The music is completely no go with the story, whenever the plot gets to intense, the stupid music starts to play. A real mood killer. How could Carol Reed make such a mistake i wonder!
shareI too, thought that the zither music was out of place and annoying.
shareI disagree. I think it was masterful and whenever I hear zither music I think of this film.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.
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.
shareThank You!
shareAfter 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.
I'm picking option number 3. I really like the opening musical piece but I found the zither music jarring in other scenes.
shareI think the score is probably the best thing about this wonderful film.
http://letterboxd.com/guccipix/list/my-top-100-favorite-films/
Oxhan, you're naturally entitled to your opinion of the music in this movie. Yet it is such a rare one that it's akin to people who say they enjoy classical music but can't stand any of the German composers from Bach to Brahms.
shareI thought the music was great.
shareThe soundtrack of the Third Man is perfect. But here is is what you do. You do your own cut, dubbing in music from whatever little teen-age dance band was topping the charts when you were in high-school (The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, NIN, etc., depending on how old you are) because I'm sure that the only kind of music you;re capable of understanding. Whatever you do, don't watch Bergman's Trollflotte.
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