Bicycle Thief

Such an important and written about neo-realist film seems out of place on this blog. Since I'm blogging about things as I see them, please forgive me for writing a sub par critique of a truly excellent flick.
This post I want to focus on the where's waldo aspect of the film. Where's waldo, or rather, where's the bike? Given the title (and well, I did absorb an occasional fact or two in those film studies classes) I knew that the bike would be stolen. I found myself constantly scanning the screen for the A Rides frame. I could barely take my eyes off of the handle bars when he walked up the stairs after his wife when she visited the Sonata. When it was off screen, I visualized it being stolen by all kinds of different hooligans. This hyper sensitivity to one object heightened my sense of paranoia about this fairly quotidienne object. At first, I thought this was annoying and felt as if I was missing out on enjoying the beauty of the city and the acting of the people. Now, I feel as if this is part of the message of the movie. The main character, Antonio, often looks past the beauty of the city in search of his bike. It's almost shocking how often he looks past his own son, Bruno, in search of his bike. This intense focus on an ordinary object distracts him from enjoying the rest of his life, perhaps like the focus on the bike distracted me from enjoying the rest of the film.
The bike was, of course, not just an ordinary object to Antonio, nor is it ordinary to the viewer of the movie. To Antonio, the bike is the vehicle (literal and metaphorical) that would carry his family out of poverty. He adds the amount he would have earned and laments having to lose that this economic freedom each day. The family's dreams are pinned on this bike, which is amplified by the opening scenes where each part of the family invests in this chance for advancement. Maria, Antonio's wife, sells the sheets that were a part of her dowry in order to buy back the bike from the pawn shop. Bruno cleans and repairs the bike as it hangs in the apartment. Maria and Bruno each are shown riding on the bike with Antonio at different times, perhaps foreshadowing the possibility that this bike would carry them to a more carefree life. To the reader, the bike is of crucial importance as the plot revolves around it. Without the bike, the watcher would have nothing for which to search.
So, in this instance, I think knowing a bit more about the plot of the film, or at least the title of the film, allowed me to sympathize with the protagonist as he/we focused on a seemingly ordinary object. Just as those destitute workers had to focus on the daily essentials of life and not on the beauty of their surroundings, so too did I miss out on the beauty of the city.