, basit bir hikaye uzerinden cok iyi anlatmayi basarmis. bunun yaninda oyunculuklari ve yonetmenligi ile de basarili bir cizgi yakalayabilmis bir yapim. bir baslangic: sinemada yeni bir akimin ilk orneklerinden. gercekciligin acimasizligi ile yurek burkan, bir ilk neo-realism ornegi. final sahnesi bogazimda dugum yaratti.
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| 1 | Audhumla | 97 96th |
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Tragic throughout, one of the best endings in the history of cinema
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| 1 |  |
KlausGlenski | 100 99th |
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So plain, so simple, so innocent and yet devastating since very rarely emotions have been conveyed that convincing with so few words. Lamberto Maggiorani is nothing but awesome combining the powers of silent film and talkies. An amazing piece of italian neorealism. Rome and its citizens appear so vivid, so vibrant. Simply stunning. 03/02/2010
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| 1 |  |
willxcore | 91 93rd |
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Although short in length, it is grand in scale and emotion. The young boy is excellent and the down on his luck father that just can't catch a break really catches a place in your heart.
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Luna6ix | 75 52nd |
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i don't get it, people raving about how awesome this movie is, it's not bad. the thing is that it isn't really that good either. it's a movie i can sit though, but simply not good enough to be anything better than a one time watch.
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moraesfelipe | 92 97th |
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Misfortune, sorrow and suffering in a quite touching but realistic movie.
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| 1 | Silver | 6 56th |
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Unbelievable... Ok, this movie has its place in history of cinema, no question about it. But... dear highly influential, neorealistic, genious and brutally emotional in your simplicity movie, please, stay there. I refuse to accept this as something more than badly acted documentary about post-WWII Italy.
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| 1 | pompousass | 60 85th |
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De Sica's heart-wrenching and arm-twisting argument on behalf of the Little Man. The people's faces and the slum locales look coldly authentic and untampered-with. But the woeful plotline -- a menial laborer's frantic search for his stolen bicycle -- dumps truckloads of irony and pathos all along the way.
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CosmicMonkey | 85 86th |
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Whereas Rossellini's neo-realism was far more polemic & explicit in it's political stance, De Sica's is more documentarian in nature, offering perhaps one of the greatest snap-shots of a specific time & place ever captured on film. The Rome in this film feels real and deep, capturing not just its culture, energy and idiosyncracies, but also articulating the deepest struggles, hopes and fears of its various residents. As a character study of the city, it's absolutely fascinating.
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omgfridge | 10 97th |
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Absolutely incredible picture. Simplistic in story nonetheless wonderful in every way. Must be noted that this may be as heart wrenching as a film can get. Watch "Bicycle Thieves" and you will know what it feels like to be stabbed in the face.
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Bown | 85 76th |
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I think this is sort of a cinematic litmus test, or perhaps just a realism litmus test. If you're bored, you're doing it wrong.
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DerDude | 10 93rd |
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It is beyond me how something this perfectly crafted can feel humble and submissive. A work of cinematic magic.
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DavidBlast | 90 92nd |
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*Possible spoilers* If you look at the criticker-summary for this film and consider how sufficiently it covers the plot, I think it safe to, from an academic standpoint, bury the 'high concept' theory once and for all. With the framework of a simple chase movie De Sica offers an insight into a poor and broken post-war Italy, and the brilliant ouroboros-like structure elevates one man's search to a tale of how desperation makes crime spread like a disease.
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| 1 | NavNebular | 75 79th |
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i'm not particularly fond of this film. there's just something about it that feels disingenuous
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cclxndr | 90 88th |
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Bicycle Thieves is up there as one of the most touching I've ever seen, yet also incredibly crushing. Very real and human. The ending feels like getting stabbed in the face with a butter knife, translated into upstanding cinema form!
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teckgecko | 62 24th |
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Mostly engaging, but disappointed at the ending; I've welled up at many a movie-ending, but when the boy misses the trolley it's easy to imagine what'll happen next & I felt none of the devastation that others have mentioned, it simply fell flat. Also, there were a few scenes that seemed forced & unrealistic, not only the ending (contrast the situation w/ what happens when Antonio's bike is stolen) but the oddly happy dining scene & the suddenly extra-annoyed father mistreating his son as well.
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MontyCircus | 20 11th |
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...or he could have just gotten a loan?
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auhasarderik | 10 97th |
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90 minutes of heartbreak. 93 if you've already watched, because just hearing the theme over the credits will get you. My God what a beast. Here lies some sort of pinnacle for simplicity.
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Bagger | 90 98th |
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Good god, if this doesn't genuinely pull those heart strings of yours, then you have been turned into a cyborg sir or Ma'am.
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| 1 | myfavchords | 79 75th |
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This is a good movie that takes a simple idea (a stolen bicycle) and really runs with it. The performances are great and you really feel for the characters.
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| 1 | whatisitisee | 85 91st |
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Probably the best Italian neorealist adaptation of "dude, where's my car?" there is
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| 1 | PUNQ | 90 99th |
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Yeah, it's a good film. No, great film. Vittorio De Sica captures something special with Ladri di Biciclette [Bicycle Thieves] (1948). The conclusion feels a little inconclusive, but also with a sign of relief after a increasingly desperate search for a stolen bike reached boiling-point. It's mainly the kids angle that makes the chemistry so enduing. Always with affection, but complicated at the same time as they roam the streets of Rome. A true classic!
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Yiannos | 88 99th |
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Bicycle Thieves is arguably De Sica's best film and the greatest masterpiece of Italian Neo-Realism. Its power lies in its profound simplicity: a man and his son must retrieve their stolen bike because it's the only thing standing between them and abject poverty. But the emphasis on quotidian realism is no Marxist screed; it is a compassionate and deeply moving tale of hardship resulting from immense social failure, and it remains a towering unforgettable work of humanist cinema.
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feublo | 85 74th |
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Thoughtful and no surprise why it's a classic. I love it's capability of making the audience invest and not realize how much of life's full circle it covers.
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peyrin | 80 81st |
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Beneath the neorealist working-class depiction, there's an beautiful underlying theme of isolation in the big city depicted with the constant use of crowd shots and the story of the needle-in-the-haystack search.
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| Average Percentile 77.13% from 4496 Ratings |  |