American Beauty Vs. The Bicycle Thief Essay, Research Paper
Roxane Simenson
Intro. to Film
Jim Mcgonigle
Film Analysis
American Beauty vs. The Bicycle Thief
In American Beauty Kevin Spacey who plays Lester lives a typical middle class life
with his family. His wife is having an affair, his rebellious daughter doesn?t talk to him and
his neighbors are psycho. In contrast The Bicycle Thief portrays a tight family. Riccis wife
loves him, his behaved son talks to him and his neighbors are helpful when a crises occurs.
In both of these films the main characters, Lester and Ricci, go through what I call a
responsibility stage. Both must make a life changing experience, either good or bad, that
will have an effect on the people around them.
Lester decides to make a few changes in his rut of life, changes that are less
mid-life and more adolescence like.1 While he slowly goes through these changes on film
one can see that the more responsibility he gives up the more happy he becomes. What he
gives up to make him happy, though, only makes his family more hateful towards him. It
isn?t that he gave up his responsibilities to improve his relationship with his daughter or
improve it with his wife but to be selfish and gratify himself from what he lost when he
was young. He does reckless and foolish things in this movie, but he doesn?t deceive
himself, he knows he?s running wild–and choose to..2 He let these feelings over power
him and he almost let this irresponsibility get the best of him when he found himself alone
with his daughters best friend. It?s perfectly natural to have feelings like he has toward her
but there came a time with him when he saw what he was going to do was not right. So
he refrained and actually gained a friend. (After he has been losing people left and right)
His ability to refrain from his actions made him a stronger person in the eyes of Angela, his
daughters best friend.
Unlike Lester, Riccio, from The Bicycle Thief , does not have a job. His main
concern, like that of an adolescent who needs money, is to get a job. His responsibility is
towards his family. He is in a constant state of depression because nothing ever goes his
way. His family is supportive unlike Lesters. But his desire for responsibility is driven by
class and economic need.3 So his desire to get the bike back that was stolen from him
turns into a family and friend hunt. His son Bruno is with him through the entire search.
Finally Ricci decides he has had enough of looking for the bike and says to his son, ? You
live you suffer, to hell with it. You want a pizza?? This kind of attitude made me think that
he was over being mad at the person who stole it and they might as well just make the best
of what was left of the day with each other. But when they are eating he notices what the
other people are eating. He said to his son who also noticed that, ?You need a million yire
to eat like that.? Which sparked back up in him the hateful feelings toward the person who
stole his bike. Instead of being the better person, like Lester was with Angela, Ricci lets
his anguish get the best of him and steals someone else?s bike. He let down his moral
obligation towards his son when he decided to do this. His son realized this and kept
asking him, ?Why daddy?? Unlike Lester, Ricci did not gain any respect, he lost the
respect of everyone and his irresponsibility made him weak in the eyes of his son.
Both Lester and Ricci live in a world were they are constantly being judge by
society and people close to them. In The Bicycle Thief Ricci and his son are a church with
the homeless of Rome. Although they are middle class their rugged clothes make them
look like they are homeless and need food and that is how the people around them treat
them. They say to Ricci and his son, ?soup will be served after the sermon please sit down
until then.? In American Beauty Lester is at a cheesy Realtors conference with his wife,
who looks down on him because he is not up to her standards of being successful. She
tells him to act a certain way because a top Realtor was going to be there and she would
like to impress him because this Realtor is her standard of success. Both Lester and Ricci
scam their way to get what they needed. Ricci lied and said he had a bike when he really
didn?t at that moment. It was at the pawn shop. Lester blackmailed his boss for a years
salary. Then he told his family what he did. What makes both of these incidences special
is that in a time of crises one family, Riccis, pulled through to help him. While Lesters sat
back and mocked him and did nothing to help him out of his rut.
To sum it all up Ricci throughout his search ?encounters indifference to humanity
and incivility of others.?4 Ricci fights within himself to be the better person but only ends
up in internal conflict with himself. He loses his respect for himself and we are astonished
by his indecency toward other people of Riccis same impoverished disposition. On the
other hand American Beauty dabbles with the question how uncivil and inhuman can
someone lower themselves to over a short period of time. But Lester proves us wrong.
His obsession with Angela in the end turns into an act of humanism and civility towards
someone who is naive. Both of these main characters traits, at some point in everyone?s
life, have delivered or even taught a lesson about refraining from some sort of action that
could end up in consequences that are defiant against ones own code of conduct or
someone else?s.