Product Details

• Actors: Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, Claude Dauphin, Giorgia Moll, Bruce Cabot
• Directors: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• Writers: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Graham Greene
• Producers: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Michal Waszynski, Vinh Noan
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Subtitled, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: April 19, 2005
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00079ZAD6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,765 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Quiet American" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

A love triangle brews amidst a growing political tempest in this "brilliantly intellectual" (Los Angeles Times) film in which nothing is quite as it seems. Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Graham Greene Academy Award®-winning* writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's screenplay "delivers dialogue that not only sparkles but bites deep with the irony of truth" (Citizen-News).In 1952 Saigon is caught between the corrupt colonial powers and the Communist uprising. An idealistic young American (Audie Murphy) champions a shadowy Third Force but cynical British journalist Thomas Fowler (Michael Redgrave) is concerned only with the American's interest in his mistress. When jealousy forces Fowler to take sides at last the personal and political consequences are devastating.System Requirements: Running Time 122 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 027616921710 Manufacturer No: 1008133

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Worth seeing only as a time-capsule, not as a film, April 24, 2005

By 

James Luckard (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Quiet American (DVD)

This 1958 film of Graham Greene's novel is interesting today mostly as an historical artifact. It is not a particularly outstanding example of the art of cinema, just a dated melodrama in which the location exteriors in Saigon lead to interior dialogue scenes that are stagy and leaden and obviously take place on unconvincing studio sets. It is admittedly fascinating to see some of the exact same Saigon locations that were used in the 2002 film, and Michael Redgrave does bring a weight and soul to the role of Fowler.

Sadly, however, the film brutalizes his character. Where Greene's novel was about a world-weary Brit, confronted with a blindly idealistic American willing to sacrifice innocent lives in the name of his goals, the film inverts everything. Pyle is a virtual saint and Fowler merely the gullible old man who plays a part in Pyle's downfall not out of a desire to protect the innocent, but simply to rid himself of a romantic rival. It is not difficult to see why Graham Greene was incensed by the film and disowned it.

Fascinatingly, director/screenwriter Joe Mankiewicz manages to make this total change largely by the addition of one scene at the end. His film basically follows Greene's novel, up until [SPOILER WARNING!] an atrocious final scene in which we learn that Fowler has been hoodwinked all along by the Communists, and has destroyed a noble American who was genuinely bringing freedom and hope to Indochina. A prescient warning about America's doomed involvement in Vietnam becomes a piece of jingoistic propaganda to support the war.

The 2002 film, in comparison, is amazingly faithful to the novel. I don't always hold that as the measure of a film's success, but with a master storyteller like Greene, why mess with perfection. Do not choose this film if you want accomplished filmmaking, or an accurate interpretation of Graham Greene's intentions, for that pick up Phillip Noyce's 2002 film. Watch this only afterwards, to see how a few small changes can undermine an entire narrative.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The better version?, March 30, 2010

By 

W. Hamilton (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Quiet American (DVD)

The debate over whether this or the more recent Michael Caine version of "The Quiet American" is better tends to revolve around the ending. The 1958 version is certainly less faithful to the ambiguous Greene novel - nevertheless, the ending the director, Mankiewicz, wrote is perfectly consonant with the rest of the film and has a dramatic truth of its own. The politics of the subject matter should not be allowed to obscure this. Rather than being dismissed as dated and politically incorrect, what recommends the earlier version are its strong cinematic elements - filmed on location in Saigon - and a strong cast, particularly Michael Redgrave's performance. Some viewers may question the acting abilities of Audie Murphy, but his is a rather clever piece of casting. The script is rather too wordy, though rarely dull, and the improbability of a reporter who never reports and carries a camera but never uses it also weakens the story - but the look and mood of this production merit high marks.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Cold War garbage, December 2, 2011

By 

H. B. Franklin "emergencybooks" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Quiet American (DVD)

This propaganda film was a deliberate rewriting of Greene's great novel. It was designed to build support for more active U.S. involvement of the Ngo Dinh Diem dictatorship. Colonel Edward Lansdale of the C.I.A. had an active engagement in changing the plot from that of the novel, making Fowler into the villain of the story. All this is documented in the Viking Penguin critical edition of the novel, which includes a number of eye-opening documents.