Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8561 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-08
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, French, Vietnamese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
An impressive film from director Philip Noyce, The Quiet American proves that elegant and intelligent film-making can be emotionally powerful. Michael Caine plays Thomas Fowler, a British journalist in 1950s Vietnam with a lovely Vietnamese mistress named Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen) and a jaded view of the political strife teeming around him. He befriends a seemingly innocuous American named Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), who falls in love with Phuong--and slowly, Pyle's real purpose in Vietnam becomes revealed. Fowler finds that, to hold on to the carefully balanced life he's created for himself, he must make choices he's long avoided. Caine and Fraser are both superb and give a human face to complicated politics; as a result, The Quiet American manages to be compelling as both history and a story about very specific people embroiled in a very personal conflict. --Bret Fetzer

From the studio
· Anatomy of a Scene

· Feature Commentary with Director Philip Noyce, Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser

· Original Featurette

· Vietnam Study Guide

· Original Book Reviews

Synopsis
Set in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1952 during the French Indochina war, THE QUIET AMERICAN is based on the mystery story by Graham Greene, and directed by Phillip Noyce. A middle-aged British reporter for the London Times, Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine), has been working in Vietnam, covering politics and enjoying the local culture. He lives with a beautiful young woman, Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen), a taxi dancer who he rescued from that undesirable profession. He cannot marry her, because he is already married to a Catholic woman in London who does not believe in divorce. But he truly loves her. When a young American doctor, Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), falls in love with Phuong, threatening to take her from Fowler, everything changes. Not only is Fowler's romantic life put in danger, but he begins to uncover disturbing information about the U.S.'s involvement in the war.
An intriguing and atmospheric love story as well as a riveting mystery, THE QUIET AMERICAN features top-notch performances from Caine and Fraser, who maintain an eager intensity throughout the film. Combining the mysterious beauty of Saigon with the strangeness of the war, the film is suspenseful and effective.

Customer Reviews

Classic Greene, classic Caine
I came to this film as a fan of both Graham Greene and Michael Caine. The screenplay is a very faithful adaptation of the novel, and the characterisation and settings are excellent. The Vietnamese scenery is stunning throughout, the mud-blasted hell of Phat Diem contrasting vividly with the polite finesse of French-Colonial Saigon. Caine dominates the picture with a mighty but human performance as Fowler, the journalist desperately trying to cling on to his relationship with young Vietnamese beauty Phuong (played by the lovely Do Thi Hai Yen). Into their world comes the quiet American, Aiden Pyle, played in a suitably underhand manner by a chubby Brendan Fraser.

The film is well-paced and the "action" sequences are very well done, particularly the infamous bombing in the square which is recreated with frightening realism. I found it all totally gripping, even though I knew the plot and the outcome. The scenes between Caine and Fraser show these two at their very best, Caine surely at yet another high in his career.

In terms of extras, you don't get much - just a documentary on the filming of the bomb sequence, which is interesting. But I often feel there is too much emphasis on DVD extras anyway - in this case the film itself is more than enough and one that will repay many viewings.

Lost Love In A Lost Time
Although Michael Caine was nominated for an Oscar for his performance, this film went largely unnoticed. That's a shame, as it presents a true love story form a period of time in a place largely ignored - 1952 Vietnam. Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is a married British journalist who is in love with a beautiful young Vietnamese woman and writes for the British press. He has found his true paradise. Director Philip Noyce is able to bring out the humid, romantic nuance of war-torn Vietnam. An American physician named Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) appears out of nowhere and confesses his love for Fowler's lover. What ensues is a seemingly gentlemanly sparring for the affections of Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen). As the story unfolds, we find that Pyle is not all he seems, Fowler is less lazy than previously thought and Phuong is torn (with lots of help from her selfish sister). The revelations come slowly and subtly and the back-drop of the early fifties Vietnam is hypnotizing. By the end of the film, the surprises are revealed and nothing is what it had seemed, although the viewer is left with the nagging thought of what will happen after this?

The seduction of American innocence
Of all the films I've seen over the years concerning America's involvement in Vietnam, THE QUIET AMERICAN is perhaps the most seductive.

It's 1952, and Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is the aging correspondent for the London Times in Saigon. France is in the process of being tossed out of Indochina, but the former doesn't realize it yet - Dien Bien Phu is still in the future - and its military fights on ineffectually against the communists. In the meantime, Fowler submits the occasional story to the head office while finding comfort in the arms of opium and his Vietnamese mistress Phuong (Do Hai Yen), a former taxi dancer at a local club. Then, one day, THE QUIET AMERICAN Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser) shows up. Pyle claims to be with a medical aid mission in country to combat trachoma, a bacterial disease causing blindness. But what is Pyle, really? He seems awfully chummy with the conniving powers over at the U.S. legation. In any case, Alden very soon falls in love with Phuong, attention that neither the jealous Fowler can prevent nor Phuong finds particularly unwelcome.

Not since LITTLE VOICE (1998) has Michael Caine acted so powerfully, and this is perhaps his greatest role ever. An Academy Award nomination is deservedly due. Fraser is perfect as the clean-cut, idealistic and naïve Yank who may be something other than he claims. Yen is positively exquisite as the delicate Phuong. As Fowler puts it, his death would begin if he lost her.

THE QUIET AMERICAN, based on the Graham Greene novel, can be seen as an allegorical story of America's fledgling interest in succoring Vietnam from the Red Menace. After all, the French seem unequal to the task. Pyle perhaps comes to symbolically represent the American innocence that is seduced by Vietnam in the form of Phuong, and the former wishes "to save" the latter from the escalating national chaos. Only the tired and world-weary Fowler knows that this is impossible. He would "save" Phuong himself if he could, but he can't.

THE QUIET AMERICAN is an anti-war, anti-intervention film best viewed these many years after America withdrew from its Southeast Asian debacle and passions have cooled. This is one of the best films of 2002.