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Too Proud to be American: The Quiet American Speaks Volumes by pete nicely "You learn a lot about Vietnam in a few minutes, but the rest has to be lived." -From the voice-over of The Quiet American In its own way, the movie The Quiet American is a lot like the Vietnam of the 1950's it portrays. From the preview we get the sense that the movie is a political drama that seeks to play out the undertows of the build-up to the Vietnam War through a love story between Michael Caine and a hot Vietnamese woman. What is missed in the preview has to be experienced to be appreciated. The Quiet American is the best American film of the last year. Many films (Bowling for Columbine, Chicago, Minority Report, About a Boy, Punch Drunk Love, The Kid Stays in the Picture) made their memorable mark by hitting some exceptional notes. But only the adaptation (yes, I purposely left big "A" Adaptation off my list) of Graham Greene's novel demonstrates the precision, craft and ambivalence of a classic. Like Chinatown, it speaks to moral corruption's entanglement with political corruption. Like a fine novel it infuses tension and emotional risk into a brilliantly structured story that doesn't waste a scene or neglect a character. Like a great thriller it keeps you guessing, not about who done it, but about why they did it. Michael Caine plays Thomas Fowler, an English Journalist in love with "the most beautiful girl in Saigon," Foung, played by Do Thi Hai Yen. He is a couple generations older than her. Clearly their relationship is based on need (see Chris Rock's formula for love, love = like + need), she is a former taxi dancer. But there is definitely like between them. Fowler gets tea at the same time every day just to watch her from afar; Foung gets him a present to celebrate their two-year anniversary that he has forgotten. She wants to be his wife; yet Fowler's wife (a proud Catholic) won't give him a divorce. Enter Brendan Fraser as American Alden Pyle. Continuing his trend of putting out a devastatingly good acting performance between a few horrible ones, Fraser as Pyle throws Fowler's already shaken life into a shit storm. He falls in love with Foung and isn't shy about asking for her affection without having the respect of doing it behind the Englishman's back. He has a lot more to offer her; he's young, unmarried, and most importantly, American. It is Pyle's American that plays out the political subtext of the movie. He is idealistic, seemingly earnest, focused and ignorant of everything but his own agenda. He immediately wins over Foung's sister by getting her a job and flaunting his desire to marry. Foung can't be far behind. Everyone wants to save Foung; she is Vietnam itself. But the story of The Quiet American isn't that flowery or high-minded. The story is true to the novel (I hear, I haven't read it, yet) unlike a 1950's version that may or may not have been funded by the CIA and made the American a hero. The American isn't the hero here; and we see the futility of the efforts that lead to direct American involvement in the country until 1975. But this is most significantly the story of a man involved in the last great love of his life and the depths of his desire to keep it. Caine and Fraser expose a lot about need and competition in their intense performances. And what their acting can't show, the choices that the story makes for them, give The Quiet American its life. |
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