Sciuscia aka Shoeshine

The film "Sciuscia" or "Shoeshine" was made in 1946 in Italy. It was directed by the great Italian director, Vittorio De Sica. This movie follows a period in the lives of two boys who work as shoeshine boys in Rome. The boys' names are Pasquale & Giuseppe & the audience learns that they are good friends. The film begins by showing the two boys in a horse race & their love for the horse. They want to buy the horse but they don't have enough money.

Pasquale & Giuseppe decide to make some extra money delivering blankets to a woman from a friend of Giuseppe's older brother. While delivering the blankets to the woman, some men show up & hand the boys quite a bit of money if they'll leave & say they never saw anything happen. The boys take the money & buy the horse they've been dreaming of having.

A short while later, police arrest the boys after hearing they may have been involved in the sale of stolen goods. Both boys refuse to say they know anything & are thrown into juvenile prison.The prison if full of boys of all ages who have committed various crimes. Pasquale & Giuseppe are separated but make new friends in their cells.

Meanwhile, Giuseppe's older brother & his friends in crime decide to remind the boys not to talk by sending them a nice package of food. The package is recieved but only Giuseppe gets it. The boys are again questioned about the stolen goods & Pasquale finally talks because he thinks Giuseppe is being beaten. When Giuseppe finds out, he accuses Pasquale of being a "grass" & Pasquale is shunned by most of the boys.

The boys no longer speak & Giuseppe even gets Pasquale beaten for something he didn't do. Other boys in the prison who are Giuseppe's & Pasquale's friends try & get them to make up, but thanks to one older boy who is a big trouble maker, they don't.

The boys' case comes to trial & Giuseppe's family hires him a lawyer but since Pasquale is an orphan, he only has the public defender. Giuseppe's lawyer convinces him to blame everything on Pasquale which he agrees to do. Giuseppe is sentenced to a year in juvenile prison & Pasquale is sentenced to two.

Giuseppe's cell mate comes up with a plan to escape & he & all the cell mates try. Only Giuseppe & the older boy who made the plan get away. Pasquale hears what has happened & figures out that Giuseppe is going to take their horse & so tells the director of the prison. Pasquale is taken along on the trip to apprehend the runaways & while the men are looking for the boys, Pasquale runs off. He finds Giuseppe & his cell mate on their horse & confronts them. The cell mate runs off & leaves Pasquale to deal with Giuseppe. The film ends unexpectedly, but I'll leave it up to you to watch the movie & see the ending for yourself.

This movie was similar to the other Italian Neo-Realism film I saw, in that both deal with tragedy & hopeless situations. During this period of history right after World War II, Italy was still in economic hard times & I believe De Sica wanted to show the common man's plight at this time. Although there are funny parts in the movie, it is overall quite depressing. Both boys are in extreme poverty & become involved in crime (though accidentily). Their friendship doesn't withstand prison & justice isn't seen for either boy. Though sad, this movie was well done & has an interesting point of view.