Post by klep on Jun 26, 2017 6:40:18 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 6/26: The Third Man
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
Privilege is a concept that has entered the public consciousness in recent years, and if ever there was a character who exemplified it it's The Third Man's Holly Martins (Joe Cotten). After an opening monologue from an unseen narrator that sets the scene (including a morbid hint at the darkness to come), we meet our friend Holly - a broke writer arriving into Vienna hoping for a job from a friend named Harry Lime. Holly is shaken to find out his friend has just died, but when he learns the police suspected Harry of some pretty awful stuff, it gets his dander up.
What follows is one of the purest expressions of white, male, and perhaps uniquely American privilege you'll ever see. Holly is an idiot with no idea what he's doing , yet he has supreme confidence in his own abilities and lumbers around like a bull in a china shop. He interferes with a police investigation, recklessly casts himself into danger, gets a man killed with his carelessness, utterly fails to hold the floor at a lecture he agrees to hold, and believes he has a real shot with a woman who just lost the man she loved (Harry Lime's girlfriend Anna Schmidt, played by Alida Valli). He does this all while thinking that he's the brightest guy in the room and he's going to get it all sorted and you'll find out Harry was innocent the whole time.
But he's an idiot. And he's wrong. And Harry is guilty and Anna doesn't have any interest in him and he does get someone killed and can't talk about literature and is in just about every way a failure. But he doesn't and never really does get that. Even at the end, after he's been confronted with all of his idiocy, he's still waiting for Anna to respond to him.
I know the first time I watched The Third Man I appreciated it more or less on a surface level - the brilliance of its performances, its twists, and of Carol Reed's direction. The next time I saw more deeply the statement it was making about the state of Europe after the war - and the coded gay couple of Kurtz and Winkle. And another time I saw what I wrote about today. One of the signs of a great film - or indeed any great work of art - is its ability to reveal multiple truths to you at different times; to last through the years and continue to inspire your thinking in new ways. The Third Man may be a devilishly fun noir, but it's also one of the best examples of the medium, and its empathy is boundless.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/3: Raiders of the Lost Ark
CHASE WEEK!
For Chase Week our Movie of the Week will be one of the contenders for the title of Best Action-Adventure Film in all of film history. Join us next week for a perfect blend of Lucas & Spielberg magic with Raiders of the Lost Ark, available for rent on Amazon Video and free with Amazon Prime.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/27: The Thing
John Carpenter's The Thing is pairing off with the new It Comes At Night for next week's Next Picture Show podcast. We'll have a thread for it on Wednesday. The Thing is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
Privilege is a concept that has entered the public consciousness in recent years, and if ever there was a character who exemplified it it's The Third Man's Holly Martins (Joe Cotten). After an opening monologue from an unseen narrator that sets the scene (including a morbid hint at the darkness to come), we meet our friend Holly - a broke writer arriving into Vienna hoping for a job from a friend named Harry Lime. Holly is shaken to find out his friend has just died, but when he learns the police suspected Harry of some pretty awful stuff, it gets his dander up.
What follows is one of the purest expressions of white, male, and perhaps uniquely American privilege you'll ever see. Holly is an idiot with no idea what he's doing , yet he has supreme confidence in his own abilities and lumbers around like a bull in a china shop. He interferes with a police investigation, recklessly casts himself into danger, gets a man killed with his carelessness, utterly fails to hold the floor at a lecture he agrees to hold, and believes he has a real shot with a woman who just lost the man she loved (Harry Lime's girlfriend Anna Schmidt, played by Alida Valli). He does this all while thinking that he's the brightest guy in the room and he's going to get it all sorted and you'll find out Harry was innocent the whole time.
But he's an idiot. And he's wrong. And Harry is guilty and Anna doesn't have any interest in him and he does get someone killed and can't talk about literature and is in just about every way a failure. But he doesn't and never really does get that. Even at the end, after he's been confronted with all of his idiocy, he's still waiting for Anna to respond to him.
I know the first time I watched The Third Man I appreciated it more or less on a surface level - the brilliance of its performances, its twists, and of Carol Reed's direction. The next time I saw more deeply the statement it was making about the state of Europe after the war - and the coded gay couple of Kurtz and Winkle. And another time I saw what I wrote about today. One of the signs of a great film - or indeed any great work of art - is its ability to reveal multiple truths to you at different times; to last through the years and continue to inspire your thinking in new ways. The Third Man may be a devilishly fun noir, but it's also one of the best examples of the medium, and its empathy is boundless.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 7/3: Raiders of the Lost Ark
CHASE WEEK!
For Chase Week our Movie of the Week will be one of the contenders for the title of Best Action-Adventure Film in all of film history. Join us next week for a perfect blend of Lucas & Spielberg magic with Raiders of the Lost Ark, available for rent on Amazon Video and free with Amazon Prime.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 6/27: The Thing
John Carpenter's The Thing is pairing off with the new It Comes At Night for next week's Next Picture Show podcast. We'll have a thread for it on Wednesday. The Thing is available for rent on Amazon Video, though it is not free for Prime members.