The bicycle permits Ricci to work as a poster-hanger, striking paste on walls to put up film flyers. On his first day someone steals the bike. So he runs, the director made sure to have the music set off the journey, to find his bicycle to keep his job. What happened for him to get the bike, pawning his wife's sheets, seeing all the sheets of other families that pawned theirs, and then getting a job after days online, makes the bike that much more meaningful as its his only means to stability. The best part of this movie was the ability of the director to show a stark, barren, disheartening Rome that most people when viewing Rome are not used to. The movie took the audience on a tour whilst Antonio and his son looked for his bike showing how society was at the time in that region. The scene at the pizzeria with Antonio letting his son drink some wine and stating one needs "a million lira" to eat pasta like the family they saw, let the audience see more than just a struggling, impoverished father. He didn't get the bike back in the end, even when he saw the bike thief in a brothel. Although he was tempted to steal another bike, he didn't manage to get it and was instead slapped and insulted only let go by the owner's compassion. The film was amazing in the sense that it depicted real life and real life consequences and also showed how reality is not like Hollywood,...

This is the first gilm of his that truly shows his creative style as director. The film begins with Gelsomina who has to work with Zampano, a strong man whom was partnered with Rosa, Gelsomina's sister, but after Rosa died, decided to take her instead. She was essentially sold to Zampano for 10,000 lire and whisked away to learn how to street perform. Zampano was very dominating and brutish with her but taught her to play the trumpet, how to dance, and play the snare drum in order to entertain the crowd as he broke the chain over his chest in the main act.
When Gelsomina has enough of the strong man's temperament, she decides to leave and comes across Il Matto, a clown who without any known motivation, constantly teases and picks on Zampano after all three join a traveling circus. When Il Matto tells Gelsomina that even pebbles have a purpose, it prompts her to ask Zampano to marry her. He rejects and sees Il Matto along the road. With a couple of hard hits on Il Matto's head, the clown looks down at his watch, now broken, and dies. Gelsomina witnesses this and remains permanently broken. Zampano abandons her and eventually a woman takes her in. She dies but not before imparting some music to the woman whom Zampano hears at the end of the movie.

It was a great film with intense scenes and a complex array of characters. Gelsomina, although wishing for another life and freedom, ends up wishing to stay with the man who mistreats her. Zampano, a brutish strong man cries at the end because of losing Gelsomina and perhaps guilt for killing the clown. Il Matto feels bad for Gelsomina, but at the same time feels jealous of Zampano perhaps giving reason to his teasing of the former.