Graham Greene was one of the great writers of literary fiction of the late 20th Century, combining a journalistic eye with a flair for storytelling to great effect. One of his best traits was his prescience, putting his finger on the pulse of the political climate of the day and writing novels that foreshadowed the Communist takeover in Cuba and the American build-up in Vietnam amongst others. This has led to numerous adaptations of his various novels with today's film The Quiet American the second such adaptation of this work.
Retaining the anti-American tone of Greene's novel, this is a very fine adaptation of a classic tale of world weary cynic, Thomas Fowler, a British journalist working for The London Times in Saigon in 1952, covering the gradual downfall of the French occupation and the inexorable rise of the communist forces of North Vietnam. He takes tea at 11 each morning and files the odd story with the London office, spending most of his time romancing his Vietnamese girlfriend Phuong and smoking Opium. Into this scene comes Pyle, ably played by Brendan Fraser, as an idealistic young American in Saigon ostensibly to offer aid to the struggling country. Fowler has an open distaste for the machinations of the American legation but respects Pyle's idealism if not where it ultimately leads.
Michael Caine is excellent as Fowler, playing a character who is struggling with competing motivations that are not always pure. He wants to stay uncommitted from the war which is brewing all around him while still sticking to his principals, all the while trying to retain the love of his girlfriend. It is a delicate performance which carries the film. The film's other main attribute is the realistic portrayal of Saigon, a beautiful French colonial City with a constant smell of damp decay in the air, pervading its squares and cafe's. If there is a criticism, it is that there are no really well fleshed out Vietnamese characters. They all seem to be there to act as metaphors for the Vietnamese peoples national character.
This film was inirially held back for release by almost a year after 9/11 as it was felt that its tone was out of step with the mood of the day. This is perhaps unfair as It is both true to Greene's intentions ans is not as overtly anti-American as this action would imply. Pyle's actions while well-meaning are reprehensible and they are symptomatic of how America did act in Vietnam, duplicitous and with its own interests at heart, not those of the Vietnamese people. This is a fine film with a nuanced central performance from Caine and a compelling mysterious storyline. Well worth a look.
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