The contextual study aims to place the film within a wider social context, examining how and why a film should be affected by the conditions of its production.
The Third Man (1949) is a visually-stylish thriller - a paranoid story of social, economic, and moral corruption in a depressed, rotting and crumbling, 20th century Vienna following World War II. The striking film-noirish, shadowy thriller was filmed expressionistically within the decadent, shattered and poisoned city that has been sector-divided along geo-political lines.
Genre
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Sub Genre: | Suspense Adventure |
| Sub Genre: | Postwar life Adventure |
Thriller and Suspense Films
These are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features.
If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that rentlessly pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.
The Third Man (1949), one of the best suspense films of all time, told the story of a writer (Joseph Cotten) in post-WW II Vienna who found out that his old friend (Orson Welles), a black marketeer, was not dead after all.Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense Thrillers
