Thursday, March 5, 2020
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?
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Starting from the beginning of the movie, Bruno embodies the concept of filial piety. Even just moments after he is hit by Antonio, Bruno returns to his father regardless of his father’s actions or words. Bruno has a shift in his perspective of his father from admiration to pity throughout the movie. When Antonio leaves for his first day of work and Bruno is cleaning the bike, the family is smiles all around and there is hope distilled into the Bruno and consequently the audience. Bruno is easily the most loveable character in the movie with his charming and innocent persona. We can consider Bruno, a child working a job to help his family out, to be the “underdog” of the movie although he is not the main protagonist. However, as Antonio gets more and more desperate to find his bike after it is stolen, the amount of attention for Bruno is directly diminished. From almost hit by a car to left alone with a creepy stranger in the market, Bruno’s safety is disregarded as Antonio proves he is not the ideal father. It isn’t until where Antonio is chased away by the mob though that we see his blatant disregard for his son’s safety whilst caught up in his own desolation. Antonio’s anguish continues to rise as all those around him starting from his family to the Communist Party and the Italian police, fail to help him. It hits the final peak when he sees a bike in prime condition begging him to steal it as the masses start to leave the stadium in the final minutes of the movie. As Antonio is caught stealing the bike, Bruno is watching in horror as his admiration for his father has turned into something more bitter and pitiful. As he picks up his father’s hat that falls onto the ground, Bruno is dusting off his father’s pride before handing back his hat and ending the movie holding hands. The father and son relationship progresses from a point of high regard to one of sorrowful regret in Antonio, perceived as hollowing disappointment by the innocent Bruno. Bruno’s “underdog” status have the audience paying extra attention to the distance that is built between father and son as Antonio grows anxious over the theft of his bicycle. Antonio tries to show his son the reasoning behind his desperation by having him do the math and even bribing him with food he can’t afford to have like pizza, grilled cheese and wine. Antonio tries to have a teaching moment with Bruno through justifying his guilt for hitting his son and this shows that Antonio is not completely irreverent of his son but rather just overly stressed. Bruno is understanding enough to not abandon his father and even help in times of need per his summoning of the police when Antonio was getting cornered by the mob. This shows that Antonio’s relationship with Bruno as father and son is not a one-sided, one situation oriented relationship that can so easily change the bonds of family. Even through Antonio’s brutish ignorance, Bruno continues to stick along with his father for the sake of family.
ReplyDeleteBruno and Antonio exemplify a family living in happiness (at the beginning of the film when Antonio gets a job) downward spiral into strained relationships as financial difficulty becomes an ever pressing matter. Bruno, young and impressionable is like many real worlds sons, infatuated with his father. He loves him, admires him, and wants nothing more than to be like Antonio. Their relationship continuously devolved into one of domestic violence and negligence over the course of the film, yet Bruno never stopped following Antonio. This shows a childs nature to be forgiving to a fault in hopes of gaining fatherly validation. Rather than turning on his father who had ignored him, left him around the city, screamed at him, and hit him Bruno sticks by Antonio’s side in hopes of showing to his father how much he cares about the family. This reluctance to step away from an abusive family member exhibits a real problem in society. On the other side, Antonio shows that even in a fathers attempts to do right by his family, he can do all the wrong things. Rather than concerning himself with building actual deep familial ties with his son and wife, Antonio occupies himself with fulfilling the more traditional role as the family breadwinner. His son is clearly infatuated with him, wearing a child version of Antonio’s work uniform and eating the same sandwich (only smaller). However, rather than appreciating this bond, in his quest to find his treasured bike, Antonio alienates his son. This need to fill work and provide for his family, while very important, lead to a division of that family he so wanted to protect. Instead of concerning himself with his sons safety at the moment he only thought about the future.
ReplyDeleteAntonio and Bruno’s relationship is one that is common among many sons and fathers – one that has the child seeking validation while the father is doing something else. Especially in post-war Italy, sticking together with family comes with a harsher lifestyle, and as a result, one that will greatly influence the young. Both man and child are in a tough spot in life – Antonio needing to provide for the family, and Bruno – despite his age – needing to be as big as a help of possible. As a result, Antonio has no choice but to discipline his child by treating him like a man. This does not refer to his temper tantrums, however, but more towards his neglect of Bruno. Although not terribly safe and even going against the idea of family sticking together, in a weird way, Bruno’s independence from Antonio toughens and matures him.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this is not to say that their relationship is perfect. Although Bruno may be more mature than his same-aged contemporaries, his relationship with Antonio is occasionally strained. Antonio likely means the best for his son, but his stress for finding his bicycle leads to a distant relationship between the two. Excluding the neglect, Antonio has acted irrationally – striking his son when heated. He later makes amends with Bruno by treating him and becoming closer to him, but we have to ask ourselves if that really is the only way for Antonio to become closer with Bruno. Is it worth the possible negative mental effects of this on-and-off borderline abuse simply to “toughen up” a child, only to try to make amends by treating them? Amends that Antonio knows Bruno will accept simply because he is a young and naturally tries to please those older than him? The negatives of Bruno’s constant seeking of validation from his father (stemming from this neglect), which he rarely receives, outweighs the positives of his “mental toughening.”
Although Antonio may have not known that his behavior could be having a negative effect on Bruno’s perspective of relationships, his neglect of his young, highly impressionable child, will likely have Bruno doing the same while he is older to his child, while also thinking it is for the betterment of his family.
Over the course of the film, the relationship between Antonio and his son devolves as Antonio's desperation increases. Near the start of the film when Antonio buys his bike and is on his first day of work, we see Antonio and Bruno side by side getting ready for work. Bruno seems almost like a smaller version of Antonio as he puts on his work cloths and is received a similar, but smaller sandwich from Antonio which they both put in their front pocket. This shows that Antonio and Bruno are on the same page, side by side, and are like they are in perfect unison and harmony, something we may see in a perfect team. This image of a perfect team and them being side by side on the same page symbolizes their relationship as being the same, so strong they act like one. So once Antonio's bike is stolen and they try to find it, slowly they become more and more out of sync and more physical distance is put between them. By the end of the movie they become so distant so that Antonio walks as Bruno follows far behind, almost getting hit by cars, yet Antonio doesn’t even look back, Bruno has to jog to catch up. Only at the very end of the movie, when their relationship is somewhat restored when Antonio realizes that he will not get back his bike and his family is all that he has left is when they reunite, hand in hand, side by side. This shows a bigger picture of the cyclic nature of poverty, how poverty leads to putting all hope in one opportunity like selling their sheets to buy a bike for a job. Then losing that opportunity and becoming desperate. With every generation, the parents try to raise their children to be better than them, and if the parents make bad decisions out of desperation, their children will be affected. This idea is shown at the end of the film where Antonio tries to hide that he will steal from Bruno, but he sees anyway, and even though Antonio only tried to make a better life for Bruno, he only ended up showing a bad example of who to be, adding to the cycle of making mistakes out of desperation which might keep people in poverty.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the film, The Bicycle Thief, Bruno admires his father but when they are on the search for the bike that admiration devolves. We see how connected Antonio is to his bike and how he would do anything to get that bike back, Bruno sees that as well. Bruno doesn't see it as his father helping him, he sees it as his father distancing his love away from him. So Bruno starts to try and distance from his father like when they are walking he would not hold his hand and try to walk further away from him. Bruno sees his father trying to distance from him like when they are looking for the bike at the shops and he tells Bruno to look at the bells all by himself. Antonio telling Bruno to do things by himself in Bruno's mind is his father distancing from Bruno. In the end after Antonio tries to steal a bike Bruno reconnects with his father because he realized that all the time and effort Antonio put into trying to find the bike was not for the actual bike itself, but to help Bruno and his family. That is why the last image we see in the movie is Bruno and Antonio walking away all happy because they have their relationship back. The film tells us that a father will do anything for his son and his family even if he has to steal. It also tells us that no matter what a father will always care for his son. In the film their relationship never really changes but in Bruno's eyes it seems to fade when searching for the bike.
ReplyDeleteStarting at the beginning of the film, the audience can see a clear depiction of a typical strong father son relationship. We see that Bruno idolizes his father, Antonio, by wearing the same outfit and copying his every move. When Antonio first receives his bike, Bruno is just as excited as he is. In fact, it seems as if the bike is another thing that will bond the two closer together. It is not until the bike is stolen that we start to see the relationship between the two dissolve into an unhealthy neglectful relationship. Throughout the film, Antonio seems unable to acknowledge or remember the presence of Bruno. Bruno of whom should be the biggest priority in Antonio’s life is constantly left behind during the chase to retrieve the stolen bicycle. Although Bruno seems and acts older than his real age, his father seems to forget that he is a seven-year-old boy who needs the support of his father to create a strong impression in his life. Antonio leaves Bruno in the market where then he is preyed on by an older man. In this situation, Antonio gets mads at Bruno for leaving him. However, Antonio only noticed Bruno was gone after they could not find a trace of Antonio’s bike. Another time during the film, Antonio leaves Bruno to go find the bike, but when he hears about a drowning boy, he quickly rushes to make sure it is not Bruno. When Antonio sees that Bruno is fine, he finds another reason to get mad at him. Later in the film, Antonio frantically crosses a street, and here we see that Bruno, lagging behind, is almost hit by a car… twice. Antonio seems to neglect Bruno for an object that should not have as much importance as his own son. Throughout the film we see that the roles of father and son seen to reverse when Antonio becomes careless and reckless. Bruno was the one to call the police officer to help prevent his father from being attacked by the angry mob of men. Bruno was also the one to pick up his fathers cap and stay by him after her watched his dad try to steal a bike. He was the one who kept his dad from going to jail, and cried when his dad got beaten up. Through neglect and wrongdoing, Bruno still held his father’s hand at the end. This goes to show that a child will always prioritize family over anything. It does not matter how much neglect they receive, all Bruno wanted was the presence of his father and to be seen as the biggest priority.
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ReplyDeleteI think Bruno really looks up to his father and idolizes him but is unsure of how to feel when his father does something wrong. Bruno just wanted his father in his life and he seemed to never cause any real trouble, but as the film continues, Antonio shows a bad side and begins to scare Bruno. When Bruno and Antonio were running in the rain and Bruno fell, Antonio didn't seem to notice or care that much but it was clear that Bruno was hurt and upset. Then, Bruno is present when Antonio goes after the old man and harasses him then also finds and harasses him in church. Since Bruno looks up to his father, he follows him in these actions and begins to look at them as if it is right. Antonio doesn't seem to understand that he is setting a bad example for his son during this time because he is so focused on just getting his bike back. Then, Antonio really loses it when Bruno talks about being hungry and tired so he tells him to shut up and he hits him. Bruno is clearly taken aback by this and that admiration for his father quickly turns into fear. After the incident by the bridge, Antonio begins to realize where his priorities lie and he has been too distracted to even notice how hurt Bruno is. The relationship between Bruno and his father is a true rollarcoaster throughout the film and goes through a really rough patch before it begins to mend again. Nevertheless, Bruno loves his father and is loyal to him throughout it all, even when he is caught stealing somebody else's bike and taken away by the police. In the end, I think the relationship between Bruno and Antonio ultimately shows that while trust can be broken and feelings can get crushed, the love and loyalty is stronger than the pain caused.
Over the course of The Bicycle Thief, Bruno and his father have a very classic father-son relationship and family dynamic. Bruno spends nearly the entire film trying to help and impress Antonio, despite the fact that Antonio gives very little attention to Bruno. Additionally, Bruno is clearly uncomfortable at times with some of Antonio's actions (specifically when he is harassing the old the old man at church and being extremely disruptive), but doesn't know how to respond because Antonio is his idol. After Antonio brings back his back upon finally getting hold of a steady job, Bruno is super excited for him and takes time to clean the bike. However, the bike seems to be a symbol for the only thing holding their relationship together. After the bike is stolen, Antonio quickly starts paying less and less attention to Bruno, and even disregards him after Bruno is almost hit by a car while crossing the street. Antonio becomes more of the child-like figure, while Bruno is the one who acts much more like an adult than like a young kid. When Antonio accuses a young man of stealing his bike, a crowd forms around him and it seems like Antonio is about to get into a fight that he most definitely will not win. However, Bruno quickly notices that the situation is getting heated, and runs to get a police officer who keeps the crowd from attacking Antonio. Despite all this, Antonio seems to realize his faults near the end of the film. After Bruno can't hold it together anymore, Antonio has a moment of realization where he notices the neglect he has been showing Bruno, so he takes him out to an expensive restaurant where they have a nice moment of bonding. This roller coaster of a relationship ends up showing not only how important Antonio really is to Bruno, but how much Antonio really needs Bruno in his life. Also, all of the "bad" things Antonio did (like when he tried to steal a bike) were for his son. As a family living in poverty and living from paycheck to paycheck, giving Bruno the best possible opportunities in life is most likely at the forefront of Antonio's mind, which explains why he does what he does.
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