The Third Man

August 23rd

The Movie The Third Man was an interesting piece of film to watch, primarily because the settings were so familiar in our beautiful city of Vienna. My favorite character was the British officer Calloway, who I thought did an excellent job of portraying the fine line that needs to be toed as an officer in a split zone of occupation. His dealings with the Russian officers seemed to be indicative of the difficulties that arise from trying to protect one’s national interests while at the same time trying to work with another nation to ensure proper security. The best example of this in my opinion was Calloway’s willingness to deal with Russian incursions on his investigation in order to gain a little bit more leeway with his dealing with Martins in his relentless pursuit to get to the bottom of the case.

The area of the city that I recognized first was the path that runs parallel to the Hofburg, where Harry Lime was supposedly killed and Martins first goes to meet him. It was not entirely clear that this was the area because they did not offer any sweeping panoramic views of the area, but the statue across the cobblestone street seemed like the exact location that we walked by during our first walking tour. Of course the Ferris Wheel was the most recognizable landmark of the movie, but it was difficult to determine other areas of Vienna because the land was so bombed and destroyed that it was mostly unrecognizable.

I thought that the social commentary of the film was very interesting, as it explored the differences in morality between a normal society and the post war chaos that inhabited much of Europe following WW2. Holly Martins clearly never thought that his good friend Harry Lime would be capable of something as heinous as stealing and diluting insulin that was bound to kill or maim many people, including children, but the nature of the opportunities that are presented following a devastating war were too much for Lime. Even the way that the film was shot evoked the atmosphere of an exhausted, cynical post-war Vienna at the start of the Cold War and used a lot of unusual camera angles.

I’ve read a lot about the black market trades that were prevalent in all European cities following the war, but it is easy to forget that such times can change people from honest men and women into those that are willing to take advantage of the situation. It is also an interesting look into the differences between negotiating the Russian and British sectors of Vienna, as Lime walks with impunity through the Russian sectors but has to use the sewers in order to escape detection in moving through the Allied territories. The chase scene at the end of the movie would be considered to be almost boring by our standards today, but for the 1950s it was a very intricate and inventive way of showing the final struggle for freedom for Lime. In the end he has actually lost his sense of humanity enough to kill a police officer, which I took as an indication that no matter how people rationalize their actions in those situations they are ultimately responsible for what they do. Lime had killed many during his racketeering career, and made the final transformation into a terrible human being by physically murdering a lawman. Vienna was undoubtedly an extremely polarizing place after WW2