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Top Critics (14)
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Fresh (69)
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DVD (28)
It transformed the way I looked at the world.
Welles gives Harry a mask of irony that turns all moral judgment back on itself. He turns a mass murderer into a wry rogue, and makes his villainy all the more horrifying because we rather like him.
Seen today, The Third Man ... can be appreciated as a prophetic statement on the eventual moral bankruptcy of the one-world euphoria that clouded men's minds immediately after the second 'war to end all wars.'
Top credit must go to Mr. Reed for molding all possible elements into a thriller of superconsequence.
For lovers of film noir, The Third Man is unquestionably a must-see -- one of the masterpieces of a genre that has contained everything from milestone motion pictures to low-budget potboilers.
The Third Man is like the exhausted aftermath of Casablanca.
As powerful and original now as it was in 1949.
One of British cinema's most enduring and atmospheric thrillers. A genuine and endlessly rewatchable classic.
An already near-essential DVD release of an essential noir, updated for the high-def age.
Directors like Reed and Wilder created an environment of spatial and moral confusion in which their pulpy narratives could take on the ethical weight of a Biblical proverb.
Greene's story and screenplay, which he accurately described as "a comic thriller," is a gift that keeps on giving, with patter that's never less than brilliant. [Criterion Blu-ray]
If The Third Man is a tragedy, it isn't just the tragedy of a hobbled city, scribbled with ruins and parsed into zones of occupation that can't communicate and don't cooperate.
As you watch the film, you feel as though the screen is tilted higher, glowering over you as you wince in its devastating presence, which is probably how Martins felt scurrying through the Vienna darkness.
...a model of shrewd plotting and subtle characterization. The dead soul of an amoral man stands in for a cynical attitude that spread like a plague after World War II.
one of the most influential films in Western cinema, its shadow ultimately looming larger than any one of its individual collaborators
It's a suspense-thriller-romance steeped in Hollywood's best influences and 'gimmicks,' yet it's crafted with enough looming European 'art-house' style to topple Fritz Lang into an existential funk.
... one of the most beloved of movies of all time, a crisp, clever, witty, yet serious international thriller, with a dramatic ambiguity and a satirical edge.
It isn't hard to see why so many people love the film; it has the right stars, setting, mystery, atmosphere, humor, and music to set it apart.
An iconic film noir that's still fresh despite being familiar.
An undisputed masterpiece, this movie captures the mood of Vienna in post-WWII like no other, and is also a testimony to film as a collaborative art, benefiting from Greene's writing, Reed's direction, and stellar cast with Orson Welles at his scariest
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