"The Quiet American" is a solid movie with strong performances by Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser playing the two main roles. Caine plays Thomas Fowler, a late middle aged, well-mannered, British reporter living in Vietnam during the last days of the French fight against communism. Fraser plays a friendly young American doctor named Alden Pyle who cures infectious eye diseases and wants to help people.
Overt Plot: Fowler and Pyle meet and become fast friends in a land of strangers. Fowler has a young mistress named Phuong whom he says he would like to marry her, but he cannot because his good catholic wife in England will not give him a divorce. Pyle sees Phuong with Fowler and later says to Fowler it was love at first sight. Fowler becomes jealous in a reserved British way that comes to a head when Phuong is persuaded by her sister to leave Fowler for Pyle. At the end the locals kill Pyle then Phuong and Fowler get back together. Fowler decides to stay in Vietnam as a reported for many years up to the mid-sixties.
Secondary Plot:
Fowler is a womanizing, opium smoking man who leads his mistress along promising that he going to stay in Vietnam and divorce his English wife. Pyle ends up being a ruthless CIA agent who really believes he is helping everyone in the long run by killing people. The "We had to burn the village to save the village" mentality. Tossed in the mix are several minor characters that prove the adage that "Foreigners bring suspicion on themselves and shame on their country."
What I found interesting in the movie are the pragmatic and duplicitist twists that the movie takes. Although Fowler takes advantage of his mistress by lying, he protects her from exploitation and eventually comes around to really loving her and staying with her thus showing he has some virtues. Another example is when Fowler decides the "human" thing to do is turn Plye over to the Vietnamese to be killed though Pyle saved Fowlers life earlier. There are other examples that further make Fowler an antihero and Pyle a villain. The grayish moral and ethical choices made in this film are what I believe makes this film worth watching.
The cinematography is also beautiful and the music score is good.
Overt Plot: Fowler and Pyle meet and become fast friends in a land of strangers. Fowler has a young mistress named Phuong whom he says he would like to marry her, but he cannot because his good catholic wife in England will not give him a divorce. Pyle sees Phuong with Fowler and later says to Fowler it was love at first sight. Fowler becomes jealous in a reserved British way that comes to a head when Phuong is persuaded by her sister to leave Fowler for Pyle. At the end the locals kill Pyle then Phuong and Fowler get back together. Fowler decides to stay in Vietnam as a reported for many years up to the mid-sixties.
Secondary Plot:
Fowler is a womanizing, opium smoking man who leads his mistress along promising that he going to stay in Vietnam and divorce his English wife. Pyle ends up being a ruthless CIA agent who really believes he is helping everyone in the long run by killing people. The "We had to burn the village to save the village" mentality. Tossed in the mix are several minor characters that prove the adage that "Foreigners bring suspicion on themselves and shame on their country."
What I found interesting in the movie are the pragmatic and duplicitist twists that the movie takes. Although Fowler takes advantage of his mistress by lying, he protects her from exploitation and eventually comes around to really loving her and staying with her thus showing he has some virtues. Another example is when Fowler decides the "human" thing to do is turn Plye over to the Vietnamese to be killed though Pyle saved Fowlers life earlier. There are other examples that further make Fowler an antihero and Pyle a villain. The grayish moral and ethical choices made in this film are what I believe makes this film worth watching.
The cinematography is also beautiful and the music score is good.