Thursday, March 5, 2020
Bicycles and Uniforms: Who Has the Last Laugh?
On the surface Bicycle Thieves and The Last Laugh have the same plot. In both films the protagonist either loses his job or will likely lose a job and in a desperate bid to restore that job they need to reacquire or even steal a precious object that symbolizes their position, a bicycle or a uniform, respectively. Furthermore, if we ignore the "happy ending" imposed by the studio on The Last Laugh, both protagonists end the movie defeated and depressed with seemingly little hope for a better future. Nonetheless, despite these similarities, these are different movies. In what way are they different? What is the social or moral message of each? What are each say about the society of their times (Germany in the 20's and Italy in the 40's)? How do they differ on questions of social mobility, morality or the family? Is one more hopeful or cynical?
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While Bicycle Thieves and The Last Laugh follow an extremely similar narrative structure as they follow their characters to the ends of despair, their critiques on society differ immensely. The Last Laugh, as I have previously commented, critiques corporate institutions as they treat workers as disposable. It also critiques the schadenfreude attitude society has as they feast on the misfortune of others. The way the doorman's replacement looks like a more advanced carbon copy of him as he stands tall and proud shows the ways companies cycle through employees, only looking for efficiency over character value. Later, when the doorman is in despair alone in the bathroom, it is clear that Murnau attributes much of this to the corporate system and how it treats its workers poorly. The second critique of The Last Laugh demonstrates the horrible attitude of schadenfreude that society takes up when they see someone going through misfortune. When the doorman's community finds out about his demotion, they instantly begin to feed off his pain and outcast him. The scene where the cackling faces of the community are superimposed over the doorman shows that he cannot escape this attitude of schadenfreude. As the attitudes of the community develop negatively towards the doorman, Murnau slowly directs him to lose posture and form, demonstrating that his downfall and sadness are largely due to this horrible facets of society. While Bicycle Thieves contains small and important elements to both of these themes, it contains a major idea that differs completely from the prior film. The Last Laugh focuses on the problems with corporations and society at large during Germany in the 20's while Bicycle thieves shows the failure of important institutions during this time period in Italy. As the audience follows Antonio and Bruno on their search for their bicycle, and in turns their livelihood, a failure by many prominent institutions to be useful or help them out at all is evident. The first example of this is the employment agency at the beginning. Even though Antonio gets the opportunity for a job, De Sica shows the rigid inflexibility to accommodate for his circumstances or for the circumstances of his fellow unemployed men. Another institution that is critiqued in this film is the police. While on the surface they are portrayed as helpful, De Sica only brings them in the fold to help so that he can later expose their incompetence and unwillingness to help the poor population. One example of this is when Antonio files a complaint, but he is almost entirely ignored as the officer in charge goes to stifle a worker's revolt, showing an extreme apathy towards the poor. The last institution critiqued in 1940's Italy in this film is the Church. It is shown as being completely unhelpful to the pair in their search, and De Sica even shows it as detrimental to the poor. The people worshiping are literally locked into the church during the service, showing the entrapment and unwillingness to relinquish the poor from this religion. Less symbolic is the fact that the church blocks Antonio's way to looking for a man that might help them find the bike, also showing the complete incompetence of the church and religion as a whole. Clearly, while both films are similar in their messaging and some critiques of society, they are also both different in that they were shaped in different eras with different minds at work. One thing is clear though, that both protagonists are completely abandoned by the society that they exist in, which the directors use to expose the individual flaws that these societies contain.
ReplyDeleteWhile the plot between Bicycle thieves and the Last Laugh are quite similar and follow the story of two men who lose their livelihood and dignity they differ completely in the sense of social mobility and morality. While the Last Laugh follows the doorman’s fall form grace as he loses his job, the Bicycles Thieves main character Antonio has no social standing to start and only gains a little when he accepts a government handed job offer. The goals of the defeated characters are the but they go about it in different ways while the doorman steals back his uniform so he can maintain his image in the neighborhood but Antonio seeks help from his wife and the local communist party to be able to reacquire his bicycle. The Last Laugh symbolizes a man on his last leg with nowhere to stand while Antonio has merely lost his foot. Both movies criticize the inability to make a good living for those who are less fortunate like the poor and the elderly. While both movies end with sadness as both characters fail to save their jobs Antonio still manages to maintain the relationships in his life due to his honesty and drive to fix the problems for his family. Contrasting against the life of the doorman who lied for days after he was fired, the discovery of his demotion destroyed his reputation in the apartment complexes and ruined his life. While the Last laugh provides the absolute worst-case scenario, Bicycle Thieves shows cautious optimism for the future of Antonio.
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