Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

Beaks and I are headed out later today to interview Philip Noyce and Michael Caine, and I’m very, very pleased to be doing so. THE QUIET AMERICAN is one of this year’s best films, and the chance to sit down with Caine has me positively giddy. I’ll have my review for the movie up later in the weekend, but for now, here’s Beaks with a great look at this great film...

THE QUIET AMERICAN (d. Philip Noyce, w. Christopher Hampton & Robert Schenkkan)

Deceptively small in scope, Graham Greene’s THE QUIET AMERICAN posits a love triangle that, by its tragic end, will foretell the fate of American military involvement in Vietnam, a pretty remarkable feat when you realize the novel was first published in 1954. Initially, the metaphor was viewed stateside as a thinly-veiled piece of anti-Americanism/pro-communism propaganda, which likely led writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz to soft-peddle the politics when he filmed it in 1958 (a version loathed by Greene). Post-quagmire, however, the book has gained an enormous amount of power and further acclaim as a prescient disquisition on the United States’ often misguided foreign policy; ergo, in the wake of the Neil Jordan’s brilliant END OF THE AFFAIR, which suggested an untapped reservoir of cinematic possibilities in the Greene oeuvre, it should come as little surprise that THE QUIET AMERICAN would suddenly appear ripe for the remaking.

Produced by the Mirage Entertainment team of Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, it might strike some as surprising to see this prestigious pair hand the directorial reins over to Phillip Noyce, the Australian New Wave veteran badly in need of a palate cleansing after toiling in the studio system for over a decade, applying a fine polish to such book-to-film turds as PATRIOT GAMES, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER (easily the best of the bunch) and THE BONE COLLECTOR. However, armed with a concise, literate adaptation from Christopher Hampton and Robert Schenkkan, Noyce has crafted a rewarding and intelligent feature that would’ve likely pleased the late author, meaning that, yes, THE QUIET AMERICAN has made it to the screen with its controversial politics intact. As a year-end release with the Miramax marketing muscle behind it, Noyce’s film is likely to fire a bubbling cauldron of controversy, which, hopefully, will not overshadow the magnificent lead performance of Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler, the world-weary foreign correspondent for the London Times who falls under suspicion of murder when his “friend”, American Aid worker Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), turns up dead by the bridge to Dakow.

Fear not; this isn’t a spoiler, but the film’s premise: how did such an eager do-gooder like Pyle come to such an unfortunate end? To answer this, Fowler recounts his eventful, yet relatively brief, acquaintance with the bright-eyed government worker that, as with Greene’s novel, unfolds as less a mystery than a meditation on betrayal and the ruinous destination that lies inevitably down the well-trod path of good intentions. For while Pyle may value his hastily struck-up friendship with Fowler, he truly covets the aging reporter’s trophy mistress, a young, hauntingly beautifully Vietnamese girl named Phoung (Do Hai Yen). Though timid in the actual courtship of Phoung, Pyle is brutally forthright in expressing his intentions to Fowler, who he feels is doing the young woman a disservice by leading her on, while he (barely) maintains a marriage back home in London. Though Fowler may consider Pyle something of a joke at first, he becomes justifiably concerned when Phoung’s conniving sister takes a shine to the opportunity rich American, prompting him to request a divorce from his deeply religious wife. As this melodrama plays itself out, a more important question arises as Fowler finds himself encountering Pyle in several political hot spots throughout the region: is Pyle really just an innocent foreign aid worker, or is there something more devious lurking beneath his cheery façade?

Impressive work is turned in across the board here, but, clearly, there’s no one more plaudit-worthy than Sir Michael Caine (I haven’t noticed many critics making use of the title when they refer to him, but his achievement here commands such towering respect). When matched with material up to his standards (an all too rare occurrence), there are few living actors capable of such sensational work, so it’s a thrill to see Caine, in his late-sixties, turning in such a remarkably spry performance as the gallivanting Fowler. Such vigorousness is essential to buying Phoung’s attraction to Fowler, but it also sets up a stunning contrast when Noyce brings his camera up close, where the actor’s weathered visage and tired eyes drive home the heightened mortal stakes of his claim to Phoung. Such complexities deepen the film’s inherently mournful tone, allowing it to attain a transcendent sadness when Fowler writes of Phoung to his wife that, “to lose her would be, for me, the beginning of death.” True, the man may be an irrepressible cad, but in Caine’s hands, the character is granted the dignity that could’ve been denied him through the absence of Graham’s first-person narrative. With a tenth of the words, Caine manages to make Fowler just as human as he was on the page.

Though not quite as thrilling, there is a palpable satisfaction in watching an unfairly maligned director like Noyce execute with a renewed confidence, using his evocative Vietnam locations to maximum effect (it must be noted that he receives a valuable assist from his DP, the great Christopher Doyle). Avoiding all manner of ostentation, Noyce knows well enough to simply tell the story, but he does so with a generous attention to detail that brings the script to life in often surprising ways, particularly in his expert staging of suspense that leads up to the Saigon Square bombing.

THE QUIET AMERICAN may be a slow-building, exceedingly pregnant metaphor, but it’s a fascinating tale that’s terribly relevant as America finds itself being drawn inextricably into war(s) fought under the guise of nation building. This is a film that asks us to consider whose interests are truly being served when the world’s last remaining superpower goes a-proselytizing in order to eradicate the Dangers to Democracy.

Faithfully submitted,

Mr. Beaks