count-less thoughts on The Third Man

It wasn't until about 8:45 a.m. this morning that I realized I had forgotten to do this. So it's not in on time and this sadly doesn't "count" (get it? count-less?), but after seeing The Third Man I really did have a lot to say. While Sunday's distractions -- the Super Bowl and the Puppy Bowl -- may have slowed me down, today's the day I put that all behind me and write.

In class on Thursday we threw around questions of 'who are we supposed to like?' and 'is Harry Lime a hero? an anti-hero?' The film might lead us to like Harry Lime, or to want to like Harry Lime, but once I stepped away from it and considered the way he views his fellow man -- as ants -- I had no trouble hating the guy. Or, at least, knowing that I should.

I am sure that Carol Reed and Graham Greene meant for us to feel conflicted after watching this. Based on the setting of the film in post-WWII Vienna, I have a feeling this internal conflict was meant to inspire us to ask: Who do we follow? And should we?

These questions have everything in common with speculation that arose following WWII. While this will always be debated, one could say the Nazis went along with Hitler's plan to wipe out the Jewish people not because they themselves were evil, but because Hitler was a convincing leader. The Germans were desperate for new leadership to bring them out of economic recession and Hitler put on a show, offering strong promises of recovery they had trouble saying no to. This could have been Reed and Greene's way of looking at it, and The Third Man seems to remind and warn of us the dangers of having our minds tricked. To give in to our instinct to root for Lime based on how he looks to us, and how his character works within our expectations, might be easy enough, but this is only a temporary conviction for most due to the menacing nature of Harry Lime's actions -- few crimes are worse than intentionally killing sick children to turn a profit.

The deceptive theatrics are not limited to Harry Lime. In the scene when the Russian sector villagers think Holly is a killer, they are lead by not only their convictions, but a screaming infant. He chases after Lime at a slow, doddling pace -- the others could easily have surpassed the infant but the filmmakers choose to let him lead the pack. I believe this is to stress the idea that people will follow the most unreasonable leader, even one with a child's mind, if he's loud enough.

The Third Man presents our senses with a puzzling story. Reed and Greene put us in the passenger seat with a few crazed drivers at the wheel. One driver, Lime, crashes the car out of his own recklessness and dies, and as survivors we can't stop asking ourselves why we ever got in the car with him in the first place. Reed and Greene challenge us to look past the theatrics and consider a man's actions before setting foot in his car. At the same time, they remind us just how big a challenge that can be.