Now this is the first time I have ever seen the movie The Third Man , and on top of that, this is actually the second movie that I have ever seen Orson Wells in. Now when I compare his role in this movie to his role in Citizen Kane , I believe that I enjoyed the role he played in The Third man a bit more. The reason I say this is because I think that I basically obtained the absolute truth about most of the characters by the end of the film rather than be left in question like I was at the end of Citizen Kane.
Alright well first off I loved the character of Harry Lime and how Orson wells Played him so well. I felt like as soon as he entered the movie and we saw his face uncovered from the shadows , the film just took off from there. I do like that the film presents Harry lime as this type of anti hero rather than a straight up villain , because a villain you see, you analyze, and you know there evil and you can hate him or her right off the bat. However in the case of Harry lime, I'm sure that most of the audience including myself, found themselves rooting for him to succeed I, and get away from the dangers headed his way. I believe that in the case of the this film, camera work had a lot to do with how we saw each of the characters. For Harry, I seemed to notice that there were subtle tracking techniques going on, which in for me made things eventually get a bit up close and personal to really see our characters.
I mean really, look at that face, could that really be the face of some evil master mind that killed children and planned to kill more for his own personal gain? Okay, that was his plan all along but its just so hard to hate a character that just seems so... devilishly charming. I still can't get over that he shot the nicest character in the whole film. i was just completely shocked.
I found that the camera was also very tilted throughout the majority of this film, and I believe it is because we closely followed the character Holly Martins. The world he was entering, and the messed up, dark story behind it allowed for the Dutch angle to be appropriate. I found myself tilting my head for a while just to get used to this shot and the askew world.
The over all look of the film was just amazing to me. I loved all of the grungy, broken down parts of the city. I thought filming in the actual city of Post WWII Vienna helped give heft to the dark shadows that seemed to be a main theme in the film.I learned that this film has a great amount of german expressionism in it focusing mostly around shadows, and a type of dark world created from them, and this ruined setting fit perfectly. The shadows in this film just seem to devour everything. Even the character Harry Lime seems to be a part of them at different points. He is introduced by imerging from them, also later we see him come from the shadows to look over the city. Another thing is that we always see him in this long black coat and hat. With this look I couldn't help but compare him to the character of the Shadow.
These shadows are a nice element to play around with, and I found it rather interesting how this shadow world in The Third Man is compared to the shadow world in Bram Stroker's Dracula in the article The Revenant of Vienna. The setting that is described in both of these stories is actually pretty interesting and rather unsettling for me to see character's wander through it. I loved how the article described the world of Dracula by saying "Harker's description of his journey through this 'weird' atmosphere culminates in his arrival at Dracula's 'vast ruined castle,' whose 'broken battlements' cut 'a jagged line against the moonlit sky' (39). Harker's words, in short, describe a world 'closing down' upon him both literally and figuratively." I find this to fit perfectly in the description of the world that we also see Holly go through.
The over all look of the film was just amazing to me. I loved all of the grungy, broken down parts of the city. I thought filming in the actual city of Post WWII Vienna helped give heft to the dark shadows that seemed to be a main theme in the film.I learned that this film has a great amount of german expressionism in it focusing mostly around shadows, and a type of dark world created from them, and this ruined setting fit perfectly. The shadows in this film just seem to devour everything. Even the character Harry Lime seems to be a part of them at different points. He is introduced by imerging from them, also later we see him come from the shadows to look over the city. Another thing is that we always see him in this long black coat and hat. With this look I couldn't help but compare him to the character of the Shadow.
These shadows are a nice element to play around with, and I found it rather interesting how this shadow world in The Third Man is compared to the shadow world in Bram Stroker's Dracula in the article The Revenant of Vienna. The setting that is described in both of these stories is actually pretty interesting and rather unsettling for me to see character's wander through it. I loved how the article described the world of Dracula by saying "Harker's description of his journey through this 'weird' atmosphere culminates in his arrival at Dracula's 'vast ruined castle,' whose 'broken battlements' cut 'a jagged line against the moonlit sky' (39). Harker's words, in short, describe a world 'closing down' upon him both literally and figuratively." I find this to fit perfectly in the description of the world that we also see Holly go through.
All in all good story, great characters, and an amazing setting. All of these elements are key ingredients to creating a film that impresses even the toughest of crowds. I would have to say... I was quite satisfied in how everything turned out, and I am looking forward to seeing more films that Orson Wells is cast in.
Nice outlining of the key ideas here, and a good, breezy writing style too. You definitely touched on all the concepts you were asked to consider. I'd like to see where you went with this if you took this just a bit deeper, and started playing with some of the ambiguities you outline: a charming antihero, a weak ostensible hero, a world of light and shadow and odd angles, and a narrative that parallels a vampire story in many respects. What's going on here, do you think? Where does this movie put us, the audience?
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