In American Beauty Kevin Spacey who plays Lester lives a typical middle class life His wife is having an affair, his rebellious daughter doesnt talk to him andhis neighbors are psycho. In contrast The Bicycle Thief portrays a tight family. Riccis wifeloves him, his behaved son talks to him and his neighbors are helpful when a crises occurs. In both of these films the main characters, Lester and Ricci, go through what I call aresponsibility stage. Both must make a life changing experience, either good or bad, thatwill have an effect on the people around them.Lester decides to make a few changes in his rut of life, changes that are lessmid-life and more adolescence like.1 While he slowly goes through these changes on filmone can see that the more responsibility he gives up the more happy he becomes. What hegives up to make him happy, though, only makes his family more hateful towards him. Itisnt that he gave up his responsibilities to improve his relationship with his daughter orimprove it with his wife but to be selfish and gratify himself from what he lost when hewas young. He does reckless and foolish things in this movie, but he doesnt deceivehimself, he knows hes running wild--and choose to..2 He let these feelings over powerhim and he almost let this irresponsibility get the best of him when he found himself alonewith his daughters best friend. Its perfectly natural to have feelings like he has toward herbut there came a time with him when he saw what he was going to do was not right. Sohe refrained and actually gained a friend. (After he has been losing people left and right) His ability to refrain from his actions made him a stronger person in the eyes of Angela, hisdaughters best friend.Unlike Lester, Riccio, from The Bicycle Thief , does not have a job. His mainconcern, like that of an adolescent who needs money, is to get a job. His responsibility istowards his family. He is in a constant state of depression because...
