The Quiet American
October 2003 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Adapted from Graham Greene's novel of the same name, The Quiet American is a tale of many loves told all at once -- romantic, fraternal, and ideological.

Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is a foreign correspondent more interested in living the life of an expatriate in French-colonial Vietnam than actually doing any of the reporting for which he was dispatched. Entranced by the country's exotic charm and the energy of the war being waged just outside his consciousness, Fowler has taken a Vietnamese mistress, Phuong (Do Thi Hai Yen). He is doing all he can to avoid returning to England when he meets the titular Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an optometrist hoping to bring new vision to Southeast Asia.

Caine does a superb job in his role, and his work was honored with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. His Fowler is an aging man afraid of losing his hold on both the people and the country he has come to love. He is trying to make decisions about a future that is in no way certain.

Fraser is often written off as the type of vaguely good-looking Hollywood hunk who has no acting ability, but he handles himself very capably as young Alden Pyle. The character's innocence and intensity come across well, and the viewer gets the impression that there's a bit more going on behind those big wide eyes (see also Gods and Monsters).

When she was cast as Phuong, Do Thi Hai Yen could barely speak English, and earned the role by rote phonetic memorization of her two screen-test scenes. That she does such a detailed, shaded performance as both the human lover and the allegory for her entire country is all the more admirable, since such a complex role could have overwhelmed even an experienced actor.

The plot of The Quiet American is sort of a "whodunit," but also a "whydunit" and a "howdunit." We know at the outset what will happen, but the tight, inexorable pace keeps the viewer deeply engaged and asking all the right questions.

The image quality is satisfactory, with the muted or darkened colors represented well. The soundtrack is mostly dialogue, with a few moments of ambience from the outdoors or the chaos of war giving surround-sound systems brief sporadic workouts.

Extras on the disc are straightforward and commonplace, but still above average: trailers; original The Quiet American book reviews; a Vietnam timeline; a five-minute original featurette, "Anatomy of a Scene"; and an audio commentary. The "Anatomy" segment, taken from the Sundance Channel, is filled with in-depth examinations of every aspect of the high-impact scene depicting the January 1952 bombing of Saigon's town square.

The commentary track is loaded with voices: director Phillip Noyce; actors Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, and Tzi Ma; producers Sydney Pollack, Staffan Ahrenberg, and William Hoberg; co-writer Christopher Hampton; and Tran An Hua, interpreter/advisor to Noyce. The track never seems crowded, since most of the contributors recorded their parts by themselves, and their tapes were edited together. Overall, the commentary offers an invaluable discussion of the film, the actors, and the entire process. More than just a self-congratulatory ramble, all the praise is backed up with analysis and insight. This is a very enjoyable and intelligent offering.

After a successful test screening on 10 September 2001, The Quiet American was nearly derailed by the events of the following morning. Miramax was reportedly reticent to release this film in the wake of 9/11, fearing that it would seem "anti-American." The Quiet American was adapted to film before (in 1958), but with a much more "patriotic" ending -- America's innocence in Vietnam was underscored then, while this version lays blame, just as Greene's novel did. In this film, director Phillip Noyce has taken a very complex story and told it in a simple way, and has done it very well.

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