THE THIRD MAN
Product Description
THE THIRD MAN is a British cinematic icon: from executive Carol Reed, bard Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli and Orson Welles. Set in post-war Vienna, the movie noir facilities a little of cinema’s many noted set pieces — the follow by the sewers, the huge ferris wheel, the elm-lined cemetery…and Anton Karas’ zither score, a worldwide materialisation in itself. THE THIRD MAN is a swirling mix of thriller, romance, poser and fight movie which was nominated for 3 Oscars(R) and declared to the AFI’s Top 100 Movies List.Amazon.com
The fractured Europe post-World War II is ideally capturedin Carol Reed’s magnum opus thriller, set in a Vienna still shell-shocked from battle. Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is an alcoholic pap bard come to revisit his old crony Harry Lime (Orson Welles). But when Cotton initial arrives in Vienna, Lime’s wake is underneath way. From Lime’s partner and an occupying British officer, Martins learns of allegations of Lime’s impasse in racketeering, which Martins vows to transparent from his friend’s reputation. As he is drawn deeper in to postwar intrigue, Martins finds covering underneath covering of deception, which he desperately tries to arrange out. Welles’s long-delayed opening in the movie has turn one of the hallmarks of complicated cinematography, and it is only one of dozens of cockeyed camera angles which appear to counterpart the off-kilter postwar society. Cotten and Welles give career-making performances, and the Anton Karas zither thesis will show up you. –Anne Hurley
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I love old films, especially ones that make you think, but this film STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!! I absolutely hated this film, and actually give it 0 stars. I have seen a few Orson wells films, and have not liked any of them, and I think a boring script, and bad preformance from Wells brings this film down. Everyone says this film is so great, and I thought it STUNK!!!!!!!! Make sure to avoid this film and all of it’s good reviews at ALL costs.
Rating: 1 / 5
If you think the Devil is fascinating, then this is the movie for you.
Heralded as a masterpiece, the only thing masterful about this movie is it does a good job of expressing the point of view of persons who think other persons who are moral, normal and physically plain make for a dreary world, while persons who are physically attractive, street-smart, daring, and often, morally compromised, make the world interesting, and life worth living.
Jesus Christ said that if we don’t hate our lives, and this world, than we can have no part with Him. People who reject Christ’s words look for ways to make life worthwhile, and many of them settle for all-that-glitters, mistaking it for gold.
The “masterly” technique used here is simple – the protagonist is played by Joseph Cotton, an actor deliberately chosen for his mild manner and less than striking appearance. Errol Flynn or Humphrey Bogart he is not. Cotton cannot light up the screen because he is not supposed to. Moreover, he arrives in Vienna almost broke; a failed third-rate novelist – the guy is hapless. Cotton is supposed to represent the inoffensive but also unexciting normal American man of his day, with predictable responses and a WASP moral code. However, the viewer is not supposed to be conscious of what Cotton represents, at least not early on in the film. Almost never is the chief protagonist in any story a weak character, so even though Cotton’s character, Holly, starts off weak, the audience is expecting big things from him.
He meets a woman who may have known his friend, Harry; Harry who was supposed to host him in Vienna, Austria but has been killed in an accident. The woman, though attractive, is portrayed as nothing special at first. However, as the story develops the screenwriter subtly shapes the woman into someone very attractive to male and female viewers, owing to her vulnerability, her desire to avoid repatriation to communist Russia, and other devices that make her irresistible. As she grows more striking, hapless Holly begins to look more and more the rube.
Eventually Harry, played by Orson Wells, is introduced to the audience. The audience, now panting for a male protagonist worthy of the fascinating female is refreshed with a long cool drink when Wells lights up the screen. Problem is, Harry, Well’s character, is a deeply morally-compromised person. He has the blood of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of innocent people, including small children, on his hands. He is also the woman’s former lover. Though the woman is in Vienna illegally, and obviously has loose sexual mores, and though Harry is, in effect, a mass murderer, the script is written in such as way that we are supposed to admire the woman and Harry. Of course, try as he might to be someone special, we come to view the straight arrow, plain-man Holly as just perennially one step behind; simply not as “with it”; not as hip, not as daring, and certainly not a potentially interesting sexual partner. Harry, on the other hand, may be responsible for the death of infants, but doggonit, he is fascinating, and wouldn’t he be exciting to have sex with him…that’s how were supposed to react.
In many ways this film is sick and twisted. And for you bored-with-life hip, lefties out there who are awed by this movie, I just want you to know that I am proud to be a plain-vanilla, boring, morally straight guy; the kind that responds when you need a policeman or firefighter; the kind who won’t stab you in the back or steal your girl when your not looking. As I pass by outside the bar you frequent I’ll see you, Mr. or Ms. Hipster, pretending you’re in the fast lane as you sit on the bar seat in the smoke-filled bar, slyly trying to hook-up with a twenty-something member of the opposite sex, packing a hidden STD. Bon Voyage!
Rating: 2 / 5
This DVD does not work on my machine. Others without the label blu ray work fine– I am not going to spend additional money to buy another machine just to play blu ray. End of matter.
Rating: 1 / 5
I’ll Make this short and sweet to the point; This movie does very poorly and it’s no wonder why people {excluding critics} think that this is boring right up there with Citizen Kane. I’m sorry for other people that feel differnt, but that’s just my opinon and I tell it like it is.
Rating: 1 / 5
I may rouse alot of ire here, but somebody has to give innocents abroad fair warning about this lousy film. Contrary to all the gushing reviews here, The Third Man is Orson Welles at his worst. The mysterious character, Harry Lime, when he is finally seen (after much buildup) is completely uninteresting and shallow. His trite dialog shows a character with no depth and reveals a writer with no imagination.
And that AWFUL zither music!! This film must win the Golden Raspberry for worst soundtrack of all time!
If you are an Orson Welles fan, like myself, stay away from this film. Pretend it never existed. It is not a film noir except in the most amateurish sense. You want to see a great Orson Welles film noir? A Touch of Evil is the film for you. Trust me, you’ll never look at Charlton Heston the same way.
Rating: 1 / 5