The films The Bicycle Thieves and On the Waterfront are definitely not works that Marxist critics have a very hard time critiquing. The themes in these films deal with the economic and social difficulties that the protagonists face and are easily viewed as Marxist works without much scrutiny. As Walter Benjamin points out, “the growing proletarianization of modern man and the increasing formation of masses are two aspects of the same process” and are the very things that cause problems for Antonio Ricci and Terry Malloy in their respective movies.
In The Bicycle Thieves, it is apparent that the setting of the movie is not a time or place of riches and luxury. The large crowd of poor workers is desperate for jobs and they are met with disappointment day after day with their inability to obtain one. The man who hands out the jobs is smoking a cigar, obviously of a higher class than the masses. He stands higher up on the stairs, keeping his distance from the common men. This particular man informs the proletarian workers that he doesn’t have any jobs for “you people” indicating that he considers them to be of a separate and lower class.
Although Antonio Ricci is just as impoverished as the rest of the men, he seems to be slightly more fortunate than the others. The man issuing out the jobs looks for Antonio Ricci in particular to do the job of hanging up posters even though there are many other men there who are capable of doing the job. A bricklayer in the crowd protests and is told that he cannot have the job because he is of a “different category.” Ricci is told that he must have a bicycle to work which is something of a luxury item and he does not have because he sold his to feed his family. There are men in the crowd who do own bicycles, but Ricci is able to keep this job not because of his ability to ride the bicycle or hang up posters, but because of the slightly higher status that he holds over the other men.
On the Waterfront takes place at a different time and at a different place and yet, there is still the presence of a huge, destitute mob of people, waiting for work. These men are longshoremen and instead of being protected by their Union, they are threatened by it. The Union holds a large amount of power and because of this, as Walter Benjamin phrases it, “one could expect it…to exploit the proletariat with increasing intensity.” The longshoremen workers are expected “to keep their mouths shut” and to work without any complaint. They were expected to know their place in society and to not stray from it. Even the girl, which was Joey Doyle’s sister, had expectations placed on her which were evident when Pop said, “get back to the sisters where you belong” and “letting her see things ain’t fit for the eyes of a decent girl.”
The mob of longshoremen trying to get work know that the Union bosses’ selection process is not random but based on their favorites and the relationships they have with certain people. The Union bosses could be seen as the aristocracy, who were also in a place of power and utilizing it to suppress the ones beneath them. Terry Malloy didn’t need to worry about not getting a job, and when he got it, he didn’t even work very hard because of the relationship he had with Johnny Friendly. Johnny Friendly was the head of the Union bosses and a family friend of Malloy’s, so this relationship was what kept him employed. Despite the fact that there were men out on the dock who desperately needed the job, would’ve worked harder, and probably would’ve done a better job, Terry’s connections allowed him to be a lot better off then the rest of his peers.
The Marxist idea that proletarians are not distinctive because of their manual labor but because of the way society categorizes them and their relationships with society is reflected in The Bicycle Thieves and On the Waterfront. These two movies are meant to highlight the inequality of social classes and to prevent us from consenting to it.