Genre – Spy cum human drama
Time: 1 Hours 35 minutes
Platform: You Tube, Free
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Michael Caine. Brendan Fraser. Do Thi Hai Yen.
Plot: Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine), is a British journalist posted in Hanoi, to cover the French–Vietnamese Indo China war of the early 1950s. Fowler is separated from his wife, generally cynical of human virtue and is sure that the French have got it all wrong. Into his life comes Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), a ‘dance hall hostess’. He is soon obsessed with her. At the same time American Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), is also pursuing Phuong. Pyle works for an American aid agency which is aiding the Vietnamese move forward. He shrugs off any suggestions that he has any sinister intentions other than being honorable with Phuong and Vietnam as a whole. Fowler is not so sure and watches Pyle ardently pursue Phuong while events in the country spiral out of control ….
Graham Green wrote The Quiet American in 1955, after the First IndoChina Warm between the French and the Vietnamese had become history. The story of passion, intrigue, a changing post-colonial world with the French refusing to read the writing on the wall, an old-fashioned love triangle, jealousy found a ready audience and was successful. The appeal was simple – it told a human story of humans and their inner workings. Greene , who knew a thing or two about infidelity (he had multiple affairs while being married), knew about the human emotions behind the story.
Nothing works like success and The Quiet American was made into a black and white 1958 Hollywood film with Michael Redgrave as Fowler and all-American authentic WW2 hero, Medal of Honor winner, Audie Murphy as Pyle. The results were indifferent. Murphy had to act and not just blaze away with machine guns, as he did with some of his earlier films. (He played himself in his 1955 biopic To Hell and back). The overall results were indifferent with thespian Redgrave hardly living upto his acting chops. The film just didnt get it right.
Philip Noyce’s 2002 version is superb. Michael Caine as Fowler is BRILLIANT as the jealous, manipulative, self-centred, yet ultimately tragic Fowler who desperately gambles for Phuong’s affection and trying to redeem his own self esteem while being ardently opposed by the youthful Pyle. Fowler’s last gasp at romance with the youthful Phuong is also a gamble as she is ardently pursued the even more youthful Pyle. Fowler can see the writing on the wall, but cannot / will not/ does not want to let go. She is the prize. Fowler’s pursuit of Phuong is also an attempt to reaffirm he is a normal human, caught up in situations not of his making – especially his separation from his wife.
The parables / parallels are clear. The big loud Americans wanting to intervene in the world, in the name of democracy, as symbolized by Pyle, with Vietnam / Phuong as the prize against established old-world morals and rules. Pyle is as much a product of the Cold War as much of American naivety, fueled by Cold War and then ascendant McCarthyism who saw Reds everywhere.
As mentioned earlier, enough cant be said about Caine as Fowler. Always used to underplaying his roles, Caine is brilliant as Fowler who knows the youthful Pyle will surely win but can’t but watch helplessly. When he decides to act, it is towards an action that results in all round destruction, including his tortured soul. Brendan Fraser, usually given to goofy roles in those times, is excellent as the clean cut but sneaky all-American Pyle, who slowly and steadily wears down Fowler.
The actual Vietnamese locations contribute enormously to the film’s overall appeal. The film was shot in Hanoi, Da Nang, which were all epicentres of the First Indo China War, between France and Vietnam.
DO NOT Miss this one; it is on You Tube.
https://youtu.be/KkAvOUZvG0c?t=38
Script – 5 out of 5
Story – 5 out of 5
Direction – 5 out of 5
Photography – 4 out of 5
Lead Performances – 5 out of 5
Total – 4.8 out of 5
Another excellent review, Rammesh! I was familiar with the novel, but not so much the two films. The one starring Michael Caine is now a must watch.
I am currently going through the massive, Ken Burns epic on ‘The Vietnam War’ (book and 10-part documentary).. so, it’ll be great to watch the Caine film.
“The big loud Americans wanting to intervene in the world, in the name of democracy…as much of American naivety, fueled by Cold War and then ascendant McCarthyism who saw Reds everywhere.”…..
Well, up to a point. As you know, the history of this small nation is tortured and bloody – under French control since the 1880s…. an emergent civil war in the 1920s (Nationalists vs. Communists)… the Japanese invasion in the 1940s (while France was knocked to the ground by Hitler)…. the U.S. entering the fray in 1944 by supply arms to the Viet Minh to fight the Japanese… their post-war surrender… entry of the Chinese in the north to oversee the surrender… the Truman Doctrine to oppose Communism…on-going civil war in Vietnam and eventually the Big Powers waging a proxy battle in the jungles, with Diem, Ho Chi Minh and many internal factions all fuelling the unending civil war…. with the incendiary (literally) factor of religion thrown in (Buddhists, French Catholism, etc..)
All meaning to say that ‘Communism plans to take over South East Asia’ was a very real and terrifying prospect at the time. Enter the U.S into the cauldron and the rest we know.
As with any global wars (I, II, Vietnam) – too many ‘super-powers’ aiming to impose their doctrines first internally and then export them.
Absolutely right. Ken Burns captures all these and more in his incredible documentary.