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 November 25, 2002 
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Michael Caine
Why The Quiet American deserves to be a hit
A gripping, emotionally moving tale showcasing the veteran Michael Caine

Arthur J Pais

Nearly 44 years after Hollywood made a mockery of Graham Greene's sharp and incisive political novel set in Vietnam, comes a new version of the movie that is at once gripping and emotionally moving.

In The Quiet American, Australian director Phillip Noyce has carved a deft political and love story. Set amidst the duplicitous political world in colonial Vietnam, the movie has a ravishing look which contrasts well with the horrors in the war ravaged countryside. It also has a towering performance by Michael Caine, beating his best work in vintage hits as Alfie.

The Quiet American will surely be a strong Oscar contender. Ironically, one of the films it will compete against could be Rabbit Proof Fence, which takes a critical look at Australia's treatment of aboriginal people. Miramax Films opens the movie November 29.

Noyce, who has also made successful films in Hollywood based on such best-sellers by Tom Clancy, was a hero at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, where he also had Rabbit Proof Fence.

There were intense speculations at the TIFF that Miramax, which had inked the deal to distribute The Quiet American before 9/11 was wary of the film. Miramax was afraid, the gossip went around, that a movie which is critical of American involvement in Vietnam and which accused CIA of staging terrorist activities there to help rightwing local politicians, would anger many Americans. But following lengthy discussions about the film in the media, Miramax changed its mind.

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The film, which opens in New York and Los Angeles with a two-week Oscar-qualifying run, will draw a lot of attention because of Michael Caine's grand performance as the opium-addicted British journalist who slowly sees through the sham of a seemingly naive American social worker Pyle (played rather well by Brendan Fraser).

One should not overlook the lovely and mysterious Phoung (Hai Yen) who abandons Fowler (Caine) for the younger and apparently wealthy Pyle. Some of the merits of the script (by Christopher Hampton and Robert Schennkkan) include bringing out the complexities in Greene's novel, while allowing Noyce to create a taut and atmospheric film.

Over a dozen of Greene's novels have been turned into movies. The current The Quiet American joins The Third Man and The End Of An Affair, the second version released two years ago, as among the best adaptations.

Caine plays Fowler, a jaded British journalist, who has become too complacent in Vietnam during the waning days of French colonialism. He is in love with a young Vietnamese woman Phoung (Yen), who is dismayed when a young American CIA agent Pyle (Fraser), seems to have eyes for her as well.

Brendon Fraser, Michael Caine Then, Fowler begins to wonder who Pyle really is and what Americans are up to in Vietnam.

Noyce has admirably captured the two sides of Vietnam: the seemingly tranquil Vietnam dominated by Saigon and the countryside beset by the civil war. Soon, the lush and grand Saigon also becomes a victim and we realise that the communists are not the only ones are unleashing terrorism.

Greene was a master at inspecting the murky nature of the heart and the outwardly crumbling political world. Noyce surely knows that The Quiet American is just one of the master's probing and pulse-quickening novels.

In the holiday season loaded with movies that have mind boggling special effects, it is rewarding to see movies which speak to one's hearts and minds. The Quiet American deserves to be a hit, at least in the art houses. I do enjoy the James Bond adventure Die Another Day but The Quiet American is one of the few films I truly cherish, and look forward revisiting the second time.

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