Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) was a \u201cquiet American\u201d, says Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) to a French policeman. \u201cA friend,\u201d he adds, as the lifeless corpse of Pyle stares back at him with a wretched expression.<\/p>\n
This is the scene that opens Phillip Noyce\u2019s Vietnam-set political drama before the film flashes back a few months earlier to 1952 Saigon, where Fowler, an ageing Englishman, lives leisurely as a journalist reporting on the first Indochina war. When Pyle, a young American aid worker advocating for US intervention, falls for Fowler\u2019s 20-year-old Vietnamese lover, Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng (\u0110\u1ed7 Th\u1ecb H\u1ea3i Y\u1ebfn), the jaded reporter\u2019s tranquil existence begins to unravel.<\/p>\n
At Pyle and Fowler\u2019s first meeting at the Continental hotel, it is clear that Pyle is anything but \u201cquiet\u201d: handsomely bespectacled, the American idealist is attentively reading Dangers to Democracy, a book on foreign policy. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to contain communism,\u201d Pyle says with conviction. Although Fowler brushes off Pyle\u2019s ideologies with cynical pragmatism, he scarcely leaves a dent on the American\u2019s unwavering belief that Vietnam should not be ruled by communists or colonial powers, but by a US-backed \u201cthird force\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Pyle is committed to his neocolonial rhetoric; Fowler, meanwhile, is morally fatigued. But the two form an unlikely friendship, complicated by their rivalry to win Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s beauty. There\u2019s daughter of a professor. Taxi dancer. Mistress of an older European man,\u201d is how Pyle describes Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng, adding: \u201cThat pretty well describes the whole country, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d Indeed, Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng\u2019s country is beautiful, even if it has been ravaged under French rule. \u201cWe are here to save Vietnam from all that,\u201d Pyle proclaims with zeal.<\/p>\n
Played with politeness and Fraser\u2019s boyish charm, Pyle effortlessly disarms the audience. At the same time, Fraser lends Pyle\u2019s aspirations such sincerity that he seems less an agent of American interventionism than one of its victims, manipulated by the very cause he champions.<\/p>\n
Caine also delivers a career-best performance, finely distilling the collapse of Fowler\u2019s world-weary cynicism under the weight of guilt. Even Caine\u2019s gait is slow and deliberate, moving through Saigon like a spectre, almost dissolving into the opium vapours he puffs if not for his frequent sardonic remarks. Yet behind his dry wit is a man terrified of losing power: \u201cI wish I could give you everything,\u201d he tells Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng, trembling with shame. Through Caine\u2019s intricate tapestry of vulnerability and remorse, Fowler\u2019s reckoning gains a haunting resonance as he rediscovers a sense of justice beneath his corroded morals.<\/p>\n
\u0110\u1ed7 Th\u1ecb H\u1ea3i Y\u1ebfn and Michael Caine. Photograph: Moviestore Collection Ltd\/Alamy<\/p>\n
The true heart of The Quiet American, though, is Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng, played with almost silent brilliance by \u0110\u1ed7 Th\u1ecb H\u1ea3i Y\u1ebfn. Caught between the western men and their conflicting views of Vietnam, Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng becomes emblematic of her country\u2019s fate. Just as Vietnam was fought over by foreign powers, Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng is objectified as a prize to be won by Fowler and Pyle. But \u0110\u1ed7 humanises her with measured, melancholic glances and wordless contemplation. \u201cIt [means] \u2018phoenix\u2019,\u201d Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng explains her name\u2019s meaning with pride, perhaps prophesying Vietnam\u2019s rise from the ashes to claim its hard-fought independence. Through Ph\u01b0\u1ee3ng\u2019s poise and decorum, Noyce personifies Vietnam\u2019s enduring dignity through colonialism and imperialism. Her presence permeates every frame of the film, moving elegantly with the elegiac flow of Christopher Doyle\u2019s cinematography.<\/p>\n
As tragedy strikes in front of the Saigon opera house, Doyle\u2019s camera adopts Fowler\u2019s point of view and frantically runs across a brutal massacre. Mirroring the handheld realism of cin\u00e9ma v\u00e9rit\u00e9 to photograph the innocent deaths in the film\u2019s climax, Noyce and Doyle seemingly allude to the decades of documented American atrocities in Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Depicting events immediately preceding the Vietnam war<\/a>, The Quiet American was released on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, making its criticism of American interventionism all the more pertinent. Now, 50 years after Vietnam, the US finds itself backing Israel\u2019s war on Gaza. Clearly, The Quiet American\u2019s admonitions have fallen on deaf ears.<\/p>\n The Quiet American is streaming on SBS on Demand in Australia, Prime Video in the UK and Fubo in the US. It is also available to rent in the UK and US. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) was a \u201cquiet American\u201d, says Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) to a French policeman. \u201cA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-319767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}