From both films “The Bicycle Thieves” and “On the Waterfront”, from a Marxist critique I can definitely point out few things that are distinguishable. In the beginning of “The Bicycle Thieves”, the scene shown a cluster of people waiting for their names to be called for a job, and from what was being depicted was that the crowd was that of the lower class or the waged people. When Ricci’s name was called, he was told that he had a chance of getting this job only if he had a bicycle, which at that time he didn’t have, a bicycle. So the crowd reacted who were waiting for jobs shouted “I have bicycle!” And which created a domino effect of similar shouts. However the crowds were told and judge by the harsh statement, “you are a bricklayer, a different category”. In a desperate need of a job, Ricci quickly responded back by saying that he did have a bicycle but in reality he didn’t. Once he returned home his wife collected bed sheets from the house and sold them for money in order to buy a bicycle for the job. In relation to this, as what Walter Benjamin pointed out, “The growing proletarianization of modern man and the increasing formation of masses are two aspects of the same process”, are the things that caused problem for them.
In the film of “On the Waterfront”, the scene was taken at a place that looks like a pier or close to the water. The crowd of people was similar to that of those from the bicycle thieves. The crowd in the film of “On the Waterfront” however was part of a union and the scene showed crooked union leaders. The poverty behind this film was shown when the person who was handing out the money was suddenly ambush by the crowd and was force to throw the money onto the floor. The fact that the crowd quickly attempted to seize every single coin showed the Marxist idea of the working class and in Walter Benjamin it mentioned “……he offers not only his labor but also his whole self, his heart and soul” and this explains what people go through just to have a chance of getting a job or getting as much work as possible.
According to these two films, it just shows how unbalanced the society is and how everything is so unfair, people were being sorted into the “bricklayer” group and weren’t able to get a job. No matter how hard they try, the inequality will still exist.