The Quiet American

1952. Siagon. English journalist Thomas Fowler lives a quiet life with his young mistress, Phuong and no intention to return to London. When the Times request he return he starts looking for stories to ensure he can stay. At the same time an idealistic young American arrives as part of a medical aid programme in the middle of the war between the French and the Communist forces in the North fighting for independence. The American, Pyle falls for Phuong and the two men discuss what can be done. However in any conflict it is impossible to stay neutral for long.

As the film rather bluntly says, the plot here is the same story told twice. That of the Americans trying to protect a beautiful country/girl from an unpleasant future (unmarried or communism) even if it means taking her away from her older European master (France or Fowler). The two plots work well even if they have flaws. The tale of the two lovers is less well handed than the critical political stuff but is still good and slightly moving. The political comment is less sharp now than I imagine it was when Greene made it all those years ago, but it will still have impact as America's foreign policy prepares to take it into another conflict overseas in order to remove/keep out forces it feels are harmful to America.

I assume that this is what Noyce wanted and he does it well. The alignment with the central love is not that well done, and this is shown by the fact that Pyle is given those lines to speak so clearly in case anyone missed it. The love story didn't work as well as it should partly because I needed more information – for example Phuong's motives were never fully clear and her character was weakly developed throughout. However it didn't take too much away from the film as a total and I still enjoyed it very much.

One of the main reasons was the direction. I have recently seen Noyce's Rabbit Proof Fence and he worked well there. Again here he directs well with the bigger landscape shots but also does well with more intimate or action shots. He also brings an excellent performance out of Caine. He should really get an Oscar for this but I suspect he won't as he got one a few years ago. Jaws The Revenge seems a very long time ago after seeing this film – Caine is perfectly understated and you can see the emotion build rather than just appear. Fraser is also very good even if his character has to be damaged by having him explain things. Hai Yen is not as good. She is pretty and a nice gentle voice but I wanted her to have a better character – with more she could have done more.

Overall this film may get bad reviews in the US due to it's clear criticism of past American policy but it doesn't deserve it. The love story element of it may have it's flaws but the film works pretty well overall and the political drama side is strong enough to hold it together. The main problem for me was actually believing that an American could ever exist that is as polite and well spoken as Fraser portrays Pyle to be!

The story starts with the body of American Adrien Pyle , a medical specialist , being found in a river in Saigon . He has been stabbed to death and London Times journalist Thomas Fowler recounts to the authorities how he knew the man

TQE is a very strange film to comment on simply because I get the feeling that it is based on a very complex political novel by Graham Greene and it's interesting to note how many people on this page have commentated on how well or how badly it has been adapted to screen . It's also interesting to note that it was filmed in the spring of 2001 when George Bush's " war on terrorism " had not happened which clouds the issue more . People on the message boards have written many political threads to tie in with this but it's very interesting that Greene's original novel was written several years before Lyndon B Johnson sent combat troops to South East Asia , so Greene is criticisng American foreign policy in general and an intelligent , cogent way , not so much jumping on the fashionable bandwagon with Michael Moore , John Pilger and George Monbiot so I guess for that he deserves some credit

As a film what makes it so successful is with the casting . Michael Caine as we all know is a living legend and the fact that he has appeared in so many awful movies simply for the money while still retaining prestigious star quality speaks volumes for his talent and as you might expect in this type of role he's superb . What is even more amazing than Caine's performance is that of Brendan Fraser's as Adrien Pyle . I've just remembered how good he was in GODS AND MONSTERS and he's equally as good here as a man who's not what he seems to be . One can't help thinking how well he'd be regarded as an actor if he'd decided to skip THE MUMMY films which unfortunately seems to have prematurely killed his career . Certainly I wasn't reminded of Rick O'Connel while watching this

Where the film falters is - Again - where it shows its literary roots . There's no way you can confuse a Graham Greene novel with a Harold Robbins one , but there's maybe too much of a romantic subplot which gets in the way of the real story and you find your self questioning as to what the main story . Is it the political one or the love triangle ?

In Saigon, 1951, Thomas Fowler (Michael Fowler) is an English journalist, married in England with a catholic woman, and in love with a Vietnamese girl, Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen). Thomas meets Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) in a bar. Pyle is a doctor working in an aid mission, and pretty soon, he falls in love with Phuong. Pyle offers her what Thomas is not possible to give, i.e., a marriage and escape of Vietnam. Meanwhile, the political situation in Vietnam is boiling, with the French trying to get control again of the country, the communists trying to impose their system to the South, and the American secretly giving support to a third Vietnamese part.

This romance is perfect: the outstanding performance of Michael Caine in the first plane, and Brendan Fraser (in his best role, since 'Gods and Monsters') and Do Thi Hai Yen are fantastic. The screenplay of Christopher Hampton, based in a novel of Graham Greene, is wonderful. And the direction of Phillip Noyce is magnificent, presenting the story in right doses of romance, drama, action and special effects. An overwhelming movie for all tastes. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "O Americano Quieto" ("The Quiet American")

Another one to file under "very well made but a little disappointing."

First of all: it looks pretty good, as Noyce is a talented visual director. There was one slightly cheesy explosion of a model that looked straight out of a 60s Godzilla film though- those substandard effects don't bother me in old monster movies, but they feel more noticeable in super serious romantic thrillers from the 2000s.

Michael Caine is very good, and I like seeing old Michael Caine offered a lead role, because for the last 20 or so years, it feels like he's always a supporting player. Brendan Fraser is good at first- I know we all stan and love him nowadays, but I do think he felt a bit out of his depth in the film's second half. His character is given more complex things to do as the plot gets more intense, and I didn't think he had the acting chops for it, sorry.

Also, the music is as a little overblown, and the female lead very underdeveloped, which made the romance angle a bit underwhelming. So it moves well, looks mostly nice, and has a strong lead performance, but it doesn't coalesce into something great. Was going to say this is the kind of movie that should be remade, but I guess this version already was a remake?

Oh well- remake it again! Give it three strong lead performances, more time to flesh out the lead female role, and maybe don't give away the ending at the start and we'd have something really good (I do think revealing the climax and then flashing back sometimes works, like in Double Indemnity, but here, it just robbed the film of most of its suspense and emotion to be honest).

I don't understand why the studio satraps thought it necessary to embargo this film after 9/11, requiring persuasion on Michael Caine's part to get it to limited release now so as to qualify for Oscar nominations. The American role in Viet Nam is the subject of hundreds of books and countless articles - and not a few films. There is nothing unhealthy about the continuing debate and contrary to what some opine, I doubt American policy vis-a-vis Iraq has much lineal connection to the troubled saga of U.S. involvement in Indo-China, or its partial successor in hapless interest, the Republic of Viet Nam.

The Graham Green story has been filmed before (1958) but this is a pungent, attention-grabbing version, filmed in various parts of Viet Nam. The sultry and grasping humidity of the land almost comes off the screen. The story takes place in 1952 as the inept and poorly led French stumble towards their ultimate debacle at Dien Bien Phu (anyone interested in this story should start and finish with Bernard Fall's remarkable account of the French Army's Super-Alamo).

Caine, a Brit named Fowler, assures Brendan Fraser, a putative U.S. humanitarian officer named Pyle, that he is a "reporter," not a "correspondent." The difference to the easy-living Fowler is that the latter has a viewpoint, perhaps even a cause, while the former, as Sergeant Friday would say, only wants the facts.

This film really belongs to Caine and Fraser but one other character, the stunning Do Thi Hai Yep, Fowler's live-in girlfriend, deserves mention. She lights up the screen with both her calculating passion for, first, Fowler and then Pyle. Her character is realistically complex: I knew a number of such women when I was an Army officer and although the phrase isn't used here, she's a perfect example of the desperately ambitious, beautiful mistress whose only long-term goal is to be taken to "The Land of the Big P.X."

A series of experiences transform both Fowler and Pyle. Several of the scenes of violence are real enough but the music is intrusive. You don't hear music when people are dying around you. At least not performed by an orchestra.

This is the third recent film in which Michael Caine distinguishes himself by the depth of his acting (the others being "The Cider House Rules" and "Last Orders"). Caine's Fowler leaves us wondering as to what his motives are as he slowly changes before us. There's no clear answer and room for argument. His Fowler is both disturbing and ingratiating.

The audience in the East Village theater where I saw "The Quiet American" today clearly was made up of folks whose minds were settled as to U.S. involvement in Indo-China, never mind the later escalation in Viet Nam. Their grunts and laughs at certain points reflected their views. But the story told here is a faithful mirror of what in 1952 were complex questions in a scary world made scary by communism, not the liberal democracies. That mistakes of a grievous nature were made may be clear today but the road was ill-illuminated then. This film, and Caine's portrayal in particular, reflects the contemporary confusion and the unravelling of any hopes for a peaceful reunification of the two Viet Nams after the French defeat.

I hope this film gets a very wide distribution after it finishes its two-week Oscar-qualifying run.

8/10.