2017 Tarkovsky Prize 2nd Place: Timmy Rouede
Reed’s THE THIRD MAN by Timmy Rouede
2017 Tarkovsky Prize 2nd Place
Many people are more fearful of the things that are yet to happen. If a person were to see a frightening image of Nosferatu, with no knowledge of him before hand, fear and troubling thoughts would form from thinking of what the scary person in the picture is going to do. Carol Reed’s Noir thriller The Third Man utilizes this type of fear to drive the audience off tract as much as the films pessimistic characters are.
The Third Man follows American pulp western writer Holly Martins, as he tries to uncover mysteries surrounding the death of his friend, Harry Lime, and ends up learning more than he bargained for. Throughout this flytrap of a film, it is evident that the most alarming threats to us are the ones we can’t see coming, and that when things are taken out of context, mistakes are made. The film excels at catching the audience and its characters off-guard, a state which increases the dominion of menace.
The Third Man emphasizes the fact that malefactors are more dangerous towards the people who can’t see them coming. This is reflected by the fact that all of the characters killed in the film are killed while off-guard. While the Porter at Harry’s apartment building is busy telling Martins on the street below that he has more info on Harry’s “Death”, he realizes too late that someone off screen (likely Harry), is in the room with him, and the porter is murdered.
During the sewer chase, while Martins is trying to get Harry (who is in cover) to surrender, British sergeant Paine, who has not noticed Harry, goes to Martins, urging Martins to get to cover. While Paine is distracted and out in the open, Harry shoots and kills Paine. These unfortunate deaths show that people are in more danger when they don’t expect real danger to come their way, right away.
Other people who did not expect to be victims are the families Harry sells diluted penicillin to. Vienna has a low supply of penicillin at this time, making it very important and very valuable. When the families are stricken with meningitis and gangrene legs, any type of relief will do, even if it is from the black market. As British police major Calloway exclaims “The lucky children died and the unlucky ones went of their heads” after the children took the diluted penicillin. If the parents knew Harry thought (and said) people were better off dead, they would take their chances with the meningitis, or find a moral black marketeer. Unfortunately, they did not see the consequences, and wrongfully suffered.
With Harry’s tactics of staying in the shadows to take out his enemies and benefit his needs doing him good, it is no wonder that the same type of tactics help the police bring Harry down. With Martins as the bait at a rendezvous to meet Harry, and the police out of plain site, even when Harry’s lover, Anna, yells to warn Harry of the trap, the police still get closer to Harry than they ever were before. Immediately after Paine’s death, while Harry, who has not noticed Calloway, is running away, the camera shows Calloway literally coming out of the shadows and shooting Harry, incapacitating him. This shows that anyone can become a victim when their killer is veiled, even actual killers. However, the film shows that people are not only victims when distracted, but also void of logical thinking.
In the state of distraction, not knowing what is to come or what is happening makes people think quite irrationally. This is made most evident when the porter is found murdered. As the porter is carried away and dozens of passers-by are watching, a small boy notices Martins with Anna, who were planning on seeing the porter. Earlier, this boy saw Martins argue with the Porter. Since the boy does not understand English, and does not understand Martin’s role with the porter, he assumes the worst and urgently tells his father that Martins murdered the porter. Soon everyone in the crowd thinks Martins is guilty, as the camera pans on their faces, some concerned, some angered, but all focused. As Martins and Anna realize what is happening and run away, the little boy leads the group of villagers in the chase in a mob-like fashion. This sequence shows that in a scenario taken out of context, people will consider what they think is happening as factual evidence, even if others are put at risk. These types of people are so confident in their logic, that they are willing to be lead by anyone who thinks the same way. It is not the best way to think.
After Martins and Anna escape, Martins heads to his hotel to get a cab to take him to the police headquarters. Once Martins is in the cab, the cab begins driving quickly, and Martins begins thinking unreasonably. Martins is visibly in distress, begging the cab driver to slow down, and asks the driver whether he has orders to kill him. Martins is clearly thinking of the worst possible outcomes, likely thinking since the porter was killed, he may be next. It is not until they reach their destination, where a shocked Martins discovers he was being brought to a book club he was invited to. Martins was so focused on solving Harry’s “murder” that he forgot about the book club. His lack of preparedness is reflected more when he struggles to answer the attendees questions (Though It is likely that all of us would struggle to categorize the work of James Joyce).
Taking things out of context can cause, at best, unintended feelings, and at worst, attempted and/or successful murder. Martins faulty logic is on grand display at the films end. At Harry’s 2nd funeral, instead of following Calloway’s advice on being sensible and taking the last plane out of Vienna, Martins insist he “hasn’t got a sensible name” to him and waits for Anna. Matins thinks he may have formed a relationship with Anna in this whole affair, and that he can’t leave her. Realistically, thoughts of their future together are distracted, then murdered, as Anna walks right past Martins, not even acknowledging his existence. Maybe Martins should have remembered that Anna actively tried to help Harry escape, and proclaimed after Harry’s fake death that she would never love again. Maybe Martins was focused on other things. After Anna is finally out of frame, Martins casually smokes a cigarette, likely realizing he just doomed himself to stay in Vienna by thinking he could have a future with the lover of a man who killed children. The Third Man skillfully portrays how people perceive their dark thoughts as pure facts, with outcomes differing in severity.
In Martin’s quest for resolution in Vienna, he finds that the lack of observation makes victims, and the abundance of imagination makes bigots. These unsettling messages are the kinds that can be applied to practically anything and anyone, today. Never be unsuspecting in unforgiving environments (or die), think logically in chaotic scenarios (or doom your future), and don’t follow misguided logic (or look like an idiot and/or wrongfully kill someone). Today we live in a world where we are, at the very least, concerned for what’s to come. However, if we take a better look at the frightening image that is today, and think optimistically, I know we will likely make decisions better, than that of Lime and Martins.