Der stille Amerikaner

I liked this film more than I thought I would. Michael Caine (nominated for an Oscar for this role) plays a British journalist in Vietnam, durring the period before the French pulled out. The film follows his investigation of some atrosities his discovers, but treats that as a "B" story to the story of his relationship with a young vietnamese girl and his friendship with a mysterious American played by Brenden Fraser, who likes the same girl. Fraser is actualy quite good in this film, shedding his trademark goofieness from his more mainstream efforts. And Caine definitely captures your interest with his performance. The film kinda moves along slowly but it strangely held my attention and it does suck you in, especialy as they throw in some unexpected plot twists towards the end. GRADE: A

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!

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.

Michael Caine gives yet another outstanding performance in `The Quiet American,' Philip Noyce's 2002 adaptation of the Graham Greene Cold War novel (the first movie version was released in 1958). Set in 1952 Saigon, the film features Caine as Thomas Fowler, a world-weary British journalist who's been sent to Vietnam to cover the attempt by colonial French forces to hold back the communist insurgence from the North. But Fowler has a problem. Despite the fact that he is a reporter, he freely admits that this country exerts a sort of magical hold on him and that, in order to maintain that image, he must will himself to look beyond the ugliness and strife that are tearing the country apart. In fact, reporting is the last thing on Fowler's mind. He is even madly in love with a beautiful young Vietnamese girl who lives with him. When his publishers back in England threaten to call him back, Fowler realizes that he must become more actively engaged in the events around him if he hopes to be allowed to stay.

One day he meets Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an American eye specialist who falls in love with Fowler's girl. Even though they are drawn together by much that they have in common, Fowler and Pyle soon become rivals for the woman, though by the end, their conflict has broadened to include the issues of war vs. peace, truth vs. deception, and personal feelings vs. political expediency.

`The Quiet American' is typical Greene in that it provides an intense personal drama played against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil in an exotic setting. Both Caine and Fraser bring a quiet intensity to their scenes together. Caine, in particular, is brilliant at conveying the many moods of a man who wants to be left alone to live a simple life with the woman he loves but who knows that circumstances are conspiring to make such a life impossible. He is heartbreaking as he sees that ideal existence suddenly slipping away, with little he can do to stop it from happening. He also begins to see just how difficult it is to remain emotionally detached from the horrors happening around him once the atrocities begin to encroach on his world directly. Fowler also has to decide whether his final action is truly rooted in a humanitarian impulse or the product of wanting to eliminate a pesky rival from the field of competition.

In addition to telling a fairly solid story, `The Quiet American' also provides a glimpse into the history of its region, particularly showing how the Americans ended up usurping the role of the French in that far off, alien country in the late ‘50's and early ‘60's. This is reflected in a wonderful coda that chronicles the steps leading up to this slow handoff of power and responsibility.

But for all the film's various virtues, it is Caine's performance that is the real reason to catch `The Quiet American.'

Entertaining picture dealing with a central romance along with thrills , political details and warlike deeds about Vietnam war . A young naive American named Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) and a cynical older British journalist called Fowler (Michael Caine) disagree over politics in 1952 Vietnam and over a beautiful young native girl called Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen) . As a ¨quiet American¨ with dark secrets arrives in Saigon with his own plan to settle country's conflicts . As it's not clear whether Alden Pyle is just what he appears , as he seems to be an innocent Young American opposite the older, cynical Brit Thomas Fowler . Eventually Fowler must confront moral conflicts and the relationship between Pyle and him reaches some problems connected with a Vietnamese General , at the same time the war and a political upheaval take place .

Interesting second rendition of the Graham Greene novel including a love triangle , emotion , wartime events and many other things . The picture relies heavily on the love triangle between the ironical British reporter , his enticing mistress and the strange quiet American , but it doesn't boring , neither tiring and nor dull . Michael Caine is good as a correspondent covering a conflict and finding himself becoming personally involved when he befriends an American who is not all that he seems to and also falling for a beautiful young Vietnamese , a mesmerizing Do Thi Hai . The movie has its touching moments found primarily in the superb performances from trio protagonist . The film ends with newspaper stories written by Thomas Fowler about Vietnam from 1954 to 1966. However the book on which the film was based was published in 1955, so these are mostly events which happened after the book came out . The US release of this movie was delayed for more than a year by the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001. The producers were concerned that it would be seen as anti-American.

Miramax had paid $5.5 million for the rights to distribute the movie in North America and some other territories, but then shelved it for a long time. Miramax even planned to send this movie to go straight-to-video. But Michael Caine successfully persuaded Miramax to screen this movie at 2002 Toronto International Film Festival; the movie received many good reviews at the Film Festival, so Miramax decided to release this movie in the United States theatrically . This handsomely mounted flick was well directed by Phillip Noyce , a successful Australian director who filmed Dead Calm (1989), starring Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane , it brought Noyce to Hollywood, where he directed 6 films over the next decade, including Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and present danger (1994) starring Harrison Ford, and The bone collector (1999), starring Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.

The first version with a very good cast such as Audie Murphy as the American , Michael Redgrave as Thomas Fowler , Claude Dauphin as Inspector Vigot , Giorgia Moll as Phuong Bruce Cabot as Bill Granger resulted to be more a killing mystery than the political/drama intented , while this last retelling turned to be more faithful to Graham Greene than Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1958 take on . In fact , in Europe, director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz was savagely attacked for his film's infidelity to the source novel by Graham Greene, not least by Greene himself. The screenplay essentially turns the novel inside-out, so that the blundering "quiet American", whose extreme naiveté causes tragedies .