Caine’s performance makes noise in ‘Quiet American’

Based on the novel by Graham Greene, “The Quiet American” is a

movie of intrigue and mystery, told in flashback, film noir style,

beginning with the discovery of a dead body floating face down in

Saigon Harbor and then recounting how it came to be there.

Starring Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler, a cynical and uninvolved

veteran British journalist covering the Vietnamese liberation war

with the colonialist French in Indochina, the action takes place

around 1952, just before America’s involvement in Vietnam -- or is

the U.S. already involved?

This is a central theme of the movie, but the story revolves

around and focuses on Fowler, who has a wife back home in London, but

also has a beautiful young Vietnamese mistress, Hei Phuong (Hai Yen

Do).

After being notified that he is to be recalled to England, Fowler

schemes to come up with a story that will convince his editors to

keep him in Vietnam. He then meets and befriends a likable and

idealistic young American, a quiet American, Alden Pyle (Brendan

Frasier).

Pyle is in Vietnam on a humanitarian medical mission. Upon meeting

Phuong, he falls hopelessly in love with her. Thus a love triangle is

born; soon it will grow into a murder mystery.

Though Frasier is good as Pyle, and the beautiful Hai Yen Do

admirable as the childlike and innocent Phuong, the film is carried

by Caine, who will -- if the buzz proves correct -- be nominated for

an Oscar for his performance. Kudos should also go to director Philip

Noyce and screenwriter Christopher Hampton -- who also wrote the

screenplay for “Dangerous Liaisons” -- as they slowly and subtly

create a sense of intrigue surrounding Frasier’s character Pyle.

We see contrasts and metaphors throughout the movie, but they are

never blatantly obvious or crammed down our throat, as would happen

in an inferior film. We see the beauty of Vietnam juxtaposed against

the carnage of the war; the aging, sophisticated, jaded Brit set

against the young, handsome, idealistic American.

I really liked how throughout the film you can sense that they

both respect and like each other and that they try to remain friends,

even amid the worst moments between them.

The film also somewhat mirrors the American experience in Vietnam.

Like Pyle’s beliefs about Phuong and her relationship with Fowler, we

may have idealistically gone to war to “save” the Vietnamese people

(from communism), but we went in blindly, believing naively in our

ideology and, ultimately, not knowing the pain we would endure nor

that which we would cause.

Rated R for images of violence and language, on the Brunette movie

rating scale of “Pay Full Price,” “Bargain Matinee,” “Video Rental,”

or “Wait for Cable,” I give “The Quiet American” a rarely given and

not often seen rating of “Pay Full Price.”

* RICHARD BRUNETTE is a 39-year-old recreation supervisor for the

city of Costa Mesa.