The novelist E.M. Forster wrote “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” What does The Third Man have to say about betraying one’s friend? Is the betrayal of a friend always inexcusable? Are there more important loyalties – to one’s country? One’s family? One’s religion? Etc. 

Anna and Holly have very different responses to Harry Lime’s crimes. How do you account for their different reactions? Why does Anna choose not to leave Vienna? Why does she choose not to benefit from the capture of Harry? What do we know about Anna’s life during the war? What do we know about Holly’s? Do their different experiences of the war affect their responses to Harry? 
What do you make of the film’s final shot?
Why does Holly write Westerns? Will he continue to write Westerns after his time in Vienna? 
Critics have often said that the city of Vienna is a character in The Third Man. How is the city used as not only a setting but as a character? 
Although Orson Welles is on screen for very little of the film, he is often remembered as the star of The Third Man. Is Harry Lime an attractive character? Are his arguments defending his criminal behavior compelling? Repellent? Understandable? Does Harry love Anna? During the chase through the sewers, are we rooting for Harry? Do we want him to escape the police? 
Why is the scene in the hospital filmed the way it is? 
Katie reminded us of the important differences between proximity and distance when making ethical decisions. How does The Third Man address these differences? 
Does The Third Man make you reconsider your response to the Sandusky scandal?
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16 Responses to The Third Man: Questions for Reflection

  1. KATHERINE ELIZABETH MURT says:

    I would like to further address the idea of proximity and distance in regards to this film. Firstly, that Forster quote is really provocative, and has had me thinking for a while. In thinking of proximity, I really liked how the film showed the betraying of a friend before and after you have seen them…the film really did this by only showing one side. Holly immediately contacts authorities after seeing Harry in the doorway…this was shocking to me. If I had to betray a friend, I certainly couldn’t do so after looking them in the eye. The same can be said about proximity to violence or poverty…they are much harder to continue to ignore when they are staring you in the face.

    I really enjoy that Lisa selected this film to parallel the events that happened on campus, especially to highlight the Sandusky and Paterno dynamic. Lisa was my professor at the time the scandal broke. The Forster quote in conjunction with this film makes the task of introspection really, really hard. I cannot say what I would do when asked to betray a friend. I would like to hope that I wouldn’t. But I cannot say for sure, and hope to never have to. This film forces you to ask these questions. And if you think about it, when Holly kills Harry and it is something that Harry wants, did Holly really betray him, or has he performed the most selfless act of friendship?

    This film is so many more questions than it is answers. I feel perturbed now thinking about it, moreso than I did when I first saw it. And that is probably a good thing, right? The best films are the ones that impact us long after leaving the theatre.

  2. GWEN K FRIES says:

    The novelist E.M. Forster wrote “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” That quote makes me sick. Nothing should come above love of country. Not one thing. There’s an anecdote that Ronald Reagan was admonishing his son Ron for refusing the services of the Secret Service. “What would happen if one of America’s enemies kidnapped you and held you for ransom? What would I do if I had to pick between you and America? I would have to pick America, Ron.” Though I’m not the Leader of the Free World, I would pick America over anyone or anything as well. If I found out my own mother had betrayed our nation in some way, I would be turning her in. (Luckily I would never have to do that because my mother is the human incarnation of Sam the American Eagle from the Muppets.) My country, its honor, its pride, its people and their past, present and future sacrifices–nothing could possibly be worth more. Nothing could mean more.

    If a friend has done something amoral or unjust, they no longer deserve to call themselves our friend. I don’t mean that if they lie, tell one of your secrets, or get drunk and puke on your favorite pair of shoes, they should lose your friendship. I mean that if their true character is revealed, and they become altogether alien to you, you don’t have to forever remain loyal because you once called them friend. Forgive whenever you can, but one must know when wrong is wrong, and one must surround oneself with only good and positive people.

    Anna and Holly react to Harry Lime’s crimes very, very differently. Holly, after a moment of doubt, is seeing things very clearly. He knows his friend has done wrong. He knows it’s very wrong, and refuses to let emotions get in his way. Just as westerns are black and white, Holly’s perception of right and wrong is clear. My dad, a great fan of westerns, made me sit down and watch one with him every single Saturday. I think when I’m old and my dad is gone, I’ll remember and cherish sitting on his lap after our Cheerios to meet up with our old friend John Wayne the most. My dad, though undoubtedly the most forgiving man I’ve ever known, sees life in black and white. There’s always the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do. He can forgive you if you choose to be the man in the black hat, but he never loses sight of what the men in white are doing. The law is reason without passion.
    The reason Anna reacts so differently is because she’s in love with Harry. “We are all fools in love,” says Jane Austen, and I tend to agree (to a certain extent.) I had a boyfriend I was absolutely crazy about. He was gorgeous and tall and muscular and sweet and devoted and…a pot smoker?! We were getting pretty serious, so he decided he needed to tell me that he had smoked pot in the past. He just wanted to make sure that there were no secrets on either side. I was dumbfounded and a little upset, but I quickly said, “That’s not a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. As long as you know it was wrong, that’s fine.” He looked at me with those hazel eyes and said, “But the thing is…I don’t think it was a mistake. It’s fine.” I cocked my head. “Scott, it’s against the law.” “So what?” “So what?! So what?! Scott! It’s the law. It’s everything that defines who we are as a people. It organizes and keeps society intact. It’s the very core of who we are as Americans. Agree or not, you follow the law. If it’s that bad, you change it. You never break it.” “I don’t think so. It’s just a bunch of rules. Who even cares?” Well, apparently I did because I ended it then and there. But I have a friend who is verbally abused by her boyfriend at every turn. He’s a drunk, stupid, and controlling. She has to text him and ask permission before we’re allowed to go shopping downtown, and he currently lives 80 miles away. I’m very sure that if he were to break the law, even if it hurt tons of people, she would remain hopelessly devoted to him. She’s absolutely beautiful, intelligent, and funny. She has a plethora of men after her, but in her eyes, he can do no wrong. I thought of her the entire time they showed Anna throughout this movie.

    Though Orson Welles was only on a screen for a short time, his is honestly the only face I can picture. He has such a commanding presence on the screen and such a peculiar face that he’s impossible to forget. Harry Lime himself is despicable. I think if you look at his arguments in perspective through the lenses of someone who had suffered bombing throughout World War II, you could almost see how he would no longer believe in the sanctity of life. That does not, however pardon his actions. Two wrongs don’t make a right, as they say. He in no way loves Anna. Not in the slightest. He is incapable of loving anything but himself. It’s sad really. She is hopelessly devoted to him, and he’d throw her under the bus whenever the opportunity presented itself. The chase through the sewers was incredibly long. I was desperate to run through the screen and into the sewers, pull a gun from someone and finish the deed myself. I did not want him to escape the police. He was hurt by the countries the policemen represent. I understand that, but those countries (except perhaps Russia…) were trying to mend what they broke out of necessity. Again, I will always see the United States as the good guys. It’s black and white, really.

    My response to the Sandusky scandal would correspond more to my reaction and impatience with the sewer scene rather than the relationship between Holly and Harry. I had absolutely no idea who Jerry Sandusky was until the scandal. I’ve never watched a Penn State football game in my entire life. I knew who Joe Paterno was, and that was it. I really felt no attachment to anyone involved in the scandal from Penn State’s side. I grieve for what the victims and their families had to go through, but that was my only involvement. I just want it to all be over now.

  3. KAITLYN ANITA SPANGLER says:

    I found the discussion after the film for this movie to be a bit mentally frustrating. In discussing betrayal and loyalty to friends and moral causes, it is clear that the responses will be circuitous. Yet, I realized that I am still very conflicted on where I personally stand on the matter. Holly and Lime were clearly best friends, more than the time of friends who share drinks with each other occasionally and talk about their days. These two men would go months without seeing each other, and when it was time for them to meet again, it was as if time had stopped. This friendship beyond distance and convenience is one that stands a true testament. The film begins with Holly rushing through his travels to get to Lime because he was so excited; we instantly see the connection between the two. When Holly finds out Lime has died, we can almost feel the pain with him, in how life can be so shocking and cruel sometimes that there are no emotions to cover it. Disbelief, doubt, and uncertainty are our initial reactions. Then, as the film progresses, and Lime is, in fact, not dead, Holly’s reaction was surprising and unpredictable: he gets the cops. This instantaneous betrayal may seem shocking, but as I turned it over in my head, I began to construct an explanation. Holly and Lime had established a relationship in which they had stopped caring about the other’s opinions. Acquaintances and recent friends still spend a bit of time thinking about how their actions will affect the other person and what they will think. Yet, when it comes to close friends and family, it seems that this apprehension fades away. Reactions are more instinctive and impassioned, not tied down by concerns of how their reaction will cause a negative effect or not because it is subconsciously assumed that when all is said and done, they will be forgiven because of how strong the bond is. This is one of the only ways that I could begin to try to understand Holly’s immediate decision and ultimate choice to kill him, that their friendship exceeded words; it ran through the mind to the point that their thoughts and motives were intertwined. They had understood each other beyond short-term situations and feelings, but rather long-term implications. This is why Holly shot Lime, because in his eyes and head, Lime had lost himself and his dignity, which was not how either of them wanted him to live. In relation to the Sandusky Scandal, I can really only comment on how I think some of the controversy, ethical dilemmas, and moral qualms stem from the fact that neither of these officials were as close of friends or family as Holly and Lime. Their actions and decisions had to appease so many more people than each other, meaning Paterno, Sandusky, Spanier, and Curley, that they were blindsided by public approval rather than moral clarity.

  4. KAITLYN ANITA SPANGLER says:

    I found the discussion after the film for this movie to be a bit mentally frustrating. In discussing betrayal and loyalty to friends and moral causes, it is clear that the responses will be circuitous. Yet, I realized that I am still very conflicted on where I personally stand on the matter. Holly and Lime were clearly best friends, more than the time of friends who share drinks with each other occasionally and talk about their days. These two men would go months without seeing each other, and when it was time for them to meet again, it was as if time had stopped. This friendship beyond distance and convenience is one that stands a true testament. The film begins with Holly rushing through his travels to get to Lime because he was so excited; we instantly see the connection between the two. When Holly finds out Lime has died, we can almost feel the pain with him, in how life can be so shocking and cruel sometimes that there are no emotions to cover it. Disbelief, doubt, and uncertainty are our initial reactions. Then, as the film progresses, and Lime is, in fact, not dead, Holly’s reaction was surprising and unpredictable: he gets the cops. This instantaneous betrayal may seem shocking, but as I turned it over in my head, I began to construct an explanation. Holly and Lime had established a relationship in which they had stopped caring about the other’s opinions. Acquaintances and recent friends still spend a bit of time thinking about how their actions will affect the other person and what they will think. Yet, when it comes to close friends and family, it seems that this apprehension fades away. Reactions are more instinctive and impassioned, not tied down by concerns of how their reaction will cause a negative effect or not because it is subconsciously assumed that when all is said and done, they will be forgiven because of how strong the bond is. This is one of the only ways that I could begin to try to understand Holly’s immediate decision and ultimate choice to kill him, that their friendship exceeded words; it ran through the mind to the point that their thoughts and motives were intertwined. They had understood each other beyond short-term situations and feelings, but rather long-term implications. This is why Holly shot Lime, because in his eyes and head, Lime had lost himself and his dignity, which was not how either of them wanted him to live. In relation to the Sandusky Scandal, I can really only comment on how I think some of the controversy, ethical dilemmas, and moral qualms stem from the fact that neither of these officials were as close of friends or family as Holly and Lime. Their actions and decisions had to appease so many more people than each other, meaning Paterno, Sandusky, Spanier, and Curley, that they were blindsided by public approval rather than moral clarity.

  5. BENJAMIN FRANCIS PURTELL says:

    The Third man was probably my favorite movie that we watched this year, and the ethical dilemma from the movie was probably the one that the common man would be most likely to face in life. The question of what to do when our best friend does something bad is one that is almost impossible to answer. Of course, it is unlike that any of our best friends will ever do something as bad as this, but almost all of us will strongly disagree with a decision that a best friend makes, and we will have to weigh the consequences of our reaction to their actions. I like the quote about if having to choose between betraying our country and betraying our friend that we should betray the friend. I think that this is a true statement, for if a friend does something as horrifying as Harry did than how good of a friend was he in the first place. He may have still been a good friend, but was he the friend you thought you had? The bottom line is that no matter how well you think you know someone, events in their life can change them and no matter what your past is with them sometimes they need to be put in their place even if it means losing a friend, its for the greater good. In the end the right decision was made, even though it was the hard desicion, the easy decision would have been to cut all ties he had and let the police work it out, but after the hospital scene the moral pull was to strong and he knew that Harry had to be stopped.

  6. ANDREW JOSEPH BELLWOAR says:

    Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles, is an extremely interesting and attractive character. This, I believe, stems from his confidence. He knows exactly what he wants, he knows exactly how to go about getting in it, and he has absolute confidence that what he does is permissible, if not necessarily correct. He is the cool guy who would do things you knew were wrong, but you went along with him because he had the bravado and confidence to think, without a doubt, that he wouldn’t be caught. This, I believe, is exactly how Holly got swept up with him in the first place. Small things, just things that wouldn’t get them in too much trouble anyway, would attract Holly into the relationship. Eventually, they drifted apart as people are wont to do, and in that time Harry has changed.
    While his character is still mainly the same, the alpha male brimming with self-assuredness, his heart has apparently grown harder over the past couple years since Holly has seen him last. He now is engaged in phony penicillin trafficking, something that actually puts real lives in danger. This is something, I believe, that Holly would not have agreed to in their former years. He is visibly upset when he finds out what Harry has been doing, illustrated very well in the scene with the Ferris wheel. The tiny people below are, to Holly, still people; to Harry, though, they are just numbers, figures that can be manipulated and taken advantage of to turn a profit. It is this cold-blooded, Machiavellian mindset that makes Harry’s character a dislikable one. He does still have a gravity about him, evidenced by his ability to draw in Holly and Anna and, furthermore, to make them seriously consider turning him over to the cops in spite of his illegal activities. Still, the activities are illegal, and I think we are able to see that better than the characters as audience members.
    This movie has a good message, one that makes us consider what it means to be a friend. Still, I think more could have been done with it. As prompted, Harry is absent for the majority of the film. We hear about who the characters in the movie interpret him to be, but we don’t build anything close to a relationship with him. The audience knows what his flaws are even before we meet him, making it much harder to like him. If we were given more time to get to know him, more time to set ourselves in the conflicted position of the characters, then it would make it much harder for us to say that we would turn Harry over to the cops right away. This would be a very difficult thing to do, but I believe the movie could have done more with it to further drive home the point that friendship complicates loyalties to incredible degrees.

  7. Natalie Masters says:

    The final scene of the Third Man has a large impact on the entire film. The shot is repeated almost identically from the earlier scene in the movie when Harry Lime was supposed to have died. As Anna walks by Holly without even acknowledging him shows us she wants to completely shut any memory of Harry out of her life. She is ready to move on disassociate herself with anything to do with Harry and Holly. This is a recent breakthrough because right before Harry’s death she visits Holly in the coffee shop to try and break up the plot to corner Harry. Harry’s final death is liberating for Anna.

    The use of shadows was repeated very often throughout the film. This was very appropriate for of the film because Vienna was emerging from the dark days of bombing after WW1. The overwhelming presence of post bombing ruins represents the still present danger for many individuals in Vienne. The film details Anna’s newly found struggle against the law enforcement to protect her true country of origin.

    In class I pointed out that Holly could not really be considered to be betraying a friend because of how Harry and Holly’s friendship had transitioned. As viewers we are unfamiliar with Harry and Holly’s past friendship, but can assume they were very close. The viewers join the scene as Holly is coming to join work in Vienna on Harry’s request. He does not know that the work results in making a large profit by selling sick people diluted penicillin worsening their conditions. Ultimately, if Harry was a good friend he would not have asked Holly to participate in a job that is based on lying and ultimately hurting people. Additionally if Harry was truly Holly’s friend he would not have left him some type of indication that he was in trouble and would not be able to help him. After Harry almost threatening Holly on the Ferris wheel, I doubt that Holly felt as if he was betraying a friend. He even tried to get out being the trap for his friend but the captain shows him the damage that the faulty penicillin has caused. The hospital scene is the inciting incident that changed Holly’s mind. He was so close to the problems that Harry caused. The children and people were no longer little dots in the large world of many, many dots. He saw their faces and pain, not a greedy money scheme.

  8. Natalie Masters says:

    The final scene of the Third Man has a large impact on the entire film. The shot is repeated almost identically from the earlier scene in the movie when Harry Lime was supposed to have died. As Anna walks by Holly without even acknowledging him shows us she wants to completely shut any memory of Harry out of her life. She is ready to move on disassociate herself with anything to do with Harry and Holly. This is a recent breakthrough because right before Harry’s death she visits Holly in the coffee shop to try and break up the plot to corner Harry. Harry’s final death is liberating for Anna.

    The use of shadows was repeated very often throughout the film. This was very appropriate for of the film because Vienna was emerging from the dark days of bombing after WW1. The overwhelming presence of post bombing ruins represents the still present danger for many individuals in Vienne. The film details Anna’s newly found struggle against the law enforcement to protect her true country of origin.

    In class I pointed out that Holly could not really be considered to be betraying a friend because of how Harry and Holly’s friendship had transitioned. As viewers we are unfamiliar with Harry and Holly’s past friendship, but can assume they were very close. The viewers join the scene as Holly is coming to join work in Vienna on Harry’s request. He does not know that the work results in making a large profit by selling sick people diluted penicillin worsening their conditions. Ultimately, if Harry was a good friend he would not have asked Holly to participate in a job that is based on lying and ultimately hurting people. Additionally if Harry was truly Holly’s friend he would not have left him some type of indication that he was in trouble and would not be able to help him. After Harry almost threatening Holly on the Ferris wheel, I doubt that Holly felt as if he was betraying a friend. He even tried to get out being the trap for his friend but the captain shows him the damage that the faulty penicillin has caused. The hospital scene is the inciting incident that changed Holly’s mind. He was so close to the problems that Harry caused. The children and people were no longer little dots in the large world of many, many dots. He saw their faces and pain, not a greedy money scheme.

  9. TAYLOR MARIE MCCARTY says:

    A major theme of The Third Man is betrayal, and questions are raised as to whether or not Holly betrayed Lime. With that being said, I do think that Holly betrayed Lime but I also think that Lime betrayed Holly so blame should not be placed on one particular individual. Because Lime led Harry to believe that he was dead, causing Holly to not only mourn the death of a friend but also become obsessed with investigating, I would say that Lime betrayed Holly. When Holly fires the shot that kills Lime in the end of the film, this can certainly be interpreted as betrayal, but I would argue that by this point in the film, Holly and Lime are no longer friends. The final scene in which Holly attempts to talk to Anna also suggests that Anna feels betrayed by Holly. Anna and Holly have very different reactions to Lime’s crimes, but this is because they also had very different relationships with Lime. Anna loved Lime, and despite the terrible crimes he committed, so couldn’t look past that. For Holly, these things first seemed unconceivable, but after Lime threatens Holly in the ferris wheel, their relationship changes and Holly sees Lime for the criminal that he is. Orson Welles as Lime certainly steals the show, even for being on screen for a minimal amount of time. The mystery of his character before he even appears on screen builds an anticipation during the entire film. When Lime is involved in the film directly, his attitude and rhetoric draw characters in, leaving many confused as to who they should “root” for.

  10. NATHANIEL JAMES HOLLISTER says:

    Overall, this film was not my favorite of the ones that we have watched as a part of this semester, but it was more bearable that Two for the Road, so I know that it could have been worse… I think that the point that this movie is trying to make is that every “right thing” is the wrong thing for someone else. In other words, “doing the right thing” always comes at a price. For example, in this film, the presumable “right thing” to do in Holly’s situation would be to turn in his friend Harry to the police for all of the crimes that he has committed. However, if Holly were to decide to actually do this in the film, the cost would be two-fold. First and obviously, Harry would lose his freedom, a cost for another person. And second, Holly would be losing and betraying his best friend, a personal cost. It is this balance that Holly struggles with throughout the film and is what I believe to be the personal struggle at the heart of every ethical dilemma.

    Finally, I think that the final scene, where Holly has the driver stop the car and Anna walks by, was probably the most interesting of them all. This scene really teases the viewer and tricks him or her into thinking that Holly is waiting for Anna to catch up to him, but that’s not really the purpose at all. Actually, we never really learn or understand what the purpose of that is, which I am actually just realizing now. So, really, why did he have the driver stop the car to let him out? Was there some deeper meaning to this? I mean I sort of see the juxtaposition of proximity and distance here, but then what is supposed to have happened? I think that much of this film went over my head, which is probably why I didn’t like it very much.

  11. JAKE ANTHONY PELINI says:

    While this was not my favorite movie of the semester, I think its themes require the most consideration. Is turning in a friend after he commits a horrible crime moral, or is it betrayal? Regardless, it certainly would never be easy. But what do you do? Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” probes these questions. Ultimately, it encourages the viewer to reevaluate his character and priorities. And so, after considering the idea, I asked two of my friends what they would do.

    For me, I hope I would follow Holly’s path. It is not wrong to turn into someone who commits a crime, nor is it betrayal. I personally believe that, when someone who claims to be a “true” friend puts you in that situation, he has betrayed you. He clearly knows the implications of what he has done, and I think it would be wrong for you to ignore the problem. I don’t mean to say that I’m so moral that I’m above breaking the law to save a friend; I just couldn’t see myself covering up for a crime. However, my friends had different views.

    My roommate said it depends on your priorities. First should be family, and out of all who should demand your loyalty should be friends. He said he wouldn’t necessarily turn in someone close to him. However, he likely would make the person do a sort of penance, and he certainly would not just let it go. My second friend said he could never turn in a friend. In fact, he went so far as to say he would do all he could to “help cover it up.”

    Now it is not my place to judge, nor can I be positive about what I actually would do if put into that situation. But it makes me sympathize with all the characters in the film. It puts you at a moral crossroads. Holly proves this: at first, he was more than ready to turn in Harry, but, in the end, he killed Harry out of what appeared to be mercy. It also sheds a different light to real world circumstances. Can you say for sure what you would do if someone close to you did something unspeakable? I don’t think I can. I’m not sure anyone can. So who are we to judge?

  12. AUGUST B SANCHEZ says:

    One question that struck with me was this, to whose authority do we submit to? The government, or the self? Its addressed by Holly in the film, but I want to hear, or rather read your thoughts. Also, what if they are aligned? do you then chose who to submit to? DO you get to chose?

    Also I still think its a Western. Just sayin’

  13. ELIZABETH ALIEH MASGARHA says:

    I was still rather confused and unsure about this film, even after our discussion. This primarily stems from my lack of education in cinematography and movies in general. Many of the comments made during the discussing: dominance of grey over black and white, frame angle, pace, and music, were incredibly insightful and all details that completely flew over my head. The director took a very artistic approach with this film, trying to convey the social destruction that ensued at the end of World War II. Countries were mostly concerned with: resuscitating their economies, stabilizing the legitimacy of political institutions, and reconstructing their infrastructure. Despite their valiant strides towards recovery, these efforts were breadcrumbs to feed the entire European population starving from hunger, death, disease, and despair. The majority of steps taken to solve these problems were successful, but it would be too late for many to realize the social sacrifice bureaucracies made to ensure a “brighter future” for their citizens. The Third Man centers on the social deception many people were confronted with from family members, friends, and neighbors that had taken place during the war. Reed intentionally reverses the roles, putting the economy in the backseat, to draw attention to the social suffering occurring and how this was an equally important problem that needed fixing. The fighting that took place during World War II uncovered how vile, disgusting, and inhuman people could really be. Killing had never occurred on such a scale and people who had absolutely no involvement in the war, were quick to create opinions and stereotypes. But I agree with Reed, in that until you experience it for yourself, you have absolutely no idea how easy violence can drive someone to desperation and how people are changed forever from such an experience. The film’s only use of the color gray, address this problem to articulate that no matter what the situation, no matter how grotesque, no matter how despicable, it is never black and white, but always shades of gray. The scene where Holly is offered a million dollars to kill a child by throwing a rock off the Ferris wheel, parallels the bombs dropped by airplanes that decimated entire within that towns or villages. From far above, it is so easy to simply press a button because that person is removed from the situation; they will never come in contract with the people who suffered as a result of this action. However, you must also have to take into account the reasons why the bomb was used in the first place. Perhaps that person takes the million dollars and gives it to a public hospital; therefore, one life is sacrificed to save hundreds. To that same affect, maybe the town the pilot dropped the bomb on, was the location of a major weapons armory, which would lead to the deaths of millions of other people if not destroyed first. I think the film tries to describe the viewpoints of those standing on both sides of the argument, probing the audience to consider what they would do if faced with a similar situation. Through the characters Anna and Holly, Reed is able to articulate why people have differing opinions on what it means to be loyal in regards to morality and friendship. And although we might believe morality should be held above all else, it is never an easy decision for people to make, even those with the firmest convictions.

  14. JESSICA RAE DEITZER says:

    It is not always inexcusable to betray a friend, like, for example, if the friend is killing innocent people, including children, just to make a profit. It I was Holly, I wouldn’t have to think twice, although I’m sure it would be cause for confusion, disappointment, grief, and maybe even guilt. I understand that it might be very hard if I was actually put in that situation instead of just reflecting on it, as I am now. I’m not sure exactly what I would feel at that moment, but I can tell you that it wouldn’t compare to what I would feel if I let my friend go on causing harm to many innocent people when I had the power to stop him.

    It’s for this reason that I completely agree with Holly’s decision in The Third Man. He made it his business when he started looking into his friend’s “death,” so when he finds out the truth about his friend and has the ability to act against him, it is still his business. Anna, however, has a very different reaction, one which makes me doubt her character. Did she know more from the beginning? Did she knowingly use his illegal profits for her own benefit, such as gifts or her false passport? That, the audience will never exactly know. However, I do think that Anna was blinded in a way Holly wasn’t—by romantic love. There’s a difference between friendship and romantic involvement inside one’s brain chemistry, or, to be more romantic, the heart. Anna cannot see straight because she is still in love with a man, a man she grieved for, a man she had worked up in her mind as someone who did good things for her and loved her. I don’t think the selfish Harry truly cared for either of them, just like his disgusting description of humans as the “dots” he saw while on the top of the ferris wheel. Yet, it would be extremely hard for her to let all that go, and admit she was in love with a lie.

  15. KYLIE KATHLEEN CORCORAN says:

    After the class discussion about friendship in regards to this movie, I found myself wondering whether I thought Holly was a ‘good friend’ or not. I think the obvious answer is no, but I think in some sense by the time Holly discovered that Harry was alive, he had already lost a lot of the respect and mutual affection of their friendship. Holly had just spent the first half of the movie trying to find out more about Harry’s death, but the more he looked, the more he realized that he really did not know Harry at all. They were close friends at one time in their lives, but they both moved on, and Harry took a less than wholesome route in life. People can change, and obviously, Holly no longer knew who this person was. With all of the despicable crimes that Harry had committed, which Holly found out about as he looked into the car accident, and the widening gap between them, I really don’t find it that hard to believe that Holly would call the police on his friend and eventually kill him. At the start of the film, Holly was not aware of how distant they had become, which was why he was at first reluctant to deal with the police, and also why he was slow to accept his friend’s wrongdoings. But as Holly researched more and more and realized how little he truly knew about his ‘friend’, he came around and worked more closely with the police in order to set the record straight and punish those who had broken the law.

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