Il Bidone (1955)

 Federico Fellini's "Il Bidone"

Because it falls between two diamonds in Federico Fellini's filmography (1954's "La Strada" and 1957's "Nights of Cabiria"), 1955's "Il Bidone" often goes unnoticed or disregarded. This is unfortunate, as "Il Bidone" warrants its own merit and praise. Although it is not in Fellini's echelon of masterpieces, its style and rhythm, along with shots and compositions, are all Fellini continuing to hone his auteur style and enhance an already great voice and vision.

The film stars American actor Broderick Crawford as an aging swindler, Augusto, who scams money from the poor, along with his two pals. As the film progresses, he reconnects with his daughter and begins to realize how over the hill he is and how tired his old hat is getting. After a final con, he turns on his own crew. They beat him and leave him out in the desert to die.

While watching the film, I was gripped by its existential tone. When the film finally finished, I was thoroughly please with the story and ending. However, it wasn't until later that I began to analyze how I connected to the film. The one thing that stood in my mind most was the final shot of Crawford's character dying in the sand and dirt. It was a tragic fate. However, a tragic fate that could have been avoided....perhaps! Two of the three members of the main gang all want out of the life they're leading. They all feel as though conning and grifting have put them in a negative way with the people around them, despite the thrill of the con. They begin to realize that there's more to life than the despicable way they live. However, they are all too bound to their repeated behavior to ever change. Even to the last bitter end, Augusto's last moments are spent stealing from his own crew. Augusto wants to change and wants to be there for his daughter and the only way he can figure on doing that is doing the only thing he knows how to do: grift and steal. The 'tiger don't change its stripes' mentality eventually catches up to him in the bitter end.

While reflecting on these ideas, I began to think about the films in terms of my own life. There are certain behaviors that I've modeled for myself and have started to lean on. There is always the desire to improve from these behaviors and ways of thinking, but the repeated inundation of these behaviors have created a web of comfort. If you continue down this road of repeated behavior, you end up dying by it, either literally or metaphorically. As much as we want to change for ourselves and the people around us, we also find it difficult to turn ourselves around when we're already used to doing things a certain way. When I look back on this film, that notion is what I look back on: the webs of fate we tangle ourselves in through our self-sabotaging behaviors.