The Fourth Man Film Difficulty Ranking: 2
“I lie the truth, until I no longer know whether something did or did not happen.” Who can you trust in this psycho-thriller from Verhoeven.
From: Netherlands, Europe
Watch: Trailer, Buy on Amazon
Next: Oldboy, Who Killed Teddy Bear?, The Shining
Why Watch The Fourth Man?
- You’re a fan of mystery thrillers, particularly if made by David Lynch or Alfred Hitchcock.
- You love films with a lot of symbolism and imagery! For some fun, drink whenever you see a religious symbol.
- Witness Dutch irony – some strange humor!
- It’s by the same guy that directed Elle.
The Breakdown
Luring us in with some gloriously ominous music, a spider runs across it’s web to wrap up it’s prey. Of course the spider web has to be attached to a symbol of Christ’s crucifixion (first religious symbol – for all those in it for the drinking game – drink). The camera cuts to a man waking up, shaking, and wandering around deliriously. He cannot stop shaking enough to shave, so he gulps on some liquor. We witness his vision – he murders someone.
We are immersed in the director’s weird world from the very start. The key soundbite to remember is the protagonist’s speech when he states that he ‘lies the truth’ until he no longer knows what did or did not happen. Is this movie reality or determined by Gerard’s super-reality (the reality he is exaggerating).
The camera work really adds to the delusions. Filming from all kinds of angles; we look down at our protagonist from above and see him from other rooms (much like Hitchcock’s great thrillers). To keep us uneasy, the camera keeps moving, always following Gerard’s wandering eyes and visions. Even the match-cuts (a cut between two objects, spaces, pictures which match graphically) unsettle us as dissolve one scene into another. Verhoeven and his cinematographer do a great job of adding to the confusion.
Sometimes I don’t like hearing from the creator’s of books/film/music because their intentions don’t match my interpretations. So take Verhoeven’s words about this film with a pinch of salt. In a few words Verhoeven stated that:
The Fourth Man was about his vision of religion. How Christianity is nothing more than one of many interpretations of reality, neither more nor less. That Christianity is a major symptom of schizophrenia in half the world’s population: civilizations scrambling to rationalize their existence.
Another way of watching The Fourth Man is as a satire of arty psycho-thriller films. For fans of thrillers and horror, there is enough symbolism, references, and funny acting to give you more than a couple of smug grins. If Lynch’s Mullholland Drive had been written before this one, you might even be mistaken for thinking The Fourth Man is taking the mickey! So depending on what kind of a night you are having, you could watch this film as a great psycho-thriller or as a darkly comical horror film.
What to Watch Next
If you’re looking for more psycho-sexual thrillers you should definitely check out:
- Oldboy: The classic Korean revenge film
- Psycho: One of Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous.
- Who Killed Teddy Bear?: One of the most daring films from the 1960s coming out of the US.
Or if you’re looking for more films full of symbolism you could check out The Shining from Stanley Kubrick, the avant-garde Funeral Parade of Roses from Toshio Matsumoto, or even some of the most well-known horror films such as The Exorcist.
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