queue de grace: The Third Man (E)

Lego Homage to The Third Man

That's a nice girl, that.  But she ought to go careful in Vienna.  Everybody ought to go careful in a city like this. 

~Popescue, The Third Man (1949)

The Third Man (1949) has a title fraught with possibility even before we get started.  Who are the first and second men?  Why is he separated or called out from what must be a group of three men?  What the deuce is a zither?  By the way, Karen immediately identified the zither, because that's how she rolls (seriously).

She's just forgotten more about music than the rest of us will ever really know. 

Still, she didn't know who the third man was, or how he factored into the looming narrative. 

We do know he's important, to merit mention in the title, and it seems that truth and identity will be firmly in play.  We don't have a name, but we do have a hint of our path forward, and what looks to be a mystery.  I'll apologize now for the length of this post, I'll make a concerted effort to be more brief as we go.

You could write a book on this one and not fully capture it.

The How:
I'll stick to the How and What lines for now, even though that is an overly simplistic way to approach the complexity of film as expression.  Part of that is an attempt to understand the literal before moving to the figurative, but since movies hit us through multiple senses at once, "how" a movie is presented provides a powerful commentary on "what" content is delivered.

As such, it's a place to start.

The first thing I have to say is that this movie utilizes light and shadow better than anything I've ever seen.  It simply has to be definitive in this regard.  I hadn't considered this, but of course black and white movies would be better with the effect of shadow than films in color overall. When your visual palatte (in terms of color) is comprised entirely of shades of grey, awareness of the impact of contrast would be a primary move.

The film was beautiful, in a "bombed out" sort of way.  It was dark, literally and contextually and having seen it, I can't imagine this being done in color, without diminishing the film's power.  I just can't overstate it, the play of visuals in terms of light and shadow complimenting the context of what is happening here was genius throughout.  Especially in the sequence where the third man's identity is revealed (might be one of the most interesting sequences ever filmed) and the final chase scene in the sewers.  In comparison with a world of CGI characters, universes and stunning visual complexity, it was surprising to me to watch a film in black and white that was so superior in visual execution.

The use of foreign language without subtitle was also brilliant in creating a world where we share the character's perception of a setting where meaning and intelligibility is elusive and has to be overcome to some extent.  The German / Austrian lines counterpointed the dialogue and in some sense, became word shadows that obscured our vision somewhat.

Set in Vienna, post WWII, the sound was also flawlessly executed, with the brakes squeeling in the background at the perfect moment during the description of Harry's fatal accident and the use of music which was haunting and seemed to come from a single instrument.  This isn't Vienna, center of culture and art in the Renaissance, this is Vienna that is recovering from being bombed and is a picked over ghost of it's truer self.  The piles of bricks and rubble set the perfect stage for the events surrounding the post traumatic setting and relationships we find. 

I think it would be fair to say that Vienna (in this state) is the right city for Holly, Anna and the Third Man, all of whom are arguably bombed and shelled versions of their better selves.

I wonder how many amazing movie moments are basically lifted all but directly from this film? I was reminded of the scene from The Fugitive of Harrison Ford in the dam... and the final confrontation of DeNiro and Pacino in Heat. I didn't realize how much of an homage those things were paying to The Third Man, but now it seems obvious that these are deliberate nods.

A couple of other more random observations.  Like the contrast of light / darkness, the humor in this was all the more contrasted from the darker theme and feel and it seemed to supercharge the funnier moments.  More than that, the humor is also very carefully placed to reinforce the message of "things are not what they initially appear to be."

When Sergeant Paine hits Holly, knocking him down early on, then says, "Oh!  Be careful!" and then helps him up, being really nice about it, it is very much a Groucho moment and oddly perfect. More, it was communicating that there was real goodness and this wasn't just a simple case of police power run brutally amok.

They really brought the funny with the mysterious driver, waiting in the shadows to shanghai Holly into a vehicle then embarking on a death ride that has Holly shouting at the driver through the bars, "HAVE YOU BEEN HIRED TO KILL ME?!"  From the perspective of someone who did not see that coming, the film had me exactly where it wanted me for that scene and the reveal.  I haven't laughed that hard in months.

Wilkommen! 

The last random thought I had about form was the names of two of the primary characters, Holly Martins and Harry Lime. 

It might be overplaying it but the only thing I can think of that holly (as a plant) and limes have in common is that they are both green.  And our author is none other than Graham Greene.  It is very possible that this is just a coincidence, but given the humor present, I would like to believe that Greene is taking a poke at me from beyond the grave in a clever and amusing fashion.

The What:
This movie is about identity.  But genius of this level slips out of categorization pretty readily.  The closest I can come briefly, is that this is an exploration of the inexorable nature of will and acceptance, in how that relates to the shaping of identity.

It isn't a sense of fatalism, but rather the idea that once we decide, that choice becomes real and becomes central to a sense of self that is either impossible or devilishly difficult to change or deny.

I don't know Greene well enough to be be aware of his influences, but I was reminded of two great thinkers of the era previous to Greene that may have been in the background to some extent.

First would be Dostoevsky (though Anna may be a nod to Tolstoy instead), in that the character's behavior seem to stem from their central ideas chiefly.  Character becomes a specific type or a way of looking at the world.

So, as a few ham handed examples: Harry would be our amoral pragmatist, Holly our resident idealist who believes reason will lead to truth, the doctor is our positive scientific empiricist, Calloway is organized around justice, with the ends justifying the means and Anna is centrally focused by a love that is blinded to other circumstance. Taken together, they form a mosaic of possible ways to look at the world and those perspectives help drive the plot forward.

Second would be Charles Saunders Peirce, a mathematician and philosopher who did ground breaking work in the area of philosophy of language and semiotics. He specifically had a notion of Thirdness, that while not quoted directly, I just couldn't get away from, even while the movie was still running.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirdness

It's a bad summary, but Peircian Firstness would be a quality in metaphysical sense. Secondness would be a response or relational reference to the quality at hand and Thirdness would be a further expansion and reflection of the first two. As an overly simplistic example:

Firstness: thought (in the sense of possibility of thought)
Secondness: a specific actual idea someone is thinking
Thirdness: metacognition (thinking about the idea, or thought in general)

Peirce held that there couldn't be anything truly new or creative without Thirdness.  It's ironic that in the movie, it is Holly who is the catalytic Third and not Harry Lime.  Holly is the one who brings the extra outside perspective that leads to the mystery of the accidental death unraveling in full.

With Peirce as a filter, let me take a run at Anna, Holly and Harry, in that order.

First, up, Anna Schmidt.
Lovely, mysterious, with hints of a difficult past, it's easy to see how Holly would fall for her quickly.  Anna had a number of fantastic noiriffic quotes, but I think my favorite was:

A person doesn't change just because you find out more. ~Anna

Holy cats. Check please. So running Anna through the Pierce colander might look like this:

Firstness: love can be constant
Secondness: she chooses to love Harry (and eschew Holly) in spite of Harry's actions
Thirdness: love must be loyal at all costs, even after (in some sense) betrayal and death

In a move that would make Freud proud, Anna repeatedly calls Holly, “Harry” by mistake. The obvious chemistry between them leads us to believe (maybe even to hope) that they would eventually connect, and some part of Anna wants this as well it seems.  Her loyalty to Harry, misguided though it seems, keeps Holly at arm's length.

We don't get the final verdict until the very last scene where Anna keeps walking and never even looks at Holly (or the camera). As it was happening, I truly didn't know what she would do. Would she stop? Would they go off together? Would she look at him and sadly walk away?  When I saw it to completion, I'm not too proud to admit that goat noises were involved.  Wow.

I admit that what she finally ends up doing is perfect, but it's interesting to me that while I didn't see it coming,it was flawless in concept and execution.

Second, Holly Martins.
The jaunty, quirky stylings of the zither were a pitch perfect introduction to Holly.

I'd make comic faces... and stand on my head and grin at you between my legs... and tell all sorts of jokes. I wouldn't stand a chance, would I?  ~Holly

That would be a no, really big no nope nopers, you don't stand a chance. But it's encouraging that he still hopes that he does, even at the very end. For Holly, I would slap him with Pierce like so:

Firstness: a world of disappointment and death can still end well
Secondness: think clearly and pay attention, the clues will lead to truth and that will be good
Thirdness: the truth and even heroic action can still know real sorrow and loss

There is something noble in how much he loves his old friend and even the decision to betray him isn't unloving. Even the decision to ultimately kill him, wasn't borne in revenge or hatred. True, he doesn't “get himself a girl” but there is still the sense that he'll somehow be OK.

Third, Harry Lime.
This being set in the literal, actual rubble of WWII gives a horrible weight to Harry's speech about the unimportance of the individual.

Nobody thinks in terms of individuals. Governments don't. Why should we? ~Harry

Well, Boo Boo, you should, because if you don't millions of innocent people die and cities like Vienna get “bombed up a bit” and are reduced to rubble, causing problems for generations. But for Harry, this is a real question and his answer comes up differently.

Firstness: a world that gives us WWII isn't good or evil, it just is
Secondness: be practical then, Vienna in dire straits is a place to make some easy money
Thirdness: from the right distance, people are just “dots”, and if they die because of your actions, well, they would have died eventually anyway

One of the things that makes Harry interesting, is that in spite of his arguably evil philosophy, he is likeable. The grin when he was revealed was delicious. That he doesn't kill Holly on the Ferris Wheel humanizes him to some extent, and there is the sense that he wants Holly to help Anna escape to a better life. The last exchange, where he acknowledges Holly and seems to give him permission to do what he feels he must was sublime.

What I'm wondering is if Greene and Carole are using this film as Thirdness (or something like Thirdness) to get us to ask questions that are truly new, without dictating to us a prescribed answer. Wouldn't be cool if they could actually pull that off?

If The Third Man has a definition of virtue, I would say that Harry's approach to life and opportunity isn't the right way to go. But it also seems that Holly's approach and Anna's approach are flawed as well, paying a terribly high price for doing what they see to be right.

For my part, it seems right to watch this with a friend and talk about what it might mean over a tasty beverage afterwards.

For us, it was some freshly brewed tea.