"La Strada" is a simple tale that attempts to pack an emotional wallop at its climax, which is nice, except that what we're shown as character development for the main antagonist is never earned, and is frankly somewhat incomprehensible.
Plot In a Nutshell: A young woman (Giulietta Masina) is sold into bondage by her mother to a cruel and abusive two-bit circus sideshow performer (Anthony Quinn).
Imagine for a minute that you have a dog. You treat this dog very poorly. You yell at it, hit it, order it around, demand total loyalty from it. But then when other dogs come around you give them plenty of attention and affection. But not this dog. You kick it some more. And yell at it some more. You clearly have nothing but contempt for this dog.
You've had other dogs before. The last one you had mysteriously died. We don't know how, but given your brutal nature, it would surprise no one if it was revealed that you had something to do with its death. That's how awful you are. But anyway, back to your current dog. It's become kind of useless and it barks a lot now. So you decide to abandon it on the side of the road and get on with your life.
Years later you are living your same miserable existence. You've never given that dog a second thought and have since found other dogs with which to play. Life goes on. You are not looking for that dog, because frankly, you never ever liked it. It was annoying, right? So who cares.
Then one day you hear something that reminds you of that dog. You pursue it, likely out of curiosity, and ask someone what you heard. You are then told that, yes, that dog was here for a while, but it's dead now. And now...NOW...suddenly, you have this instant revelation that hey, even though you treated this dog like garbage, couldn't treat it much worse, really, now....you think you LOVED this dog! Yes, despite your horrible treatment of this dog, you really needed this dog all along. So you run to the ocean to wash away your feelings of guilt for how you mistreated this loyal dog all those years ago. The End.
Umm...that doesn't work. I've known people like Zampanò. They are miserable, worthless, abusive, borderline evil people. And they don't care who they hurt. They only care about themselves. Imagining someone like that have a "come to Jesus" moment in the ocean surf is pretty laughable, really. It is certainly unconvincing. And given the reputation of this film (fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films), disappointingly unconvincing. Not for a second do I accept that Zampanò would be in any way changed, simply by learning that someone he treated like garbage years ago is now dead. No way.
6/10. Unrealistic drama that fails to connect. If you want to see an early 1950s Italian film that packs a legitimate emotional punch, check out Vittorio De Sica's "Umberto D." You'll be glad you did.
Plot In a Nutshell: A young woman (Giulietta Masina) is sold into bondage by her mother to a cruel and abusive two-bit circus sideshow performer (Anthony Quinn).
Imagine for a minute that you have a dog. You treat this dog very poorly. You yell at it, hit it, order it around, demand total loyalty from it. But then when other dogs come around you give them plenty of attention and affection. But not this dog. You kick it some more. And yell at it some more. You clearly have nothing but contempt for this dog.
You've had other dogs before. The last one you had mysteriously died. We don't know how, but given your brutal nature, it would surprise no one if it was revealed that you had something to do with its death. That's how awful you are. But anyway, back to your current dog. It's become kind of useless and it barks a lot now. So you decide to abandon it on the side of the road and get on with your life.
Years later you are living your same miserable existence. You've never given that dog a second thought and have since found other dogs with which to play. Life goes on. You are not looking for that dog, because frankly, you never ever liked it. It was annoying, right? So who cares.
Then one day you hear something that reminds you of that dog. You pursue it, likely out of curiosity, and ask someone what you heard. You are then told that, yes, that dog was here for a while, but it's dead now. And now...NOW...suddenly, you have this instant revelation that hey, even though you treated this dog like garbage, couldn't treat it much worse, really, now....you think you LOVED this dog! Yes, despite your horrible treatment of this dog, you really needed this dog all along. So you run to the ocean to wash away your feelings of guilt for how you mistreated this loyal dog all those years ago. The End.
Umm...that doesn't work. I've known people like Zampanò. They are miserable, worthless, abusive, borderline evil people. And they don't care who they hurt. They only care about themselves. Imagining someone like that have a "come to Jesus" moment in the ocean surf is pretty laughable, really. It is certainly unconvincing. And given the reputation of this film (fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films), disappointingly unconvincing. Not for a second do I accept that Zampanò would be in any way changed, simply by learning that someone he treated like garbage years ago is now dead. No way.
6/10. Unrealistic drama that fails to connect. If you want to see an early 1950s Italian film that packs a legitimate emotional punch, check out Vittorio De Sica's "Umberto D." You'll be glad you did.