civex Blog

Under discussion:

The Third Man  (1949)

An excellent, depressing look at Vienna soon, too soon, after World War II, "The Third Man" was shot largely in that city and starred Joseph Cotton, Orson Welles, and some other major actors who don't really matter. This movie makes Orson Welles look better than any other movie I've seen him in, especially in his first shot in the movie.

The plot is that the occupation of Vienna by the major powers (Great Britain, US, France, and Soviet Union) leads to a black market. Our naive hero, Holly Martins (played by Cotton), comes to Vienna to see an old chum, only to find that his chum (Harry Lime) was killed in a traffic accident. Holly is just in time for the burial. Lime, it turns out, was selling fake penicillin, placing him on the most-wanted list of most of the police and MPs in town.

Director Carol Reed does an excellent job, and Orson Welles is very good as Lime. The city of Vienna has a starring roll as well, which it plays with admirable degradation.* Martins finds out that Lime was involved in the black market in a way that resulted in many deaths, especially among children. There are puzzling aspects about Lime's death (who was the third man at the accident scene, for example), and Martins, who should have left well enough alone and gone home, is involved in the investigation into Lime's chicanery and death and becomes involved with Lime's distraught surviving girlfriend. It's an excellent film that has recently been released in Hi Def on Blu-Ray DVD, which brings all the glory of its black and white shades of gray back from the blotchy blacks of VHS and standard definition. Reed achieved an admirable number of great shots in the film, and using black and white was genius. Vienna has never looked so glamorously demolished.

"The Third Man" has a great ending that book ends the beginning, leaving us no better off than we were. No, we're worse off. Sometimes we don't need to know what we wanted to know. Superb closing scene.

*If you liked "The Third Man," I recommend reading Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving, which has much of its action taking place in the same town at the same time and which is excellent. The novel is free at your public library. Also listen to Marelene Dietrich sing "Falling in Love Again" from "The Blue Angel." Although performed in the late Twenties, the refrain "I can't help it" sums up the theme of "The Third Man," and Dietrich vocalizes the dreary lostness of post-war Vienna. Look for Marlene on YouTube.

Under discussion:

Film Name  Production Year

Across the Universe  (2007)

Another star performance from Julie Taymor. It helps if you like the Beatles, since "Across the Universe" is a story connected by Beatles songs performed by the various actors, with cameos from the likes of Joe Cocker, Bono, and Eddie Izzard. Taymor is a fantastic director, and she gets fantastic performances from her cast and crew.

And then there's The Beatles. I've seen and heard their songs covered by artists for lo these 40 or 50 years, and it's amazing how much can be gotten from their words and music. Taymor and her performers wring The Beatles dry in several of the sets. Pairing a dead white Vietnam vet with a dead black Detroit ghetto kid with background vocals by a black choir was inspired. And Taymor gives us the best visualization of American foreign policy I've ever seen.

Not everything worked for me, but what didn't work for me may well work for you. It's over two hours, so be prepared for a break or two, but it never dragged for me. Taymor is inspired, and she got a cast and crew that was inspired as well. Great effects, great choreography, great lighting, great dancing. Be aware that the cast does not imitate The Beatles, they sing the songs within the context of what's going on in the movie. This leads to some interesting differences in what you thought the songs were about. And never fear: the songs stand up to it. The Beatles were that good.

Under discussion:

Film Name  Production Year

This is the best movie I've ever seen, ranking as one of my three all-time favorites.* Bogart and Bergman are pitch-perfect in their roles, Rains is debonair and corrupt, Veidt is snakely and villainous as he should be, and Henreid is forgettable, but who cares? We even get Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, along with S.Z. Sakall. Of course it was directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942 and released in 1943.

The typical movie is boy meets girls, boy loses girl, boy gets her back. In this version, Rick has already lost Ilsa, he gets her back, then he gives her up for the greater glory of France. Well, okay not France but for democracy and all that's decent. The dialogue is excellent with more memorable lines in each minute than most other movies generate in the whole show.

Sigh - they all come rushing back: "Round up the usual suspects!" "Oh, he's just like any other man, only more so." "'I came to Casablanca for the waters.' 'It's a desert - there are no waters.' 'I was misinformed.'" "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

The movie presents Rick as a cynical egoist, interested only in preserving himself. But we learn from his dossier that he's been involved with freedom fighters in several countries, then we learn of Ilsa. We decide that Rick is a cynic because she broke his heart, and he thinks he was a sap. Cynicism is a shell. Ilsa walks into his gin joint and back into his life, and Rick's shell thickens before our eyes. Of course, as the movie goes on, we see his shell melt away, and Rick emerges as the hero we knew was hidden deep inside all along. 

The dialogue is excellent, and so is the directing (Michael Curtiz). "Casablanca" is full of minor characters who add to the richness of the world Rick lives in, adding depth that his character hides. Through his interactions with them, their affection for him and his gruffness toward them, we see his cynicism for the shell it is. Inside that steel exterior beats a heart of concrete.

The ending is superb, melodramatic, and heartbreaking without being maudlin and tearjerking. Noble, but not overdone, maintaining the breeziness and snappy dialogue in the face of Nazi jackboots. (Okay, so jackboots don't have faces, but you get the point, see.)

Everything works. It all comes together and stays together throughout the whole movie.

*I call "Casablanca" a movie because it's a great romantic movie about a guy and a girl. I call "The Dresser" a film because it's about marvelous characters, and we get to watch their development during the film; "The Dresser" is art on a high level. "The Princess Bride" -- I dunno where it fits. It's just my favorite fantasy epic swashbuckler that rises so far above whatever genre it is that it doesn't fit anywhere.

FOR SOME REASON THERE'S A BUG IN SPOUT AND I CAN'T ASSOCIATE THIS REVIEW WITH THE MOVIE. I'VE MENTIONED IT A COUPLE OF TIMES IN THE BUG FORUM AND EMAILED ABOUT IT, BUT NOTHING HAS HAPPENED WITH REGARD TO GETTING THIS FIXED.