The Quiet American
Starring: Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen

T he year is 1952; the place, South Vietnam. The sun is setting on the French occupation of Indochina and Thomas Fowler (played by Michael Caine), a rumpled reporter for The London Times cares more about his love, a local girl named Phuong, (Do Thi Hai Yen), than he does about his assignment -- soon to become one of the biggest stories of the cold war. The aging Fowler spends much of his time in a café ruminating about his expat existence but not before meeting and befriending Alden Pyle (Fraser), a young American who is ostensibly in Saigon on an aid mission from the U.S. government.

Thus the stage is set for The Quiet American, Christopher Hampton’s stylish screen adaptation of Graham Greene’s classic, directed with a skillful eye by Philip Noyce who tilts closer towards his thoughtful Australian bush docudrama about aborigines, Rabbit Proof Fence, than towards his repulsive, pointlessly voyeuristic horror flick The Bone Collector.

Little time passes before Pyle also becomes romantically attracted to Phuong. He is surprisingly frank with Fowler about his feelings towards Phuong and later embarrassingly so when he professed his love for her in front of Fowler. Although Pyle’s initial declaration of love fails, Fowler is girded into action and later seeks a divorce from his very Catholic wife in an effort to cement his relationship with Phuong.

However, just to see this movie as a romantic drama played out against a historical and political background would be wrong. This is a powerful allegorical l’amour à trois about the Old World/New World battle for the hand of the colonial beauty Vietnam and is intricately tied into the historical events – real and fictionalized – taking place.

Fowler, through Pyle and his work, soon finds himself drawn into a dangerous web of political and military intrigue as the French slowly but steadily lose their grip on Vietnam leading up to their historic – and calamitous – showdown in 1954 against Vietnamese forces at the garrison of Dien Bien Phu – the battle which eventually paved the way for the similarly disastrous American intervention.

Before long, it becomes apparent that Pyle’s true motives for being in the country are anything but what they seem. At one point in the film, while Fowler is accompanying French soldiers through the Vietnamese countryside, Pyle comes into view -- rather mysteriously dressed as a Vietnamese boat person – and is almost shot dead by the patrol.
Although Pyle explains his actions as a desperate need to speak to Fowler about Phuong (plausible enough given Pyle’s idealistic nature), it is here that the audiences begins to suspect that Pyle is not just in Vietnam as part of an aid mission.

The film does, in most cases, remain true to the novel. Green himself also remained true to the place and time in which his novel is set. Yes, his main characters, while strongly allegorical, are fictional. But many of the events and supporting characters are actual including the powerful bomb that explodes in the center of Saigon; the massacre at Phat Diem (the aftermath of which was witness by Greene as it was by his alter ego Fowler); and General The, a powerful bandit chief who claimed for responsibility for the bombing. Where the book and the film may be making a leap into real fiction is their accusation (although based on circumstantial corroboration) of CIA involvement with General The and the bombing. The movie, however, does underline the remarkable portentous nature of Greene’s novel, when, at the close of the film, it scrolls through newspaper clippings of America’s growing entanglement in Vietnam over the decades following France’s defeat.

Miramax studios initially delayed the release date of this film owing to the sensitivities surrounding the events of September 11th and the subsequent intervention in Afghanistan. Still, it comes across as a polished, even-handed effort, with Pyle’s occasional anti-Communist tirades, while seeming naïve, coming close to typifying Western and, in particular American, attitudes toward the conflict at the time.

Overall, in terms of dramatic effect, Caine’s Fowler carries this film. Although he may be at least a decade or so too old for the part, his dramatic talent consistently overshadows Fraser’s Pyle who, despite his best efforts, comes across as somewhat bland and unconvincing at times (although in his defense, his role often calls for him to be exactly that). The character of Phuong, is completely overshadowed by her two erstwhile love interests. She is a beautiful, but allegorical presence – a prize, perhaps, but little more.

This is a diverting film, rich in intrigue, thick in plot and underscored by the allegorical battle between the main protagonists. As to the development of most of its characters, however, The Quiet American falls somewhat short.