Saigon: Year of the Cat

SAIGON:YEAR OF THE CAT is clearly one of Stephen Frear's lesser efforts, but everything this director tackles is worth a look. Danny Boyle is the only other English director who embraces such a wide variety of styles and themes for both television and movies. SAIGON:YEAR OF THE CAT reminds me of Frear's made for TV film, THE DEAL. In that film, he gave the viewer a behind the scenes peek at the often volatile political relationship between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, two titans within the British Labour Party during the 1990's. SAIGON:YEAR OF THE CAT examines the 'Fall of Saigon' through the lens of a sexual affair between a mid-level bank executive, played by Judy Dench, and an American CIA officer, played by Frederic Forrest. We witness, not only the loss of the war, but the loss of the country due to America's haphazard and poorly implemented foreign policy. History has shown that , although America's Vietnam strategy experts 'hearts' might be in the right place, their 'heads' couldn't seem to provide a workable procedure. This dichotomy provides the ineluctable backdrop to the film. The movie is a very small production, yet all the actors give fairly convincing performances, but certainly no new ground is broken. The overall 'Look' of the film is dreadful. Most of the production is awash in orange and yellow, and clearly was not intentional. Sometimes the movie is almost painful to watch due to the hideous nature of the film quality. However, the relationship between the two principle characters, and the singular importance of this historical event, was more than enough to engage the viewer.

Judy Dench plays a secretive English lady who observes the chaos of the final days of democratic government in Saigon. The subject matter is uncomfortable to watch; perhaps more so today than when the film was released, as parallels can be drawn between Vietnam and Iraq. The films begs the question: Has the US and it's allies learned anything in 30 years about international relations.

As a film Saigon is solid more so due to the subject matter being strong than the direction and script, which are pretty bland. The story moves at a decent pace and the climax is both powerful and pathetic as bewildered and semi drunk characters are suddenly forced from apathetic complacency to action.

One of the central problems with the film is that it doesn't feel like it has a strong emotional soul. Judy's character feels too detached to her surroundings, and life in general. She's a woman of mysterious yes, but there isn't any real attempt to dig beneath her cool exterior. I also felt like I didn't get a true inside account of what actually happened in the lead up to that fateful day in 1975. I needed more information about what was happening at the time politically and socially to both the Vietnamese and the Americans in and around Saigon.

It's a story that should be re-made with better production values, but it held my interest throughout. 6/10