The Quiet American
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a novel by Graham Greene
1958/USA
Figaro
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Thomas Fowler: Shall we save the truth for dinner?[/box]
Ethics meets politics in this Graham Greene morality tale.
The story is shown in flashback as Thomas Fowler (Michael Redgrave) contemplates the events leading up to the murder of an American. Fowler (Michael Redgrave) is a thoroughly cynical journalist covering the Indochina War in Viet Nam. He has been living with the beautiful, and much younger, Vietnamese Phuong for the last two years. Fowler has a wife back in England who is a High Church Episcopalian and will never give him a divorce. Phuong seems completely content with the arrangement but has a sister who wants to see her married.
Into Fowler’s world arrives a young American (unnamed in the film), who takes an immediate interest in Phuong, both because of her beauty and her predicament. This American is in the country to spread democracy and foreign aid. He appears to be a completely straight arrow and forthrightly announces his intentions to marry Phuong to Fowler.
Fowler resorts to increasingly desperate measures to keep his prize. He believes himself even more justified when he is shown evidence that the young man is not what he seems.
I am still pondering about the thought-provoking story. There is a lot that resonates with the beginning of anti-Americanism in the Third World and the impending War in Viet Nam. At the same time, there are the ethical and religious implications common in Greene’s work.
Mostly, though, the movie made me want to read the book and see the 2001 version with Michael Caine. Redgrave is fantastic in this but Audie Murphy, while ideal casting for his role, is too flat and the dialogue is unnecessarily wordy for the usually razor-sharp Manciewicz. Still recommended to Graham Greene fans.
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