TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Paul Fairbanks Anthony Quinn who was Cecil B de Mille's son in law told the story of showing La Strada to his father in law. It seems that De Mille couldn't take it. He asked for the projection to be interrupted in more than one occasion. He was disturbed, confused. Maybe it was the simplicity, the total lack of artifice. Let's remember Fellini shot it in the immediate post-war Italy with no means whatsoever and here it was, a masterpiece changing the world of cinema pushing us to a reality that was as pungent as it was poetic. The heartbreaking story of Gelsomina - an extraordinary Giulietta Masina - and Zampano - a spectacular prime Anthony Quinn who plays his humanoid with shattering truth - went to become a global sensation and an Oscar winner. Apparently, after the film was over, Cecil B de Mille got up and left the room without saying a word.

framptonhollis It's ridiculously late at night right now and I just finished watching Fellini's masterful classic "La Strada" for the very first (and, by the looks of it, certainly not last) time. I was planning on sleeping right after the film ended and publishing an IMDb review tomorrow, but the film had such a profound effect on me that I feel the need to review it now, and share my experience will all of you.Although it is a tragedy, "La Strada" still carries classic Fellini whimsy, magic, and humor. It also expresses his talent for storytelling, character, and ability to amuse and entertain while also being intelligent and meaningful. This is a carnivalesque dance of the human soul, exposing both the positives and negatives of life itself. The characters are some of the finest and most memorable I have ever seen in the film. There is the childlike and lovable heroine Gelsomina, the menacing, abusive, and yet surprisingly sympathetic villain Zampano, and the hilarious and inspiring Fool. These memorable personalities clash in a practically perfect film that combines neorealism with surrealism and tragedy with comedy. A true masterpiece if I've ever seen one.

Prismark10 Others might see symbolism in the characters of this film based on the elements and director Federico Fellini certainly includes his familiar tropes in this film such as the sea, circus, clowns, beach, good women and prostitutes.To me this is a road picture of two not very bright people who end up together. Zampano (Anthony Quinn) has a circus strong man routine travelling around in a beat up camper van pulled by a motor cycle. His companion Rosa has died, he goes to tell the news to her mother and buys Rosa's younger sister as a replacement. Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) who he brutally trains to be his assistant.Zampano is a brutish thug, a drinker, a womaniser. I was never convinced whether he loved or cared for Gelsomina, I believe she cares for him and even loved him.When both join a larger circus she comes into contact with the Fool (Richard Basehart) who is a clown and a high wire act. He is a sweet man to Gelsomina, even a kindred spirit but he senses that Gelsomina loves Zampano and maybe he loves her but cannot show it or say it because he just lacks the intelligence. The Fool like a few other people throughout the film offers her a way out from Zampano but she refuses.The Fool also has a deep dislike for Zampano, always taunting him and driving him to a rage. Eventually their path will cross again leaving Gelsomina mad and Zampano to abandon her. At the end Zampano is left unfolding his emotions to the sea. Maybe he eventually realised the love he has lost.There is distinctive music from Nina Rota. Actress Masina has a clown like way of movement which looked like Harpo Marx combined with Charlie Chaplin. You can see why the circus wanted her to stay. She had an inane sweetness in contrast with Quinn's Zampano whose only ability was the strongman act where he could break chains with his pectoral muscles. If he had any sense he might had realised that that being taunted by The Fool could had been incorporated into the circus act with beneficial results.There is a tragic undercurrent in this film very much from the first scene heightened by the black and white photography and Fellini's symbolism's which he revisited many times in the course of his career.

rodrig58 How can you write about The God of Cinema, than in the manner in which it is said that the Bible was written, that is inspired by God himself? But that Fellini was still earthly, like me, with a biography similar to mine plus physically resemblance(Mussollini was for him what Ceausescu was for me...) so, I'm having easy words come to mind from somewhere in the ether, the infinite, where perhaps he, Fellini, still creates characters, directs, writes, draws, takes everything for his films which he never realized as long he lived on Earth. Very seriously, what can you write about La Strada? What can you write about the faces of Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina? About what they can express only by their presence? What about the music of Nino Rota? What can you write about the work of Fellini, who was going through the deepest depression, after his only child just died in real life? You can not write anything, you just got to see the film, again and again, and feel yourself what Fellini wanted to communicate to the world. The fact that La Strada won an Oscar, for me, is zero. I appreciate what is beyond the film, the simple message about life and love. I will only quote Zampano: "If there's any delicate person in the audience, I would advise him to look away 'cause there could be blood." Much more than 10.