But I definitely don't remember it as one of the great Neo-realist films: it pales in comparison to Bicycle Thief, Umberto Di, Bitter Rice, or La Terra Trema.
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My own kneejerk response has always been something like "The Bicycle Thief" is one of the two or three greatest films ever made.
But I've been trying since 1960 or so to beak myself of the foolish habit of "evaluating" movies, novels, etc. One finds oneself going back in one's thought to Bitter Rice or Monsieur Verdoux or Birth of a Nation or Streets of Sorrow-- but attempts at formal ranking or saying this is the greatest, that doesln't measure up, etc is a distraction from actually thinking about the item.
Carrol