Great movie, horrible music!
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romefan123 — 11 years ago(February 20, 2015 09:23 AM)
Evidently he wrote that before
Assassination of Jesse James
. Or even
Memento
. Listen to those scoresthat's how you do it.
Found the music quirky and harsh at timesunbearable at other times. Does nothing to add to this story. In fact, it takes away from it. Could have maybe been a highlight of one scene, perhapsthat would have been a reasonable compromise.
"You know it" Snake Karate Kid III -
karnevilelp — 11 years ago(March 16, 2015 12:16 AM)
The music in a movie is a very important aspect for me, I totally agree with this:
Found the music quirky and harsh at timesunbearable at other times. Does nothing to add to this story. In fact, it takes away from it. Could have maybe been a highlight of one scene, perhapsthat would have been a reasonable compromise. -
degree7 — 10 years ago(May 12, 2015 02:07 AM)
The music was brilliant.
It adds to the eastern european mystique of post-war Vienna. In fact, the music and the film were made for each other. A bit like "tubular bells" and "The Exorcist."
~ That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras. -
Jamesir_Bensonmum — 11 years ago(March 22, 2015 05:29 PM)
The zither music fits the intended mood of the film which is leaning toward the absurd.
Sure, the film has all of the trappings on a tense noir post-war drama, but part of the film's brilliance is that it was NOT those things (at least not for the most part) it only looked like that. People who expect this film to be a classic-style noir drama are either disappointed when it isn't, or (more frequently) totally miss the fact that it isn't.
If they miss that fact, and saw the film was supposed to be a noir drama, then they missed the best aspects of it,and probably were again disappointed.
The film's quirkiness is not only embodied by the seemingly out-of-place zither music, but also by the main characters, who seem to have the opposite personalities than they are "supposed" to have (if this was truly a dark noir drama)
Holly Martins is "supposed" to be the heroic protagonist, but he is actually a sand-sack loser of a man, and a lot more dim-witted than he thinks he is. Harry lime as the "antagonist villain" is actually a charming and likable chap. He's the kind of guy you'd like to have a few beers with and smoke cigars with well, except for the fact that he (for all intents and purposes) murdered innocent sick children with his watered-down penicillin.
Sad-sack Holly went through the film with a swagger as if he was one of the heroes from the poorly-written dime store novels that he writes, but that was all a false swagger, which came to a head when he fully assumed he was "going to get the girl", probably like the heroes in his books, but was ever-so-wrong about that.
The music fits that mood very, very well. -
jzc008 — 10 years ago(July 06, 2015 02:59 PM)
Music is very subjective and all genres have their devotees and people who dislike particular ones. Personally I think the music in the Third Man works very well and I quite like it. I'm not sure that I would listen to it on its own without the movie playing like I can with other movie themes though.
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nedeljkodjukic88 — 10 years ago(July 23, 2015 10:48 AM)
Music was terrific to me. Loved it!
It's a matter of taste, but generally people really enjoyed this score and it's one of the reasons this film is considered one of the best ever made. From Wiki:
"The Third Man Theme" topped the international music charts in 1950, bringing the then-unknown performer international fame. -
Magnus Wersen — 10 years ago(July 29, 2015 08:33 AM)
If Karas had bothered to write maybe a secondary theme the score wouldn't be as hard to swallow. But as it is, it's the most repetitive thing I've ever heard and to me it ruins the whole movie despite how popular the theme was in the 50's.
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Mayesgwtw39 — 10 years ago(August 10, 2015 06:25 PM)
The zither music in this film has the insidious quality of being jolly until it is evil.
And it's as identifiable to Austria and Bavaria as the steel guitar is to Nashville.
It's use serves purpose and is brilliant in conveying the forced joviality of Viennese charm that was hiding deception and fear in post-war Austria.
The frenetic turns that the music takes, sound as wound up as the undercurrent of taut suspense in the film.
You don't have to start buying zither music, but as the film goes, go with it and appreciate what it's doing and how well it fits. -
leadingrole344 — 10 years ago(February 23, 2016 11:45 PM)
The ancient Romans had a proverb, "De gustibus non est disputandem," i.e., "There's no arguing over taste." Someone who loves Wagner might despise Stravinsky, and vice-versa, but there's no point disputing who's right or wr ong. HOWEVER, the vast majority of people who know film scores have pointed to this one as being among the most creative and brilliantly evocative in the history of cinema, all accomplished with one table-held instrument. I'm in their camp.
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laserfan — 10 years ago(March 13, 2016 01:30 PM)
After a while, I was (mostly) able to tune the "music" out, since it was so very repetitive, but I found it to be mostly hideous, out-of-place, and quite appalling.
Watched it for the first time last night on PBS (horrible print) and enjoyed it, obviously (or I wouldn't be here). It seems the film has been restored; I was hoping the restoration would ditch the crappy "soundtrack" (can a single tune be called a "soundtrack"?).
Cotton was suitably clueless, Valli achingly beautiful, Welles perfectly charming and creepy at the same time, and it was nice to see Trevor Howard and Bernard Lee in their early days!
Karas was no-doubt well-loved in Vienna, but it's clear from his listing here he got no other meaningful work from this Third Man effort.