Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by halfnote (A) on August 04, 2007 at 21:58:15

In Reply to: RE: The Third Man, Ordet and Rescue Dawn... posted by sjb on August 03, 2007 at 09:10:35

sEE IT!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Harry Lime, the achitypical, nihilistic amoralist, despite this great charm and sophistication, is chased into the sewers like the rat he really is. His writer friend, who comes to investigate his death, ironically, is the deliverer of it, an act in which the ideals of friendship and the greater one of human decency collide -- and yet, though the moral decency of the writer ultimately triumphs, the death blow is nonetheless one of friendship and sympathy. Even Lime, in the end, knows he does not deserve to live.

This brief sketch is just skating the surface of this mythic and haunting film -- which is not only notable for its superlative and engrossing screenplay, but which also contains some of the finest cinematic work in film history, not to mention an absolutely unforgetable soundtrack comprised of a single instrument, the zither.

It's a film you can see over and over again, which never fails to reveal some new facet of meaning and irony you didn't realize before.

The ending sequence is the most evocative and eloquent ever, period.

I ain't seen em all. But of all the ones I seen, this is one of the very, very best.