Quiet American (the)

Genre: psychological drama  

With: Michael Caine (Thomas Fowler), Brendan Fraser (Alden Pyle), Do Thi Hai Yen (Phong)

Director: Phillip Noyce

Release: 2002

Studio:  Giai Phong Film Studio, IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. 2. Produktions KG, Intermedia Films et al.

Rating: PG

MBiS score: 8.1/10

The Politics of Love and War

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Story-line: the year is 1954, the location is Vietnam and a war of attrition rages on in the countryside between French and communist forces. Thomas Fowler, a British journalist, covers it all from Saigon where he lives comfortably with his mistress Phong. Things do change, however, with the arrival of an American doctor named Alden Pyle…

Pluses: an able cast led by the always interesting Michael Caine, a gripping story (based on a Graham Greene novel), an exotic decor.

Minuses: none really.

Comments: there’s a bit of everything in this captivating and evenly solid film that plays like a metaphor of French – and later American – intervention in Indochina. If you have missed this modest but striking movie when it came out, feel free to catch it now!

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