The Quiet American ...a movie review.

“I can't say what made me fall in love with Vietnam. That a woman's voice can drug you? That everything is so intense - the colors, the taste, even the rain? Nothing like the filthy rain in London.

They say whatever you're looking for you will find here. They say you come to Vietnam and you understand a lot in a few minutes. But the rest has got to be lived. The smell, that's the first thing that hits you - promising everything in exchange for your soul. And the heat. Your shirt is straight away a rag. You can hardly remember your name, or what you came to escape from. But at night, there's a breeze. The river is beautiful. You could be forgiven for thinking there was no war, that the gunshots were fireworks, that only pleasure matters. A pipe of opium, or the touch of a girl who might tell you she loves you. And then something happens, as you knew it would, and nothing can ever be the same again.”

-Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) from the 2002 movie The Quiet American

There are a lot of spoilers here, but the movie is 25 years old, so you have had your chance. My goal is not to ruin the movie, but to re-excite any interest in the movie so you may want to see it for the first time or watch it again if you have already seen it. I aim to throw in thoughts I had along with some facts I learned about the book and later movies which made a re-watch very enjoyable.

The movie is sandwiched between profound words at the very beginning and ending of the movie:

“They say you come to Vietnam and understand a lot in a few minutes. The rest has got to be lived.” - Thomas Fowler

…delivered shortly after a title sequence which shows vignettes from an opium den along with a beautiful woman, clearly drawing parallels between the opium dens of the city and the enchantment of Vietnamese women. In this case, this woman manages to cast her opium spell over two foreign men.

This is the story of a love triangle between two men at different stages in life, involving an older British expat in love with a young Vietnamese woman, Phuong, and a younger American suitor, Alden Pyle, who loves her at first sight.

Phuong seems to have little control over her own destiny, working at the dance hall, passed around to any man who would buy a ticket for the next dance. Her fate seems certain, she is a woman running out of options, as no respectable Vietnamese man will want her with her reputation. Without a lifeline from a foreign man, her destiny appears to end in the “house of girls”. Phuong accepts the marriage proposal from Alden. This creates the plot tension driving the rest of the movie.

The aging indifferent British expat reporter, Thomas Fowler, is trying to hold on to Phuong because it may be the last young romance of his life. His wife back in London refuses to grant him a divorce, so he can never give Phuong the life she desires.

“I should have realized how saving a country and saving a woman could be the same thing to someone like Pyle.” - Thomas Fowler

The film is set in 1952 Saigon. The movie starts with the often used noir hook, starting with the ending and then stepping back a few days and explaining how we got there. We have all seen these types of hooks used many times before; Citizen Kane, The Third Man or even a more modern films like The Usual Suspects. This hook just sucks you in. It is like you are just waiting for that satisfying resolution for the entire movie and you stop trying to guess what is going to happen and focus more on how it happens.

In the first street scene, we see Thomas at the Hotel Continental where he meets Alden for the first time. Here we see a beautiful view of Nguyễn Huệ walking street from the Hotel Continental on Rue Catinat (currently Đồng Khởi street) along with the French Administration building (currently the Peoples Committee Building of Ho Chi Minh City) and the Saigon Opera House. The junction of where all of these buildings come together form the very heart of old Saigon.

Thomas likes to spend his mornings drinking tea and watching people come and go. This is where Alden approaches him.

Alden is a Harvard educated idealistic young man working for The Economic Aid Mission, curing the poor of eye diseases. He first catches Thomas’s eye while Alden is reading the book “The Dangers to Democracy” by York Harding.

“York Harding believes that the proper “path” for Third World Countries must be neither Communism nor colonialism, but rather a mysterious Third Force (yet it’s never explained what form this “Force” takes). Harding plays a huge role in compelling Pyle to use violence to enact political change—indeed, Thomas blames Harding for Pyle’s death.”

Alden comes from a good family who comes to Vietnam with the intentions of saving the country from Communism. He always seems to be at exactly the wrong place at the right time. He is only highly focused on keeping up appearances. After helping aid the wounded following a bomb attack, Alden is much more concerned about wiping the blood off his shoes, than about the many women and children killed in the attack. There is something more to Alden’s involvement than Thomas realizes. Alden is working for the O.S. and is somehow involved in the attacks. Alden approaches Thomas about his reporting and wants to learn more about what is happening in Vietnam. It is clear that Thomas is unwilling to have any opinion about politics, so they have a brief debate about the virtue of impartiality.

This introduces the tension between the two characters, as Thomas tries to avoid taking a side, where Alden insists that it is immoral not to. Thomas’s indifference has insolated him from allowing anyone to get too close to him. This indifference is challenged when Alden threatens to take away the only person who actually means anything to Thomas, his young girlfriend Phuong. Throughout the movie, we see Thomas start to realize that it is time to pick a side as his love and life are both threatened.

Ironically, it is Alden who comes to the aid of Thomas to protect him from an attack from Viet Minh soldiers when Thomas gets a little too nosey while investigating a story. To add to the irony, Thomas discovers Alden’s intelligence work has actually been pulling the strings of the third force (General Thé, who is being groomed to be a counter force against the Viet Minh) and Thomas picks a side and agrees to aid in Alden’s assassination. Thomas points out Alden to the assassin proceeds to go to a busy cafe and sips his tea in indifference as Alden is pursued by communist forces, only to be stabbed and thrown into the river. Thomas remains indifferent until the very end, only seeming to pick a side when it becomes convenient. With Phuong’s suitor out of the way, it leaves here with Thomas as her only option, to live a life without marriage, leaving her with a questionable future after Thomas is gone.

The Quiet American is adapted from a 1958 film of the same name. The original is a film noir movie based upon a book from a couple years prior, in 1955, which some people call the perfect novel. Michael Caine in an interview said that this was the best performance of his life and the film was nominated for various awards. I doubt he changed his mind in recent years as he seems to be enjoying stepping out of the lead and taking on mostly supporting roles for the last quarter century.

The Quiet American somehow seemed to always have a little curse behind it. It was among the last group of mid-budget movies (with approximately a $30 million USD production cost), before Hollywood decided to bifurcate between the extreme low budget and the massive blockbuster movies which have dominated the last decade.

The movie remake began production in 1999 and wrapped right around Sept 11th, with the decision to release the movie about a year later. Ironically, America was in a very similar frame of mind as they were when the book was first written, getting ready to enter a long drawn out war. This was unfortunate for box office numbers because the movie has a certain anti-war feeling to it. It addresses real issues about American military as well and intelligence hubris and nationalistic over-enthusiasm, which certainly couldn’t be tolerated shortly before America was getting ready to start it’s next neo-Vietnam phase with the War on Terror. These complicated messages were just a little out of place as America wasn’t quite in a contemplative mood, with the ‘mission to save the world from communism’ mood of the original book and movie, but more of a terrorist revenge mood by the time the remake was released. The original movie as well as the book had headwinds as the book was published shortly after the Korean war as America was already sending military aid to south Vietnam in preparation for an impending French withdraw from their former colony. As it is noted in the book, the Americans were already unloading military supplies in Saigon.

As I think about it, there are some strong universal life truths as both Thomas and Alden seem to be the same archetype at different periods in their lives. I imagine Thomas as the ambitious and idealistic young man, going overseas as a young reporter with dreams of bringing western liberal enlightenment to a savage country, only to realize that it was not the savages that would change, but they would be the instrument of his change. Both of these men have a love for the adventure and romance of the exotic country …and Vietnam was exotic in the minds of Westerners. Look at the movies of the 1930’s and 40’s to see how Westerners thought of that part of the world. …South China Sea, any of the Mr. Wong movies, the Anna May Wong movies, etc. They are certainly cringey and a racist by today’s standards, but give a glimpse into just how foreign East Asia appeared to the outside world prior to WWII. These men grew up in that culture with the mysteries of the Orient calling to them.

I couldn’t help but think of the existing power structure of Vietnam at the time, where there is an indifferent colonial power who is holding on to Vietnam as it ages into obscurity. Along come the Americans who are young, brash and idealistic. …full of energy to save the world. The French wanted Vietnam to preserve the remnants of their declining empire. The Americans wanted Vietnam to protect them from Communism. Neither really seemed to care about what the people of Vietnam wanted. I am sure there are plenty of parallels which can be drawn if I put my mind to it.

The messages are poignant and many think of this book and movies as being highly prophetic of the events to come. The Author, Graham Greene, discusses topics that wouldn’t be discussed until well after American troops left Vietnam in 1975. He seemed to understand that for Vietnam, this was more than an ideological struggle in the communist / capitalist debate as the Vietnamese were struggling for their independence. This is deep within the national zeitgeist as Vietnamese history is filled with independence movements since the Trưng sisters.

Ho Chi Minh is famous for constantly seeking the aid of western powers. He only turned to Russia when he realized he would not be heard by the West. According to the biographies, Ho Chi Minh initially petitioned Wilson shortly after WWI and it is reported from people who have researched this that the letter was never even opened by Wilson and it is doubtful he was even aware of it. Later, Ho Chi Minh went to Paris to try to cultivate some support among the French dissident’s, but only found deaf ears. He later turned to a communist journal as the only outlet which seemed interested in hearing his message of independence. He was invited to Moscow and later found himself in the middle of the Chinese Communist movement before he returned to his main work of forming an independence movement within Vietnam. In that brief time between when the Japanese were forced out, but before the French returned, Ho Chi Minh declared independence, setting in motion the conflict with Western powers.

I can’t help but think of Phuong as I think about these historical events. A woman without options, being passed around with no real hope of a future. Did Greene see this and want to draw an analogy? Does Phuong finally gain her independence from Thomas’s control? We don’t really know. We are only left with questions.

They say you come to Vietnam and understand a lot in a few minutes. The rest has got to be lived. They say whatever it was you were looking for you will find here. They say there is a ghost in every house. And if you can make peace with him, he will stay quiet.

-Thomas Fowler