Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on June 16, 2011 at 13:26:23

"Bicycle Thieves," this film isn't the equal of his second film, but it is a very good film, nevertheless, and outstanding for its portrayal of the inescapable horrors of post-war poverty. Two boys, best friends, work as shoe shiners to American servicemen in Rome. They save up their money from the soldiers' tips with the hope of buying a horse and one day, taken advantage of by an older brother, participate unknowingly in a scheme that pays them enough to make the dream come true. However, they soon are found out and indefinitely housed, because of an immense backlog of similar cases, in a lice-infested child's prison where brutality is common. As their situation worsens, they grimly determine that breaking out is the only path.
This is an unflinching, ultra-realistic look at how war's devastation continues on after formal hostilities have ended--- and that barbarity from political or nationalist motives are not the only motivations for cruelty.