The Third Man

My first impression of this movie was that the camera angles made me feel like I was watching Dick Tracy. Later I noticed that there was rarely a time when the camera shot the scene without any tilted angles, which added to the feel that everything was somehow wrong or unnatural. I think that the use of shadows also added an air of mystery, especially since one could go from being in light to the shadows fairly easily at almost any point during the film. Almost every aspect of the film had this mystery to it, though I’m not sure how to explain how …it is a mystery after all. The whole feel of how everything came together (the scenery, the shadows, character interaction, and the camera angles too) made it seem like there was something else that was just waiting to come out, and I think this never went away, even after the major conflict is resolved. It felt like a giant question mark was over everything, and it didn’t go away just because one bad guy was killed.

I read Dracula several years ago, but I don’t remember too many details because I found the book very boring. From what I do remember, the article is correct in saying that the similarities between the two stories comes more from “mood and atmosphere” than anything else. When comparing the two stories, it’s easy to spot the similarities that the article points out, but I think it’s important to find the key differences as well. The biggest difference between the two is that Dracula had far more religious symbols and themes, whereas in The Third Man the interest in Harry Lime is mainly legal. I think this is an important difference because religion didn’t have as great a hold on the world as it did when Dracula came out, so a criminal (rather than a demon) would have been a more appropriate evil figure.

That being said, I believe the emotional impact of this movie (specifically Orson Wells’ role) would have been greater for its original audience. I think they would have viewed life and death differently in the post-war era. However charming harry Lime may have been, his comment about people being meaningless dots and his disregard for human life would have struck a different chord with them and given them more reason to label him as evil.

It was confusing for me to form an opinion of Harry because the person himself didn’t seem to match the evil we’re told about. When I asked myself whether I like him or hate him as a character, the answer to both questions was no—I didn’t want him to succeed or to fail. I found this confusion very distracting, and I think that because of it, any ending to the movie would have been somehow unsatisfying.

My two favorite parts of this movie were when Martins and Anna were being chased by a toddler who seemed to lead the angry mob (although I can’t find the significance of using a child), and the chase scene through the tunnels. The chase was an amazing scene visually because there were all kinds of light tricks: shadows, reflections off the water and the walls, dark puddles against lighter floors, and the flashlights made the light and dark almost move. I loved it.