The Quiet American
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Phillip Noyce
Michael Caine
Brendan Fraser
Do Thi Hai Yen
Rade Sherbedgia
Tzi Ma
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In 1952 Saigon, Thomas Fowler, a seasoned correspondent for The Times (London) who has been covering the French-Communist conflict in Vietnam, is summoned to Inspector Vigot's office to identify Alden Pyle, whose body was found floating in the Saigon River. After identifying the corpse at the morgue, Fowler crosses the newly poured cement floor in the hallway of his house and tells his young Vietnamese mistress, Phuong, that Pyle has been assassinated. Fowler then recalls the first time he met Pyle, on the terrace of the Hotel Continental in Saigon, a hotel frequented by Americans: Pyle, an idealistic young American who believes that he can "make a difference" in the war-torn country, eagerly introduces himself to Fowler as a member of the medical division of an economic aid mission. Fowler, who prides himself on being a dispassionate reporter of events, is amused by the American's certainty that he can make things better. Later at his office, Fowler's assistant Hinh hands him a telegram from his London editor ordering his return to England. To justify staying in Vietnam, Fowler decides to write a story about Phat Diem, a village in the North under siege by Communists. That night at a social gathering attended by Joe Tunney of the American Delegation, Fowler introduces Phuong to Pyle, who is enchanted by her beauty. After Pyle is dragged to a brothel by Bill Granger, a drunken, crude American, Fowler comes to his rescue and invites Pyle to join him and Phuong for dinner at the L'Arc en Ciel dance hall. There the naïve Pyle is shocked as American men vie to buy tickets to dance with young Vietnamese women. While dancing with Phuong, Pyle says that he knows only two words of Vietnamese. Phuong's avaricious older sister, Miss Hei, joins them at the table, and upon learning that Pyle is unmarried, suggests that he visit her and Phuong while Fowler is away. After leaving the women, Fowler tells Pyle that when he met her, Phuong, the daughter of a good family, was forced to work as a taxi dancer after her father's death left her penniless. Upon returning home that night, Fowler tells Phuong that he has been called back to London. When she asks to go with him, he declares that he would marry her if he could, but warns that his Roman Catholic wife will never grant him a divorce. Some time later, as Fowler nears Phat Diem, he is surprised to see Pyle, who claims that he came to get a "first-hand look" at his medical team. When they find the villagers massacred and the ground littered with dead bodies, Fowler's French escorts blame the Communists for the murders, but Fowler questions what motive the Communists would have to kill innocent villagers. That night, they take shelter in a bunker where Fowler asks Pyle his real reason for coming. Pyle replies that he has fallen in love with Phuong and wants to "protect her." Upon awakening the next morning, Fowler finds a note from the departed Pyle, stating that he will talk to him about Phuong in Saigon. When Fowler returns to Saigon he files his story, then watches in dismay as a rally is held to honor General Thé, a Vietnamese warlord who has broken allegiance with the French and thus is being hailed as the leader of a new political party. On the outskirts of the rally, Pyle looks on approvingly. Later, Pyle comes to the house to propose to Phuong, infuriating Fowler. After Pyle leaves, Fowler writes a letter to his wife, asking for a divorce. Months later, Fowler crosses a dangerous stretch along the Cambodian border to interview Thé and is surprised to see Pyle, who explains that he has set up camp with his medical team. When Thé refuses to meet with Fowler, Pyle arranges an interview in which Muoi, a Vietnamese businessman, translates. After Fowler implies that Thé was responsible for the massacre near Phat Diem, Thé becomes enraged and storms off. Fowler then spots Joe lurking in the shadows. Pyle unexpectedly asks Fowler for a ride back to Saigon, and as night falls, their car runs out of gas, leaving them stranded. Nearby is a watchtower being guarded by Vietnamese soldiers, and Fowler and Pyle take refuge there. Later that night, they hear cars approach and a voice calls out to the soldiers to turn over the foreigners. Grabbing one of the soldier's rifles, Pyle jumps down from the tower and urges Fowler to follow. Fowler injures his ankle in the leap and Pyle drags him to safety just as their assailants fire-bomb the tower. Because Fowler is unable to walk, Pyle leaves him to go in search of help. While he is alone, Fowler recalls the first time he saw Phuong at the L'Arc en Ciel as she was being pawed by crass Americans. His reverie of Phuong is interrupted when Pyle arrives with some French soldiers. Upon returning to Saigon, Fowler becomes alarmed by the sudden growth of Thé's army and begins to suspect that Joe and Muoi are backing the general. Phuong welcomes Fowler home and hands him a letter from his wife in London, which he opens and hides under his pillow when Pyle arrives unexpectedly. Fowler then announces that his wife has granted him a divorce. Some time later, Pyle, Phuong and her sister come to Fowler's office, where Phuong's sister confronts him with the letter in which his wife has stated that she will never grant him a divorce. Affronted, they accuse Fowler of lying and leave. When they depart, Hinh informs Fowler that he and some associates have learned that Muoi has been avoiding customs on the goods he imports. When Hinh states that a new shipment has just arrived at Muoi's warehouse, Fowler and Hinh break into the warehouse and find containers labeled "diolacton" with Joe Tunney as their designated consignee. Returning home to find that Phuong has left him for Pyle, Fowler proceeds to Pyle's office and then his house, where he stands forlornly in the street. Later, when Fowler asks Pyle about diolacton, Pyle says that it is a plastic used in the manufacture of eyeglasses. Soon after, Fowler is seated on the terrace of the Continental Hotel when a violent explosion rocks the square, killing and maiming innocent civilians. Horrified, Fowler runs into the carnage to help the injured while Pyle coldly observes from a distance and wipes a patch of blood from his pant leg. Back at his office, Fowler is recalling the horrific experience to Hinh when he realizes that he saw Pyle speaking fluent Vietnamese. When Fowler researches diolacton and discovers that it is used in making explosives, he realizes that the Americans are supplying Thé with the materials to make bombs. Emboldened, Hinh informs Fowler that Pyle works for the CIA and asks him to set up a meeting to which the unsuspecting Pyle will come without his bodyguards. When Fowler hesitates, Hinh counsels that "one must take sides if one is to remain human." Consequently, Fowler invites Pyle to his house, and when Pyle arrives with his dog, he fervently defends Thé as the one person who can stop Communism and then admits that the general ordered the assassination attempt on Fowler. Appalled by the American's arrogance and certainty about what is right, Fowler decides to aid Hinh in his plot and arranges to meet Pyle at a restaurant that night. Later that evening, Fowler is seated at an outdoor restaurant as Pyle crosses a bridge with his dog and is accosted by knife-wielding assailants. As the assailants pursue Pyle into the dark alleyways, a drunken Granger plops down at Fowler's table, saddened by his son's recent diagnosis with polio and desperate to talk to a familiar face. Unnerved by the turn of events, Fowler excuses himself and sees Hinh ride off on his bicycle. Late that night, after Vigot has summoned Fowler to identify Pyle's body, Vigot comes to Fowler's house and states that he has proof that Pyle was there earlier because Pyle's dog, whose throat was slashed, had wet cement from Fowler's floor between his toes. After responding that "there is a war on and people are dying every day," Fowler goes to L'Arc en Ciel and buys a ticket to dance with Phuong. Phuong is unresponsive until Fowler promises never to leave, after which she embraces him. Once at home, Fowler tells Phuong that he needs to apologize, and she replies "not to me, never to me."
Director
Phillip Noyce
Cast
Michael Caine
Brendan Fraser
Do Thi Hai Yen
Rade Sherbedgia
Tzi Ma
Robert Stanton
Holmes Osborne
Quang Hai
Ferdinand Hoang
Pham Thi Mai Hoa
Mathias Mlekuz
Kevin Tran
Lap Phan
Tim Bennett
Jeff Truman
Nguyen Ha Phong
Navia Nguyen
Lucia Noyce
Hiliary Douglas
Daniel Hung
Nguyen Kim Hoan
Trinh Mal Nguyen
Trong Pham
Tran Do Luc
Nguyen Cong Ly
George Mangos
Natasha Hunter
Martine Monroe
Jose De La Vega
Roland Rohrer
Susan Parry
Nguyen Anh Dung
Peter Holdsworth
Ngoc Tuan Hoang
Trece Lambatan
Erwin Abarico
Jun Javier
Van Phuoc Nguyen
Mark Szeto
Askar Nurlanov
Douglas Gallagher
Nicholas Parry
Vov Dylan
Crew
Sean Ahern
Staffan Ahrenberg
Volker Allert
Nguyen Hoang An
Truong Dinh An
Paul Anderson
Steve Andrews
Steve Andrews
Huynh Kim Anh
Tran Lan Anh
Dennis Archer
Charlie Armstrong
Craig Armstrong
Craig Armstrong
Peter Arnold
Zac Astill
Kerri Aungle
Nathan Ayres
Nguyen Thinh Bac
Matt Baldwin
Richard Baldwin
Jason Ballantine
Nick Bamfield
Mark Bamford
Quoc Bao
Vu Huy Ngoc Bao
Mark Barber
Aaron Barclay
Antonia Barnard
Annette Barnes
Pamela Barnetta
Chris Barrett
Dave Bartlett
Christian Bass
Mark Battaglene
Nguyen Van Bay
Truong Van Be
Truong Van Be
Annie Beauchamp
Jared Behan
Linda Benjamin
Michelle Bennett
Niki Bern
Robyn Bersten
Damien Berwick
Ngoc Bich
Ian Bickerton
Ha Long Bien
Dang Thanh Binh
Le Cong Binh
Catherine Bishop
Craig Blair
Robert Blance
Robert Blance
Toscha Blenkinsop
Tanya Blumstein
Benoit Bollard
Gary Bonnar
Malcolm Booth
Moritz Borman
Andrew Bosh
Guy Bowden
John Bowring
Natalie Bracher
Giles Bradbury
Phil Bray
Alan Brown
Ian Brown
Kerrie Brown
Kirsty Bruce
Martin Bruveris
Julie Bryant
Steve Burgess
Arthur Burke
Johnny Burke
David Burr
David Burrows
Joshua Bush
Nick Byrne
Ben Caine
Arthur Cambridge
Gary Cameron
Mark Campbell
Nguyen Pham Can
Van Cao
Brian Carpenter
Tic Carroll
Nguyen Dinh Chan
Nguyen Van Chan
Nguyen Van Chan
Le Chanh
Pham Van Chanh
Karin Charbit
Karin Charbit
Jacques Charles
Ho Van Chat
Dara Chatten
Nguyen Tien Chinh
Alex Chomicz
Kerry Church
Matt Clark
Hester Clarke
Jake Clifton
Mark Clifton
Sam Coates
Sam Coates
Chris Colwell
Dom Connor
Matt Connors
Richard Connors
Henri Contet
Peter Cooke
Emma Cooper
Jonathan Cooper
Lucy Cooper
Stefan Coory
Bruno Coquatrix
Heather Corbett
Jane Corden
Ed Cotton
Steve Courtley
Peter Coy
Fiona Crawford
Francois Crespel
Luke Cross
Richard Crowe
Miranda Culley
Dang Dinh Cuong
Hoang Dinh Cuong
Ngo Quoc Cuong
Nguyen Phuoc Cuong
Harry Dakinalis
David Dally
Le Quoc Dat
Nguyen Thanh Dat
Jake Davies
Nicholas Day
China De La Vega
Colin Deane
Richie Dehne
Matt Dempsey
Shane Dettnam
Selina Dey
Matthias Deyle
Vo Van Dhuc
Lisa Dickson-battye
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Diep
Truong Bich Diep
Truong Bich Diep
Nguyen Huu Dinh
Jonathan Dixon
Lai Phu Don
David Donaldson
David Donaldson
Clarissa Donlevy
Hiliary Douglas
Hiliary Douglas
Niall Douglas
Kate Dowd
Christopher Doyle
Nick Drake
Pham Vien Du
Chris Dubrow
Do Hong Duc
Nguyen Tien Duc
Thu Duc
Tran Viet Duc
David Dulac
Dang Kim Dung
Le Tien Dung
Luong Thanh Dung
Nguyen Tien Dung
Tran Van Dung
Matt Dunkley
Bev Dunn
Steve Dunn
Paul Durand
Guy East
Jodie Eastwood
Roger Edens
Nash Edgerton
Nash Edgerton
Jack Elliott
Deana Elwell
Todd Embling
Will Evans
Ashley Fairfield
Ashley Fairfield
Kirstin Feddersen
Kirstin Feddersen
Jean Féline
Kerry Fetzer
Darren Fieldhouse
Aren Fieldwalker
David Finato
Craig Fison
John Fitzpatrick
John Fitzpatrick
Oliver Fontenay
Emma Ford
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Actor
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The opening and closing onscreen cast credits differ slightly in order. The film opens with a shimmering image of the Saigon River. Over this image, the off-screen voice of Michael Caine as "Thomas Fowler" recites an elegy to life in Vietnam. His narration is interrupted by the sound of a splash and a cut to the body of "Pyle" floating in the river. Fowler's narration continues throughout the film. The closing credits contain a number of written acknowledgments to persons and institutions who assisted in the production. Among them were various Vietnamese government departments and locations. "Dipsychus," the poem partially recited by Fowler in the film, was written in 1850 by English writer Arthur Hugh Clough.
Although the film was completed in April 2001, it was not released until November 2002. Miramax Films, the distributor, decided to delay the release after audiences at a New Jersey test screening on September 10, 2001 reacted "negatively to the film's critique of American interventionist policies abroad," according to a New York Times November 2002 article. The next day, September 11, 2001, terrorists crashed three jets into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, VA, causing them to collapse. Miramax then decided to postpone the release indefinitely. In the New York Times article, Harvey Weinstein, the head of Miramax, was quoted as saying "My biggest fear was erring on the side of bad taste...In light of everything that happened, you needed to have your head examined if you thought this was a time for questioning America."
The film's fidelity to Graham Greene's novel, in which Greene, according to the film's director, Phillip Noyce, "defined a particular moment in U.S. history when America started taking responsibility for the world," seemed especially critical at a time when the United States had just come under terrorist attack. Fowler's cynical remarks about American intervention only exacerbated the situation. A September 2002 The Times, (London) article suggests that the studio ordered Noyce to reedit the film in order to make more ambiguous the criticism of "American adventurism" that screenwriter Christopher Hampton had incorporated into the script.
Another major difference between the novel and the film is that although the novel was set in 1952, the film's ending features a collage of newspaper clippings from the late 1950s to the 1960s that trace France's defeat and America's entry into the Vietnam war. Mark Gill, the president of Miramax Los Angeles, said in the Times article that Noyce added this montage to link the events of the 1950s to events from the 1960s more familiar to Americans.
Noyce also decided to change the nationality of Fowler's assistant, "Mr. Hinh." In the novel, the assistant was Indian, not a Vietnamese working undercover for the Communists. Noyce said that he was inspired to make the change by a story he heard about Vietnamese patriot General An. In the film's press kit Noyce explained that An, while working as an undercover spy for the Vietnamese, was employed by the French as a censor, by the Americans to gather intelligence and finally by Time magazine and the Reuters news service, making him a triple agent. The Times article notes that Caine and Anthony Minghella, one of the film's executive producers, finally convinced Weinstein to release the film, and as a result it had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 6, 2002. In a September 2002 Variety news item, Gill stated that the film's enthusiastic support at the Toronto Film Festival persuaded Miramax to release the film in the U.S.
According to a Screen International April 1991 article, the film was originally to be a co-production between Sydney Pollack's Mirage Enterprises and Electric Pictures, an independent partnership of Staffan Ahrenberg and Nicole Seguin. Materials contained in the film's press kit add that Ahrenberg acquired the rights to Greene's novel in 1988-89 and agreed to develop the project with Pollack, who had the first right of refusal to direct the picture, which was to be scripted by Frank Galati. Press kit materials note that Noyce became interested in acquiring the rights to Greene's novel in 1995 while on a research trip to Vietnam in which he was accompanying former U.S. military intelligence officers back to their training grounds. When Noyce learned that Mirage and Ahrenberg already owned the rights to the novel, he met with Pollack and his Mirage partner, William Horberg, who then agreed that Noyce should direct the picture.
By September 1995, a Screen International article announced that film project was to be financed by Paramount and that Noyce was to direct. In May 1997, Sean Connery was named to star and Johnny Depp was being considered to co-star, according to May 1997 article in Screen International. Once Paramount rejected the project, Mirage began developing the project with Intermedia Films, according to a February 2001 article in Screen International.
The film began production on February 17, 2001, and spent five weeks shooting locations in Vietnam. According to a November 2002 Hollywood Reporter news item, location shooting was done in Ho Chi Minh City, (which before the Communist takeover was known as Saigon), at the Continental Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, the town of Ninh Binh, the port town of Hoi An, the nearby town of Da Nang and in Hanoi City. Second unit director Dang Nhat Minh, whose father was killed by an American bomber during the war in Vietnam, directed the Saigon square scene in Ho Chi Minh City, according to the Hollywood Reporter article. A September 2001 New York Times article adds that Nguyen Thinh Bac, who worked as a technical advisor on the guillotine sequence, had been imprisoned by the French during the war.
The Quiet American marked the English-language debut of Vietnamese actress Do Thi Hai Yen, who learned English specifically for the film. It also marked the first major American-financed film to be made in Vietnam since the end of the war. The film had its Vietnamese premiere on December 17, 2002 and was commended by the Vietnamese government as "an accurate portrayal of early U.S. involvement in Indochina," according to a December 17, 2002 Reuters news item. The film was selected as one of AFI's top ten films of the year, and Michael Caine was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor-Drama and for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Philip Noyce was named Best Director of 2002 by the National Board of Review.
The Quiet American had previously been filmed in 1958 by Figaro, Inc., directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrave. There are several differences between that version and the 2002 version. In the 1958 film, Pyle is never given a name, but known only as "The American." "Phuong's" rejection of Fowler at the end of the 1958 film differs from both the novel and the 2002 film, in which she goes back to Fowler.
Miscellaneous Notes
Winner (along with "Rabbit-Proof Fence) of the 2002 award for Best Director from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.
Winner of the 2002 award for Best Actor (Michael Caine) by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle.
Winner of two 2002 awards by the London Film Critics Circle, including: Actor of the Year award (Michael Caine) and Director of the Year.
Released in United States Fall November 22, 2002
Expanded Release in United States January 10, 2003
Released in United States on Video July 29, 2003
Released in United States November 2002
Frank Galati wrote a previous adaptation of the novel.
Remake of the film written and directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz (USA/1958), starring Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrave.
Mirage Entertainment is Sydney Pollack's production company.
Atlab color
Released in United States Fall November 22, 2002
Expanded Release in United States January 10, 2003
Released in United States on Video July 29, 2003
Released in United States November 2002 (Shown at AFI/Los Angeles International Film Festival (Tribute) November 7-17, 2002.)
Voted one of the 10 best films of 2002 by the American Film Institute (AFI).
