The Bicycle Thief - a cinema review

i don't know how i ended up putting this black and white Italian film from 1948 on my Netflix list. i do like foreign films. The director is Vittorio De Sica and he won many awards. This is not a feel-good movie. It's a tragedy. It's the life of a poor family in post-War Rome. The poor man finally gets a job from the employment office but he needs to get his bike out of hock. So they sell their linens. They will finally make money and get off welfare. But while he is out hanging movie posters his bike is stolen. He chases the adolescent but can't keep up with him and the accomplice who pretends to help sends them down a different street. The next day he and his son and his neighbors go out searching for it. They look for parts assuming it's been chopped up. His obsession results in jeopardy for his son who is approached by a man who keeps trying to buy him bells. After he rescues his son he finds the thief on his bike paying an old man. Once again he can't catch the thief, but he does find the old man. He tracks him down to a Catholic mission offering soup and a shave for listening to the service. In the midst of a full church he can get no justice from the man. The man has no conviction in the service. Eventually he escapes. The poor man lashes out at his son and slaps him across the face. he repents though and takes the boy out to eat, presumably with limited cash. He justifies it by saying that this life depends on finding that bike. He goes to a fortune teller, who takes more money but only tells him what he already knows, not where to find the bike. Finally he crosses the path of the adolescent and chases him into a brothel. He finds little help there. He finds little help from the police. He chases the kid into his neighborhood where the kid is defended by the neighbors. the boy finds a policeman who investigates and offers no consolation. it his word against theirs. there is no evidence. in defeat, they stumble out to the thoroughfare where hundreds of bikes are parked for soccer fans at a match. he also spies a lone bike. he struggles with his temptation then decides. i presume he reasons that since his thief got away with it couldn't he? but his son sees. and this time a crowd chases him, unlike when his bike was stolen. and he is caught. but the owner sees his son crying and does not press charges, he says his punishment is enough. the father and son walk off. the son takes his hand. he weeps. the end.
the better life is always just out of reach. the job. the bike. justice. he only has one thing to hold onto. his son's hand.
the son offers forgiveness and hope despite the sins against him.
The Son of God offers forgiveness despite our sins.