movie review the quiet american

The Quiet American

The Englishman is sad and lonely. He suffers from the indignity of growing too old for romance while not yet free of yearning. He is in love for one last time. He doesn’t even fully understand it is love until he is about to lose it. He is a newspaper correspondent in Saigon, and she is a dance-hall girl 30 or 40 years younger. She loves him because he pays her to. This arrangement suits them both. He tells himself he is “helping” her. Well, he is, and she is helping him.

His name is Fowler, and he is played by Michael Caine in a performance that seems to descend perfectly formed. There is no artifice in it, no unneeded energy, no tricks, no effort. It is there. Her name is Phuong ( Do Hai Yen ), and like all beautiful women who reveal little of their true feelings, she makes it possible for him to project his own upon her. He loves her for what he can tell himself about her.

Between them steps Alden Pyle ( Brendan Fraser ), the quiet young American who has come to Vietnam, he believes, to save it. Eventually he also believes he will save Phuong. Young men like old ones find it easy to believe hired love is real, and so believe a girl like Phuong would prefer a young man to an old one, when all youth represents is more work.

Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American (1955) told the story of this triangle against the background of America’s adventure in Vietnam in the early 1950s–when, he shows us, the CIA used pleasant, presentable agents like Pyle to pose as “aid workers” while arranging terrorist acts that would justify our intervention there.

The novel inspired a 1958 Hollywood version in which the director Joseph Mankiewicz turned the story on its head, making Fowler the bad guy and Pyle the hero. Did the CIA have a hand in funding that film? Stranger things have happened: The animated version of “Animal Farm” (1948) was paid for by a CIA front, and twisted Orwell’s fable about totalitarianism both East and West into a simplistic anti-communist cartoon.

Now comes another version of “The Quiet American,” this one directed by the Australian Phillip Noyce and truer to the Greene novel. It is a film with a political point of view, but often its characters lose sight of that, in their fascination with each other and with the girl. A question every viewer will have to answer at the end is whether a final death is the result of moral conviction, or romantic compulsion.

The film is narrated by Caine’s character, in that conversational voice weary with wisdom; we are reminded of the tired cynicism of the opening narration in the great film of Greene’s The Third Man . Pyle has “a face with no history, no problems,” Fowler tells us; his own face is a map of both. “I’m just a reporter,” he says. “I offer no point of view, I take no action, I don’t get involved.” Indeed, he has scarcely filed a story in the past year for his paper, the Times of London; he is too absorbed in Phuong, and opium.

The irony is that Pyle, who he actually likes at first, jars him into action and involvement. What he finally cannot abide is the younger man’s cheerful certainty that he is absolutely right: “Saving the country and saving a woman would be the same thing to a man like that.” As luck would have it, “The Quiet American” was planned for release in the autumn of 2001. It was shelved after 9/11, when Miramax president Harvey Weinstein decided, no doubt correctly, that the national mood was not ripe for a film pointing out that the United States is guilty of terrorist acts of its own. Caine appealed to Weinstein, who a year later allowed the film to be shown at the Toronto Film Festival, where it was so well received by the public and critics that Miramax opened it for Oscar consideration in December. Now it goes into national release, on what appears to be the eve of another dubious war.

It would be unfortunate if people went to the movie, or stayed away, because of its political beliefs. There is no longer much controversy about the CIA’s hand in stirring the Vietnam pot, and the movie is not an expose but another of Greene’s stories about a worn-down, morally exhausted man clinging to shreds of hope in a world whose cynicism has long since rendered him obsolete. Both men “love” Phuong, but for Pyle she is less crucial. Fowler, on the other hand, admits: “I know I’m not essential to Phuong, but if I were to lose her, for me that would be the beginning of death.” What Phuong herself thinks is not the point with either man, since they are both convinced she wants them.

Fraser, who often stars as a walking cartoon (“ Dudley Do-Right ,” “ George of the Jungle “) has shown in other pictures, like “ Gods and Monsters ,” that he is a gifted actor, and here he finds just the right balance between confidence and blindness: What he does is evil, but he is convinced it is good, and has a simple, sunny view that maddens an old hand like Fowler. The two characters work well together because there is an undercurrent of commonality: They are both floating in the last currents of colonialism, in which life in Saigon can be very good, unless you get killed.

Noyce made two great pictures close together, this one and “ Rabbit-Proof Fence ,” which I reviewed last December. He feels anger as he tells this story, but he conceals it, because the story as it stands is enough. Some viewers will not even intercept the political message. It was that way with Greene: The politics were in the very weave of the cloth, not worth talking about. Here, in a rare Western feature shot in Vietnam, with real locations and sets that look well-worn enough to be real, with wonderful performances, he suggests a world view more mature and knowing than the simplistic pieties that provide the public face of foreign policy.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler
Tzi Ma as Hinh
Quang Hai as General The
Rade Sherbedgia as Inspector Vigot
Holmes Osborne as Bill Granger
Ferdinand Hoang as Mr. Muoi
Brendan Fraser as Alden Pyle
Do Hai Yen as Phuong
Robert Stanton as Joe Tunney
Christopher Hampton
Robert Schenkkan

Based On The Novel by

Graham Greene

Directed by

Phillip Noyce

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The Quiet American Reviews

Michael Redgrave's performance is the best thing about this thematically compromised piece.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 8, 2021

Mankiewicz probably got so much enjoyment from the writing that there was little enough left for filming it. Though a matter for regret, The Quiet American is still the most interesting film about at the moment.

Full Review | Sep 16, 2021

Mankiewicz (who also wrote the adapted screenplay) does a fine job balancing romance, intrigue and war.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 22, 2011

One of Mankiewicz's weaker films, a verbose, disappointingly sanitized version of Graham Greene's cynical novel about American involvement in Indo-China, with mediocre turns by Murphy and Redgrave.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Mar 26, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2003

The Quiet American is loosely adapted from Graham Greene's penetrating 1956 book about the Indo-China War.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Apr 21, 2003

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Although most 'Nam War film lists begin with John Wayne's "The Green Berets" (1969), there was actually a cycle of dramas - from "Saigon" (1948) to "The Ugly American" (1963) - that were set in the region during the years before American troops arrived. Based on the novel by Graham Greene, "The Quiet American" is one of these pre-war movies. It's a political thriller that combines a passionate love triangle with some cloak-and-dagger intrigue and a prescient grasp of the dangers that Vietnam would bring America .

When an idealistic young American (Murphy) arrives in Saigon, his presence causes all kinds of rumours . Is he a spy, a philanthropist, or just another Yankee businessman? British war correspondent Fowler (Redgrave) doesn't know for certain, but the American's talk of a "third force" that will offer the Vietnamese the right to choose between French colonial rule and Communism sounds suspect. Even more worrying, though, is his interest in Fowler's Vietnamese girlfriend Phuong (Hai Yen Do) who he's quite openly making a play for.

While Graham Greene was annoyed by the way in which Hollywood had downplayed the novel's cynicism, "The Quiet American" is still a considerably more challenging movie than one might expect . There's some wonderfully witty banter between Redgrave's world-weary cynic and Murphy's naïve idealist, some evocative location shooting and an underlying fatalism that gives the production quite an edge - one that not even the talky script can blunt.

With a stunning performance from Redgrave whose dry British wit is an absolute delight and a downbeat love story that owes more than a nod to "Casablanca", "The Quiet American" is a deftly adult film. Here's betting that the soon-to-be-released remake starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser won't even come close to capturing its dark and moody feel.

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Metacritic reviews

The quiet american.

100 Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan Star Michael Caine, who gives one of the great, inescapably moving performances in a career filled with them, based his character on personal impressions of the late author. And Greene's lifelong concern with moral ambiguity gives this film a texture and complexity that movies don't usually achieve.
100 Washington Post Ann Hornaday Washington Post Ann Hornaday The narrative is lean, the supporting performances are solid, and, perhaps most crucially, the emotional tone of the piece is spot-on.
90 Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern Ever since the movie made a brief appearance late last year to qualify for Oscar consideration, Mr. Caine's performance has been hailed as the best of his career, and surely that's true.
90 The New York Times Stephen Holden The New York Times Stephen Holden Fowler may be the richest character of Mr. Caine's screen career. Slipping into his skin with an effortless grace, this great English actor gives a performance of astonishing understatement whose tone wavers delicately between irony and sadness.
90 Washington Post Desson Thomson Washington Post Desson Thomson Thanks to Caine's subtly nuanced performance, there's a deeper dimension to everything. He's snappily ironic at times, sometimes amazingly delicate, always engaging.
89 Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten In so many ways, The Quiet American speaks volumes.
88 Boston Globe Ty Burr Boston Globe Ty Burr The key to why the new ''American'' is so good and so true, though, is Brendan Fraser as the title character.
80 The A.V. Club Scott Tobias The A.V. Club Scott Tobias Even as The Quiet American loses focus and urgency, Caine's performance keeps the doomed spirit of Greene's hero intact.
80 Variety Todd McCarthy Variety Todd McCarthy One of Caine's meatiest roles, and he handles it with power, humanity and remarkable emotional fluidity; from the opening moments, an enormous amount comes through his eyes alone.
50 New York Daily News Jami Bernard New York Daily News Jami Bernard The movie adds nothing to the political dialogue, and the love story is mood-killingly sad. The lure of the exotic can be deceptive, it says. The moody, murky atmosphere leaves nothing clear except that mixed intentions will always yield mixed results.
See all 39 reviews on Metacritic.com
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The Quiet American Review

22 Nov 2002

117 minutes

Quiet American, The

Flashing back from the murder of its morally complex hero and exploring themes as diverse as colonialism, duty and faith, this intense analysis of the superpowers' right to settle distant disputes to their own advantage may be set in the 1950s, but it still resonates with significance.

Graham Greene detested this adaptation of his scathing assault on American interventionism in the Third World. Then again, he rarely approved of screen versions of his novels.

However, in this case, he has a point, as Joseph L. Mankiewicz cynically manipulates the story's political sting to reduce it to a personality clash between Audie Murphy's callow philanthropist and Michael Redgrave's world-weary war correspondent, who not only disagree over the future of what was then French Indo-China, but who also love the same girl.

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COMMENTS

The Quiet American movie review (2003) - Roger Ebert
Feb 7, 2003 · Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American (1955) told the story of this triangle against the background of America’s adventure in Vietnam in the early 1950s–when, he shows us, the CIA used pleasant, presentable agents like Pyle to pose as “aid workers” while arranging terrorist acts that would justify our intervention there.
The Quiet American - Rotten Tomatoes
Jun 24, 2006 Full Review Felicia Feaster Creative Loafing The Quiet American is an accurate if not entirely soul-quaking adaptation of Greene's style to film. It establishes such a believable ...
The Quiet American Reviews - Metacritic
Nov 22, 2002 · As for the acting, Michael Caine turns in an absolutely phenomenal performance. It honestly may be one of the best performances I have been blessed to see. Brendan Fraser does very good as well when faced with the impossible task of out-acting Caine. Overall, The Quiet American is a truly engaging film that is very nuanced and incredibly subtle.
The Quiet American - Rotten Tomatoes
Rated: C Mar 26, 2008 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The Quiet American is loosely adapted from Graham Greene's penetrating 1956 book about the Indo-China War.
The Quiet American - Movie Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes
The Quiet American is loosely adapted from Graham Greene's penetrating 1956 book about the Indo-China War. Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Apr 21, 2003 Load More
The Quiet American (2002) - The Quiet American (2002) - IMDb
The Quiet American has won multiple awards, including "Movie of the Year" at the U.S. AFI Awards in 2003 follows Thomas Fowler, a British reporter, during his time in Saigon as he covered the war between the French and the Vietnamese Communists.
Films - review - The Quiet American - BBC
Aug 1, 2002 · Although most 'Nam War film lists begin with John Wayne's "The Green Berets" (1969), there was actually a cycle of dramas - from "Saigon" (1948) to "The Ugly American" (1963) - that were set in ...
The Quiet American critic reviews - Metacritic
Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed. The Quiet American critic reviews - Metacritic
The Quiet American (2002) - Metacritic reviews - IMDb
The movie adds nothing to the political dialogue, and the love story is mood-killingly sad. The lure of the exotic can be deceptive, it says. The moody, murky atmosphere leaves nothing clear except that mixed intentions will always yield mixed results.
The Quiet American Review | Movie - Empire
Nov 21, 2002 · The Quiet American Review Thomas Fowler is a cynical foreign correspondent in Vietnam. He finds himself thrown into contact with an idealistic American, Alden Pyle and they clash over politics ...