Customer Reviews

The Quiet American

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4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

THE QUIET AMERICAN is a successful and intriguing adaptation of Graham Greene's classic novel. In 1952 a veteran British journalist (Michael Caine) is stationed in Saigon to cover the events of the French Indochina War. Caine meets a young idealistic American doctor (Brendan Fraser) at an outdoor cafe and they soon become friends. But soon enough their friendship becomes complicated when Fraser becomes attracted to Caine's girlfriend (Do Thi Hai Yen) who is a beautiful Vietnamese woman.

What follows is an often suspenseful film that addresses the battle of French colonialism against the Communist advance from the north and the role of a third party to defeat the two former enemies. Caught in the middle is Caine, Fraser and the woman that they both love as they navigate the dramatic changes which are occurring in Vietnam each day. Caine discover that people are not who they claim to be.

One of the most stunning aspects of THE QUIET AMERICAN is the cinematography by Christopher Doyle which captures the beautiful green and lush Vietnamese countryside filled with mountains and lakes and rivers. I have to admit that prior to deeing this film I was not a big fan of Michael Caine, but his performance is admirable and convincing. I now understand why he was nominated for an Oscar -- and I believe he is a strong contender. THE QUIET AMERICAN is one of the best films I have seen in some time.

Michael Caine has managed a large number of superb performances over the years, but this is probably his finest film in many, many years. Although Brendan Fraser and the remarkably beautiful Do Thi Hai Yen are excellent in the other two main roles, this film lives or dies with the character of Thomas Fowler. Thankfully, Caine is stunning. His performance is quiet, nuanced, and remarkably subtle. It is paradoxically one of the most emotional performances he has given in some time, but at the same time one of his more subdued.

The film is set in Vietnam during the French war with the Communists of North Vietnam. It is also the time when the United States began their involvement in the country, doing their part to stymie the spread of the Red Menace. The movie does a great job of presenting the emerging complexities of the conflict. There are several stunning scenes, in particular a terrorist bombing, which is one of the most vivid and horrifying instances of onscreen violence that I have witnessed in some time. But the focus of the film always remains on the interplay of the personalities. The politics of the situation is not ignored, but in the end the film is about people.

Director Philip Noyce had before 2002 been known primarily as a director of Hollywood action films, but after directing two of the finest films of this past year in THE RABBIT-PROOF FENCE and THE QUIET AMERICAN, he has suddenly emerged as one of the finer directors of serious films. I don't know what his next project is going to be, but I await it with great eagerness. He keeps both the mood and the lighting of this film very, very dark. Most of the scenes take place in shadows, in the evening, or in darkened rooms, as if it were an external manifestation of the internal ambiguity that permeates the film.

I have long wanted to see Brendan Fraser take on more serious roles, especially after seeing him in GODS AND MONSTERS. He is good in comedy, but I have sometimes found the congenial idiots he so often portrays to be a little irritating.
This is a wonderfully serious film, and it stands in stark contrast to so many of the films coming out these days. It is a film that takes its time, with the director allowing scenes to develop slowly, never in a rush to tell his story. But I loved his narrative style, and I can't imagine any fan of film not being stunned by Michael Caine's masterful performance.

Michael Caine is an international treasure. His performance as an aging British journalist in 1950s Vietnam brings great depth and emotional gravity to this movie. He makes Brendan Fraser as the American who invades his life, tries to take his young Vietnamese girlfriend, seem shallow. But of course this is appropriate to Frasers character, who manages to be both arrogant and at the same time naïve.

Greenes story, now filmed with its original ending, now seems like a masterpiece of prophecy. The production is beautiful and thoughtful. Overall, this is everything you could ask a movie to be: thought-provoking, a great script, beautifully filmed and acted.

Of all the films I've seen over the years concerning America's involvement in Vietnam, THE QUIET AMERICAN is perhaps the most seductive.

It's 1952, and Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is the aging correspondent for the London Times in Saigon. France is in the process of being tossed out of Indochina, but the former doesn't realize it yet - Dien Bien Phu is still in the future - and its military fights on ineffectually against the communists. In the meantime, Fowler submits the occasional story to the head office while finding comfort in the arms of opium and his Vietnamese mistress Phuong (Do Hai Yen), a former taxi dancer at a local club. Then, one day, THE QUIET AMERICAN Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) shows up. Pyle claims to be with a medical aid mission in country to combat trachoma, a bacterial disease causing blindness. But what is Pyle, really? He seems awfully chummy with the conniving powers over at the U.S. legation. In any case, Alden very soon falls in love with Phuong, attention that neither the jealous Fowler can prevent nor Phuong finds particularly unwelcome.

Not since LITTLE VOICE (1998) has Michael Caine acted so powerfully, and this is perhaps his greatest role ever. An Academy Award nomination is deservedly due. Fraser is perfect as the clean-cut, idealistic and naïve Yank who may be something other than he claims. Yen is positively exquisite as the delicate Phuong. As Fowler puts it, his death would begin if he lost her.

THE QUIET AMERICAN, based on the Graham Greene novel, can be seen as an allegorical story of America's fledgling interest in succoring Vietnam from the Red Menace. After all, the French seem unequal to the task. Pyle perhaps comes to symbolically represent the American innocence that is seduced by Vietnam in the form of Phuong, and the former wishes "to save" the latter from the escalating national chaos. Only the tired and world-weary Fowler knows that this is impossible. He would "save" Phuong himself if he could, but he can't.

THE QUIET AMERICAN is an anti-war, anti-intervention film best viewed these many years after America withdrew from its Southeast Asian debacle and passions have cooled. This is one of the best films of 2002.

Vietnam. It makes me think of war.

But even before Americans got involved, the Vietnamese were fighting the French for independence. And it was Ho Chi Minh and the Communists who were actively doing the fighting.

It was the early 1950s though, years before the Americans got involved.

Or was it?

This film answers that question.

And yet, there is a lot more to the story than just the politics.

It is about an aging British journalist, played by Michael Caine. He's been in Vietnam for years and loves it. He has a wife somewhere in England who he hasn't seen in years and will not divorce him. And he has a gorgeous young Vietnamese woman, Do Hai Yen, who he's been living with for several years. The arrangement works for both of them.

But things change. A quiet American, played by Brendan Fraser enters the picture. He says he's an aid worker. And he befriends Michael Caine.

But what is the American's REAL purpose in Vietnam? Questions start to surface. Especially when the American declares his love for Caine's woman.

In the meantime a war is going on. Caine and Fraser almost get killed. And then there is a horrible explosion in the middle of the city.

There's death all around. And love. And a sense of place so well captured by the director, Phillip Noyce, that I could almost feel the Vietnam of the 1950's all around me.

The story moved fast, and the plot revealed details that changed the reality of what things seemed at first. And it was all done so well that all I could do was sit there, watch the screen, and let it all unfold.

The film was supposed to be released in September 2001, shortly after 9/11. However, the filmmakers chose to hold on to it until 2002. When you see it, the reason will become startlingly clear.

This screenplay is an adaptation of the book written by Graham Greene in 1955. I loved the book. And I love the film. I give it my highest recommendation. Don't miss it.

Set against the war between the French and the Communists for control of Vietnam (French Indo-China) when America was just beginning to get involved, "The Quiet American," even with all the inherent political intrigue, is basically the story of a love triangle between British newspaperman Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine), American Health worker Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) and a Vietnamese girl Phoung (Do Thi Hai Yen). It is a film that prefers to make love, not war: Love is the battlefield on which the fate of all three is decided.
There is much on which the eye can concentrate in this film: the gorgeous manner in which the film is shot looks remarkably like color films shot in the fifties with saturated color, slightly faded and the beauty of Saigon and it's restaurants and women. In the middle of all this strides Caine's Fowler a man who has seen it all both on and off the battlefield yet can still extend his heart and his love to Phoung with whom he is living. Fraser's Pyle is a newcomer: he is everything that Fowler was 30 years before; young, brash, hopeful. He falls in love with Phoung as well.
How all of this is resolved is done in a rather perfunctory, though proficient manner. The performances on the other hand are the highlight of this film. Michael Caine, carrying the burden of his 100+ films and the world-weariness of Fowler on his faces vibrates here with intelligence and horse sense, but also a genuine sensuality; an awareness and appreciation of his attraction for Phuong. Brendan Fraser plays Pyle in his usual stalwart manner but he is very effective nonetheless. And Do Thi Hai Yen does very well with the femme fatale role: she's beautiful and mysterious and genuine in her feelings for both men.
"The Quiet American" recalls an era long gone. One in which the world seemed united against the "Red Horde." But this film shows that despite the guns, uniforms, and ideologies, these were real people: looking, finding, losing and regaining love and romance despite the odds against it. It's the force of a heart that can never be stilled.

This movie relies on a great rarity in films these days: an excellent screenplay. The dialog is natural, the storyline is compelling and believable, and the characters are sympathetic.

Michael Caine surely deserves Oscar consideration for this role as a jaded journalist trying to maintain a residence in Viet Nam so he can stay with his Vietnamese lover. And Brendan Fraser shows us some real depth and range as the mysterious title character.

The cinematography is stunning and evocative, with the style in constant flux to reflect the mood of the scene. The music is beautifully subdued, infusing the scenes rather than dominating them.

The movie presents an infrequently depicted era of history: the French occupation and war with the Vietnamese, and the ensuing American infiltration. The facts of this period are definitely food for thought in today's political climate.

A stunning film set in French Indochina (Vietnam)durning the early 1950's.Michael Caine gives a Oscar performance as a English newspaper man in Saigon with a opium and alcohol problem,a wife back in England,and a beautiful young Vietnamese mistress(Do Thi Hai Yen).Brendan Fraser of Mummy fame plays a cynical CIA agent posing as a aid worker.The acting is superb,and the movie has a gorgeous look.There is a terrorist bombing scene that is so realistic you feel like you are actually there.Against this backdrop of political violence and inpending doom for French colonial rule a love triangle develops between the three main characters which makes for a great ending.Don't miss this one.

Crackling with tension from the opening scenes, this is an outstanding film. Noyce's team responds brilliantly to his direction in this tight drama about pre-American Viet Nam. The film captures the nature of the changing struggle as the almost invisible Viet Minh probe Saigon's defenses. The French, clearly floundering, are minimally represented. The war, the politics, the corruption are merely background to this story of desperate love. Yet all those subdued elements intrude on the three protagonists who must react to them. Love and war are a common theme in many films, but are brought together in this one with uncommon sensitivity. The Viet Nam conflict nearly tore America apart in later years. The time for this film is long past, but the way Noyce has adapted Greene's novel makes it enduring and pertinent today.

Michael Caine, as the indifferent British journalist, provides his paramount performance. A superb actor in all his roles, with this one he assumes status among the very best. Given the power of his presence in this film, it might be expected that Brendan Fraser be overshadowed. Yet this rather bumbling character from The Mummy assumes a more confident stance. As the American intruder on both Caine's own love affair and the struggle to restrain the Communist forces, he fulfills the role with unexpected polish. Do Thi Hai Yen, the woman caught up in both the political and personal conflicts, applies a tender counterpoint to the many levels of strife displayed elsewhere in the film. Noyce's use of close-up in many scenes heightens feeling while keeping the characters as the film's focus.

Greene's novel demonstrated how Viet Nam might become a morass of misdirected action. It was, he predicted, not a place for the clumsy. Fraser's role illuminates how prescient Greene was in the book. The withholding of this film by the studio was an error. Noyce's direction is flawless as he portrays the languid journalist becoming alert as he senses Fraser's presence is more than circumstantial. His boldly asserted simple-minded faith in America's ability to solve geopolitical issues by brute-force presence is a message that should have been heeded when the book was published. Hopefully, this film will again confront viewers with that clear message. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

First off all those people bashing the movie for its story line need to go read the book of the same title by Graham Greene. The story is deep and complex if the viewer would only take the time to pay attention to the details. This movie is not one that you put in then watch in a numbed state with a stupefied glaze over your face. This is one of the few movies out there that stays true to the book for which it is based upon. This is a great movie if you take it for what it is and an even better movie if you understand the history of Vietnam and the political situation of Vietnam in the 1950's. Michael Cain does an excellent job of Fowler a correspondent for the London Times who is in Vietnam to cover the rising tension. He believes it is his job to simply report what he sees and hears; not to put any spin on it. Brendan Frasier plays Pyle a young and naive American economic attaché who believes in a "third force" to run Vietnam. Then there is Phuong who by all means represents Vietnam rising from the ashes. So this is a great movie and an even better movie if you read the book.