The Quiet American
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Movie Reviews of The Quiet American
Movie Review: "It's Not That Easy To Remain Uninvolved" ~ Making Choices And Accepting The Consequences
Summary: 5 Stars
'The Quiet American' is a hauntingly tragic and beautifully told tale offering a glimpse of what was once the exotic 'Pearl of the Orient,' Vietnam prior to the death and devastation of the war-torn '60's. The opening sequence of Saigon at night draws the viewer into its flickering lights and surreal landscape and doesn't release you until the very end when we once again return to the same harbor setting leaving the beleaguered country to its inevitable fate.
The year is 1952 and France is the colonial power battling the Chinese Communist for control of the country. For the most part the fighting is taking place in remote villages so life in the city goes on as though nothing is wrong. Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is a married, middle-aged British correspondent living in Saigon with a lovely young Vietnamese girl named Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen). While they both have feelings for each other their relationship appears doomed to failure because Thomas' wife back in England refuses to grant him a divorce. The life and feelings shared betweem Thomas and Phuong can only be temporal in nature as the possiblity of being recalled back to London by his employer looms forever on the horizon.
However things soon change with a sudden arrival of Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) a young American who falls in love with Phuong and wishes to marry her and take her back to the states.
Their love triangle allegorically tells the story of Vietnam in microcosm. Phuong is Vietnam, fragile, lovely and without hope. Thomas (Europe) longs to possess her, but offers no hope for a brighter and secure future. Alden (America) seems to be her one hope for a long and happy life if she could only escape to the U.S.A. Alas, first impressions and heartfelt promises are not always what they seem to be. Alden has alterative motives in Vietnam that jeporadize not only his life but Phuong's hope of a new life.
Michael Caine is brilliant as the self-absorbed Englishman who finally comes to grips with reality and realizes "sooner or later one has to take sides if one is to remain human" and Do Thi Hai Yen is an absolute dream as the enchanting Phoung. Also wonderful performances by Brendan Fraser and Tz Ma as Hinh.
Movie Review: The Quiet American
Summary: 4 Stars
Excellent movie beyond expectation. I had read the book years ago.
I have always been an admirer of Michael Caine.Brendan Fraser was
also excellent in this movie.
It recalls the atmosphere of the Far East, Vietnam in particular
when I came there as a young man in the early 1960's.
I am now in my seventies but my daughters in their 30's also
appreciated this movie very much, a lot of violence too, but not
vulgar!
Movie Review: Essential for those interested in late 20th Century history
Summary: 5 Stars
A harrowing and thought provoking account of the end of French occupation in Indo-China with a love story rather convincingly woven in. Cane gives a good performance. Fraser is good too. go watch it.Movie Review: not is all as it seems
Summary: 4 Stars
I found myself with a much deeper appreciation of this film than I expected. Understated, skillful performances from the principal actors (Michael Caine as jaded, aging news correspondent Thomas Fowler and Brendan Fraser as optimistic, single-minded American aid worker Alden Pyle). Not is all as it first seems. I was most impressed by Fraser, who has unfortunately not delivered enough of these serious, dramatic performances in his career although it is perfectly clear that he is capable. His nuanced performance masks the secrets his character is carrying, while Caine, the narrator, finds himself bitter and jealous... before Alden Pyle came along and became a romantic rival to Caine's Fowler, Fowler had very few cares. He was content living in Southeast Asia with his beautiful young mistress Phuong, sending in the occasional article to the newspaper employing him and smoking a healthy share of opium. His attitude throughout smacks of condescension, he is so convinced of his rightness, status and position for so much of the story. His entitlement, for example, to have a wife back home AND to keep a mistress in Vietnam, not seeing any real problem with that. Perhaps he suffers delusions from the excessive opium? In any case, Pyle makes it clear he is in love with Phuong, and a romantic rivalry of sorts ensues. Fowler is powerless to do much of anything because he cannot offer to marry Phuong. Meanwhile more sinister aspects of Fowler are revealed as he insists on keeping his status quo.
Naturally the story and characters are a good deal more complex than this. Without going on at length or running the risk of ruining the story's abundant detail, not much more can be said. It is notable, however, that Philip Noyce, hitherto known as primarily an action film director, not only directed this exquisite film in 2002 but also the excellent Rabbit Proof Fence. Both films are more contemplative stories, rather than the thriller/action genre Noyce generally works in.
Overall, The Quiet American kept me riveted, even though it was a slower-paced film. The performances and wondering what was really going on under the surface made it hard to turn away.
Movie Review: Caine Reconsidered
Summary: 4 Stars
Trapped inside rheumy eyes, sagging jowls, and pot belly, Michael Caine looks every inch the backwater journalist at the end of a not-very-distinguished rope. We understand his love-lorn desperation. Ditto his porcelain doll mistress, and her desperation to survive the shifting sands of colonial Vietnam. Brendon Fraser too, looks every inch his OSS part, an idealistic frat-boy who took all the correct courses, saluted all the correct flags, and never learned a thing about the soul of subjugated peoples, at home or abroad. If these visuals are perfect, the lead performance is not. In short, Caine's Thomas Fowler has been wildly overpraised. In a part that cries out for civilized passion, he gives a lot of well-bred British civility, but very little passion. There are simply too many blank-eyed stares with not enough hint of the inner life that breeds conflicting emotions. Instead of interpreting the character, his scenes float on physical appearance and the richness of Greene's conception, a distinction too many folks have conflated. Thus the final act of betrayal, which should be the movie's payoff, is robbed of suspense and insight by a performance that fails to develop over time. I found myself wishing Bette Davis had directed his scenes.
This is a good movie, but no unmitigated triumph. The Greenian complexities and ambiguities are mostly where they should be. However, unlike the novel's narrative, exposition here at times suffers from heavy-handed repetition as other reviewers have pointed out -- the overstated wet cement, for one. Nonetheless, there's enough depth to convey the basic brilliance of the book, which remains a powerful interweaving of personal and political treachery. (The reviewer who likens this novel to those of Henry James provides an ironical insight.)Too bad this second version was denied to viewers of the bowdlerized 1958 version. That way, the US might have been spared a bloody object lesson in the sort mass deception that now echoes across the shifting sands of Iraq.