Bicycle Thieves

All you ‘Concerned of Actons’ can put down those Biros and half-cocked sawn-offs right now: yes, two stars for one of the Greatest Films of All Time may seem a little derisive, but what a time to reissue this bleak and emotionally manipulative (sorry, ‘poignant’) vision of humanity crushed under the jackboot of destitution and economic downturn! Celebrating its sixtieth, De Sica’s neo-realist lodestone may have retained its vitality over the decades, but whatever sense of anger it whipped up in the disgruntled masses of postwar Rome feels lost to the excessively syrupy score and ‘doe-eyed kid’ sidekick. Sure, the stark location shooting and a yearning central performance from Lamberto Maggiorani – a regular stiff who needs to get his stolen bike back – are beautifully measured, but the laissez-faire approach to metaphor jettisons detail in favour of broader commentary. Why not seek out a DVD of something like ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ – also 60 this year – to really stoke those feelings of withering disenfranchisement?