Watching it prompted me to go to Netflix and rewatch the 2002 film, a much more true-to-the-book version starring Michael Caine, Brandon Frasier and Do Thi Hai Yen.
Both movies, as is the book, are set in 1952 Vietnam in the waning days of French rule as Ho Chi Minh and his communist forces move toward victory. The films present an interesting look at a view of global politics in southeast Asia, one from a movie made before the Vietnam War, and the other made afterward.
The 1958 movie is good. It is probably one of Audie Murphy's best performances, and Mankowitz created an interesting plot twist, though by doing so, he sanitized Greene's story into an American view of the world at the height of the Cold War and the Domino Theory.
The 2002 movie is more richly textured. It features an Oscar-nominated (and deservedly so) performance by Michael Caine as a jaundiced aging British reporter trying to hold on to his relationship with a young Vietnamese girl. Brandon Frasier is the quiet American, a CIA operative posing as an economic development attache'. If you are going to see only one of these movies, the 2002 version is the one to see. It captures Graham Greene's view, even in 1955, that questioned the morality and wisdom of American involvement in Vietnam, and his ultimate outlook that no matter who emerged from the Americans / Communist conflict, it would be the Vietnamese people who lost.
In these days when some belicose politicians keep wanting to send young Americans to spill blood in every hot spot around the world, it is well worth two hours to watch the 2002 version of The Quiet American.
Besides, Michael Caine is superb, and it's just a damn good movie.
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