Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by free.ranger (A) on December 19, 2018 at 15:27:37

This is digging back nearly 2 decades but it was recently seen on cable. The Quiet American is a very disquieting film starring Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, and a beautiful Vietnamese actress, Do Thi Hai Yen.

Set in 1952, this remake is more true to Greene's 1955 novel of American early involvement in Vietnam, depicting shady CIA (or its OSS precursor) sponsorship of terrorism to establish a 3rd power group to challenge both the failing French (it was known as French Indochina at that time), and the communist rebels.

That is one theme. The other is a love triangle between Fowler (Caine), a British journalist, Pyle (Fraser), who is a US undercover operative masquerading as a medical aid worker, and Phuong (Yen), the Vietnamese love interest. Greene interweaves these 2 plots to a morbid conclusion.

The first movie from this book was filmed in 1958 with Audie Murphy and Micheal Redgrave. Given the times then, it was made with a decidedly pro-American spin, which pissed off Greene. He denounced the film. Murphy got the role of Pyle by default when other male leads backed out, but would not have taken the role unless Greene's novel was spun in opposite direction. I backfilled these '58 notes from online sources for comparison. There may be no subversive plotting in this first film; not sure.

The release of the 2002 remake was held back for a year because of the 9/11 attacks. It was called unpatriotic. It finally made its first appearance in Toronto and received positive reviews. Caine was nominated or suggested for an Oscar. This is a great, romantic, disquieting story about the beginnings of US history in Vietnam; getting sucked down that rabbit hole. Worth your time to find and see this film.