'QUIET' BUT COMMANDING
A scene from 'The Quiet American'
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"THE QUIET AMERICAN"
***1/2 stars
118 minutes | Rated: R
NY/LA: Friday, November 22, 2002
Limited: Friday, February 7, 2002
Directed by Philip Noyce

Starring Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Rade Serbedzija, Do Hai Yen, Quang Hai, Ferdinand Hoang, Tzi Ma, Mathias Mlekuz, Holmes Osborne, Robert Stanton



This film is on the Best of 2002 list.


 FEATURE LINK
Read our interview with Philip Noyce Interview with director Philip Noyce


 COUCH CRITIQUE
   SMALL SCREEN SHRINKAGE: 20%
   WIDESCREEN: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Wide screen will aid enormously in being transported to this film's very vivid time and place. But let the movie envelop you -- don't watch it as "company" while doing something else -- and it should be every bit good as in the theater.

   VIDEO RELEASE: 07.29.2003
 DVD SPOTLIGHT
In addition to a fascinating "Anatomy of a Scene" episode from the Sundance Channel that dissects in detail (script, cinematography, acting, sound design) this film's pivotal bombing scene, this DVD has what may be the best patched-together commentary track I've heard to date. Director Noyce provides deeper historical context, political details, insightful views on the casting, the performances and filmmaking, as well as his own curious story of how he got involved with the project. The track also includes partial commentaries by producers, screenwriter Christopher Hampton, and stars Michael Caine (who has his own military stories from Korea) and Brendan Fraser (who speaks of forcing himself into a Cold War perspective so he could understand why his character naively considers himself a hero). Actor Tzi Ma and Noyce's Vietnamese interpreter/advisor contribute as well, in ways that are surprisingly relevant. All told, the commentary is almost as engrossing as the movie itself.

OTHER NOTABLE BONUS MATERIAL
A remote-navigable historical timeline of Vietnam from 1940 to the 1980s is quite in-depth, if a little skewed (at one point it's implied that Ho Chi Minh turned to communism only after the US left his rebellion dangling). Purely promotional 5m featurette (just watch the "Anatomy" instead). And as always, Miramax has loaded the disks with trailers (not theatrical trailers, but lame video trailers) for other movies, but not this one -- and not even "Rabbit-Proof Fence," the other Philip Noyce film they released in 2002.

SOUND & PICTURE
Rich, layered 5.1 Dolby audio and a nice, warm picture free of flaws and well-matted.


  BUY IT HERE
SPECS
RATIO: 2.35:1 (16x9 enhanced)
DUBS: none
SUBS: English

DVD RATING: ***



 OTHER REVIEWS/COMING SOON
 
  • Philip Noyce
  • Michael Caine
  • Brendan Fraser
  • Rade Serbedzija


  •  LINKS for this film
    Official site
    at movies.yahoo.com
    at Rotten Tomatoes
    at Internet Movie Database
    Watch the trailer
    Caine gives career performance in intrigue- and emotion-laced film about pre-war Vietnam

    By Rob Blackwelder

    Emotionally and politically complex beyond what most filmmakers would dare attempt -- and transporting in a way that vividly recreates the tastes, the smells, the very character of 1950s Vietnam -- "The Quiet American" is a pungent, powerful, psychologically spellbinding film about a aged British reporter caught up in a love triangle and in the multifaceted intrigue that led the country into two decades of war.

    Michael Caine, in what is arguably the most potent, unforgettable and instinctive performance of his busy career, stars as Thomas Fowler, a disillusioned London Times reporter whose only remaining passions are his attachment to life in Vietnam and his love for his beautiful, fragile young mistress named Phuong (Hai Yen), a former taxi dancer at a Saigon nightclub.

    After years of skating by on occasional submissions to his newspaper, Fowler is trying to avoid being recalled to England, by returning to the front lines of the communist uprising, when he meets Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an idealistic aid worker fresh from America who befriends Fowler but falls in love with Phuong.

    "I should have realized," Caine offers in his sparse, insightful, slightly melancholy voice-over, "that to someone like Pyle, saving a country and saving a woman would be the same thing."

    But is there something more to this seemingly humble American? Fowler begins to wonder when piecing together details about the young man who carries a book called "Dangerous to Democracy" and argues that neither the colonial French nor the communists should rule the country.

    When Fowler takes a trip into rebel territory for a confrontational interview with the breakaway leader of a volatile, brutal third faction, he finds Pyle, ostensibly working with the Red Cross. When Pyle asks for a ride back to Saigon, he saves Fowler's life, springing into curiously stealthy and strategically adept action as they come under attack on the road at night.

    Taking place in a dangerous civil climate where the sound of a grenade going off a few blocks away is nothing more than a hiccup in conversation, "The Quiet American" soon finds terrorism, espionage, moral ambiguity and other precursors of the future U.S.-led war enveloping Fowler, who "had hidden so long behind a typewriter."

    Directed by Philip Noyce (who struck gold twice this year, also helming "Rabbit-Proof Fence") and adapted from Graham Green's acclaimed novel (which was eerily precognative of the Vietnam War) by Christopher Hampton ("Dangerous Liaisons") and Robert Schenkkan, the film opens with two cinematic errors in judgment: 1) A beautiful, atmospheric shot of small-boat river traffic on the edge of Saigon, in which the night sky is lit by battle explosions in the distance, is ruined by the film's intrusive, distracting opening credits; and 2) the prologue gives away a major plot development that would have been better left to come as a shock at the end.

    These problematic narrative choices are, however, overshadowed by the fact that the brilliant Caine is aching yet understated as the weary but galvanized Fowler, and that Fraser plays Pyle with a seamless fusion of feigned naivete, genuine idealism, hints of a clandestine ulterior agenda and misguided love for Phuong.

    Just as importantly, Noyce's direction never missteps again, and his attention to detail makes every frame of the movie sumptuously vibrant. His point-of-view shots place you directly in the path of conflicted emotions in the romantic subplot. The stillness Fowler creates around himself becomes all the more resonant when it's shattered by a car-bombing across the street from the European hotel where he sips his daily tea on the veranda. And Noyce's choice to linger on the carnage that follows has a visceral effect as Fowler is shaken to his core, deciding he can no longer remain a neutral observer.

    This sets the stage for a conspiracy-fueled climax that thunders with fear and danger, aided in no small part by a spine-tingling score from composer Craig Armstrong.

    As a political thriller, "The Quiet American" is taut and stunning. But even in its most intrigue-driven moments, the intensity of personal resolve -- the substance of the characters hearts and souls -- is what carries the movie.




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