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The Quiet American [2002]
from Buena Vista Home Entertainment
starring Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen, Rade Serbedzija, Tzi Ma
directed by Phillip Noyce

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

An impressive film from director Philip Noyce, The Quiet American proves that elegant and intelligent film-making can be emotionally powerful. Michael Caine plays Thomas Fowler, a British journalist in 1950s Vietnam with a lovely Vietnamese mistress named Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen) and a jaded view of the political strife teeming around him. He befriends a seemingly innocuous American named Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), who falls in love with Phuong--and slowly, Pyle's real purpose in Vietnam becomes revealed. Fowler finds that, to hold on to the carefully balanced life he's created for himself, he must make choices he's long avoided. Caine and Fraser are both superb and give a human face to complicated politics; as a result, The Quiet American manages to be compelling as both history and a story about very specific people embroiled in a very personal conflict. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• Drama from the old school
  Nothing compares when a well written novel with a simple but plausible plot meets an equally well crafted and acted movie.
  I had read Graham Greene's cynical book in the late 70's and had seen Mankiewicz's film too. For some reason that film, to me, never seemed to quite capture the right mood of the characters.
  Bring on Michael Cain and Brendan Frasier, and suddenly I felt that my vision of this book had been answered; a political cloak-and-dagger thriller that includes a love triangle,... more info

• Not as good as the book but a good try.
  I do not know if Michael Caine was ideal in the role as the "burnt out" journalist in indo china.However the story is an excellent one,and one that gives an insight into the beginning of the Vietnam war ,when the Americans were replacing the French as the "Colonial Power".
  The messages in this book are about missunderstanding,both on a personal and international level,and a semi-selfish idea of knowing whats best for someone else,even although perhaps you do not understand their position.
  A... more info

• Caine at his best...
  Michael Caine demonstrates the versatility that first drew him to the attention of the film making moguls. A truly powerful performance that carried along a much weaker supporting actor. The plot is based on a solid novel by Graham Greene and the underlying message becomes all too evident. Intellectually stimulating, the developing relationships between an American convinced that the ends justify the means, an Englishman rapidly being overtaken by events and a young girl, desperate for some sort of... more info

• The seduction of American innocence
  Of all the films I've seen over the years concerning America's involvement in Vietnam, THE QUIET AMERICAN is perhaps the most seductive.

  It's 1952, and Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is the aging correspondent for the London Times in Saigon. France is in the process of being tossed out of Indochina, but the former doesn't realize it yet - Dien Bien Phu is still in the future - and its military fights on ineffectually against the communists. In the meantime, Fowler submits the occasional story to the head... more info

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