The Quiet American
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Movie Reviews of The Quiet American
Movie Review: Brilliant and Troubling
Summary: 5 Stars
WE are in Vietnam in the 1950s. Here is Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine), a middle-aged foreign correspondent for "The Times", whose life is really not too bad at all. He has successfully escaped the greyness of London and a miserable marriage for an easy, well-paid job in an adopted country he loves and the charms of his preposterously young and beautiful mistress, Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yan). But all is not altogether well. For one thing, somewhat ironically with hindsight, his employers are having doubts as to whether Vietnam is a significant enough place to justify the expense of maintaining a correspondent there. And then there is Pyle (Brendan Fraser), a young, idealistic rather Brahminical Bostonian self-styled eye-doctor who has shown up and is making no secret whatever of his romantic interest in Phuong. Desperate to avoid return to London, Fowler starts to redouble his efforts to look into political developments, notably the sinister new "Third Force" represented by the unattractive General The who is not the French colonial power and not the Communists but whose contempt for human life leaves little to recommend him and whom our idealistic young eye-doctor seems to know...
This is a brilliant film. It's easily the best movie to be based on a Graham Greene novel since "Brighton Rock" and conveys to absolute perfection the anxieties and moral ambivalence of the world that very great writer imagined for us. It's absorbing, exciting and (not a word you can seriously apply to many current American movies this) deep. The central performances by Caine and Fraser are altogether superb.
It's not, however the cast I was most struck by. It must have struck others with the same depression as it did me that the director of entertaining but undistinguished action movies like "Patriot Games and "Clear and Present Danger" not to mention utter garbage like "Sliver" and "The Saint" was once up to making movies as good as "Newsfront". Ah well, we may have thought, it's not the first time someone has started out making really fine intelligent movies only to lose it and end up making pap. And then suddenly Mr Noyce goes and gives us this and "Rabbit Proof Fence". Hurray. Welcome back Philip. No more Tom Clancey adaptations please. You can still make great, intelligent, politically challenging, gripping cinema. So stay with us and make a few more.
Movie Review: Beware The Quiet Ones......
Summary: 4 Stars
A picture filmed beautifully and full of dilemmas. Originally a book by Graham Greene, this story is compelling from simple beginning to bitter end.
Michael Caine plays an English reporter in 1950's Vietnam. Caine is brilliant in this role and has moments of complete vulnerability. He lives with a young Vietnamese woman named Phuong (played by actress Do Thi Hai Yen) and uses her as his cushion while ignoring his wife. At some point in the film the question arises on whether or not Caine's character is in love with Phuong or merely holding her as a possession. This dilemma complicates the role of Phuong as well, why would a beautiful young woman spend her time with such an old coot? It turns out that love is only about money and status in 1950's Vietnam. Both characters become interesting backed by this complication and the way they use one another understandable to some extent but also sad.
An innocent American, played by Brendan Fraser, appears on the scene and befriends the English reporter and claims to fall in love with Phuong. He carries on a friendship with Caine's character while hunting his mistress behind his back. It seems creepy and sly but if he really loves the woman wouldn't it be a better situation for Phuong? Yet another dilemma to ponder during this complicated film. Fraser is excellent as the conniving American with a few tricks up his sleeve revealed slowly through a series of dangerous situations.
Caine and Fraser play brilliantly off one another in this film with both actors stepping out of their normal safety zones. The film will leave you wondering how justified the Americans were in their involvement in the Vietnam war.....if it started wrong why shouldn't it end wrong? The ending of the film is something to contemplate begging a decision between right and wrong where violence is concerned. In a country where people and politics are merely tools it is hard to make such choices and right and wrong becomes frayed at the edges. Pay attention to the quiet one he may have something important to say!
Movie Review: Disappointing for its Lack of Silence
Summary: 3 Stars
I guess I'd have to say that I expected more here. It seemed to be a movie that got trumped up around Oscar time for Caine's performance and Brendan Fraser's role, but the end product, in my humble opinion, just didn't pan out.
A brief plot description of this movie can be summed up by the following...political intrigue in French Indo chine Vietnam caught in the middle of an international love triangle between a Brit, a Yank, and a Vietnamese woman. With that said and done, here's the holes as I see it. There seems to be no real chemistry between any members of the love triangle. I didn't believe the actors weren't acting. The real secret of what's going on is projected farther out than a beer commercial being shown on Super bowl Sunday. That's all I got to say about that, because saying more would risk a show of hands for those less-inclined to guess at endings.
Caine's performance was good but it was held back by cheap Hollywood looking explosions, lack of a supported story, and lackluster performances. The bar of realism has been raised for war movies by the likes of "Saving Private Ryan" and I fear will be difficult to replicate for the jaded viewer. After all the buzz surrounding the cinematic version of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American," I expected more but got less.
--MMWMovie Review: The best role of Caine's career
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is the best role of Caine's long and impressive career, and shows that independent cinema can rival the big studio produced movies (you wouldn't guess this is relatively low budget when you see the cinematography). The script is beautifully written and acted, and the fact that we as the audience know what eventually happens in vietnam adds to the overall affect of the film (based on the book by Graham Greene, actually written before the war). The first movie of the book was a watchable but bastardised version - making it a pro-US anti communist film that the book certainly wasn't intended to be (apparently the author wasn't too happy with the propaganda driven outcome - although I'm sure he was financially rewarded for it). It's sad to see that some of the American reviewers have taken umbridge at the film's anti US sentiments (well itis about Vietnam for crying out loud) which is nothing more than nationalistic nonsense (the film also criticises British and French colonialism but you don't see reviewers from those nations crying about it. Like how on Earth can anyone make a movie that doesn't show America as the greatest nation in the history of makind? I think this may well have cost Caine a 3rd Oscar, and the film more critical acclaim. Definitely - in my opinion - one of the best films of the year.Movie Review: Unbelievable!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is unbelievable. The casting was great. This is one for my permanent collection. You have to look at the symbolism in the film. This film gives an excellent insight into the early dealings of America in Vietnam. Of course it all really began long before the early '50s. If one is not careful this film will give one a deeper empathy for the struggle of the Vietnamese people. The imagery in this film is incredible. No matter which viewpoint you take on the Vietnam issue this is a thoroughly enjoyable movie.