The Quiet American and adaptation of the book with the same title by Graham Greene.

During the first French Indo Chine War, 1946-1954 a young American falls in love with a Vietnamese girl who is dating an English reporter Thomas Fowler. The reporter retorts by framing the American, Alden Pyle for selling arms to the anti-communists.

It was made into a film staring Audie Murphy, and Michael Redgrave initially, then the remake in 2002 where Michael Caine takes on the role of Times war correspondent Fowler and the Quiet American Alden Pyle is played by Brendan Fraser.

The Quiet American is a political drama film directed by Phillip Noyce, I wouldn’t normally lean to. It was the stars Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, and Do Thi Hai Yen that made me watch, I remembered Caine being nominated for best actor by BAFTA and receiving Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, his performance is outstanding but the acting is superb throughout by all cast members to be fair.

Although set during the French Indochina war and some scenes are Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon graphic it’s more psychological thriller, than war movie I’d say with an unusual love story threaded through as the central characters Fowler and his young mistress Phuong navigate the challenges of their relationship, her desire for security in the traditional sense, marriage in the 1950s and his frailty and selfishness in knowing regardless of his love and desire for her, his inability to deliver what she needed.

The sets the costumes and the emotional dynamics are gripping and what create sensitivity and complexity in what would probably otherwise be described as a guy movie.

For me it was a paradox between war in politics and power, colonialism of the French fighting the local independence of Indo China and communism with the interference from the anti communist Americans and the quest for power in personal relationships, friendships and professional associations, the director showed this in a clever engaging very deep film about the gravest of subject matter, war.

It’s a film that shows the evil in everyone, and I guess that is what war brings out in people. It’s a historical reflection on a beautiful magical Saigon, an extremely thought provoking and enigmatic film showing the intersection of Eastern promise and Western interference with the characters taking what they want when they want and the pain and carnage exposed in every direction by those actions.

For me it was like being schooled in the deepest ugliest reality of human nature whilst being coddled in a blanket of fine silk puffing in an opium pipe.

Maybe this was the directors way of conveying a very deep message about the fragility of human consciousness and how we are all able to be manipulated to get what we want in the end regardless of the consequences.

I won’t spoil the ending but Fowler does get what he wants the big question the film leaves you with in the end, at what cost.

I will definitely watch this film again, not for a while, it’s an intense journey but one we all need to go on more than once.