Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

HotToastyRag Michael Caine, who had previously won two Best Supporting Actor Oscars, was up for Best Actor for his role in The Quiet American. It was an incredibly steep year, with Jack Nicholson up for About Schmidt, Nicolas Cage for Adaptation, and Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York. I'll never forget the tears in Michael Caine's eyes when the one candidate who shouldn't have even been nominated was called to the podium: Adrien Brody for The Pianist.For that reason alone, you should rent The Quiet American. Michael Caine puts his whole heart in to the film, and as usual, he's the reason the film is at all memorable. It's a tense romance during wartime in 1950s Saigon. Michael Caine's mistress, the beautiful Do Thi Hai Yen, captures Brendan Fraser's eye when he comes to Vietnam. While much of the film is a love triangle—but who would really look twice at Brendan Fraser when they're with Michael Caine?—an equal portion of the film is a film about the events leading up to the Vietnam war. Director Phillip Noyce has created a beautiful modern classic, one that isn't grizzly or upsetting to watch. It flows seamlessly, with captivating cinematography to show Saigon as a romantic city, rather than a terrifying warzone. For some very good acting, as well an intensely dramatic story, rent this film for a special and memorable evening.

FilmBuff1994 The Quiet American is a great movie with a very well developed plot and a terrific cast. It's a very deep film that takes place at the forefront of the war in Saigon, with the story being retold by a journalist. However, it never gets too invested in to this war, mainly focusing on a love triangle, giving the film a lot of intimacy, as well as a surreal side story to go along with it. Though a large majority of the scenes are slow and dialogue heavy, it had me at the edge of my seat throughout as a result of the intensity of words, rather than actions. There were, however, times were I found it difficult to support Thomas Fowler, he was clearly an arrogant, self centred man, who cared about no one other than himself. It becomes difficult to route for someone who is only out for himself, even at the midst of these serious events, I just feel the character could have been given more humanity. The performances are all around stellar. Brendan Fraser shines in the greatest role I have seen him in, conveying a lot of subtle emotions as Aiden Pyle, and Do Thi Hai Yen has a excellent presence, as well as beautiful chemistry with both male leads. The highlight of the film is, of course, Michael Caine in one of his most layered performances. He has so much depth as Fowler, with so much development of the character coming from Caine doing and saying nothing at all, merely just being. A hard hitting drama that kept me invested throughout. Sweet and engrossing, The Quiet American is worth the watch for anyone looking for a good drama. The comfortable life of a British journalist soon changes as he finds himself caught in a love triangle while covering the conflict in Vietnam. Best Performance: Michael Caine

SnoopyStyle It's 1952 Saigon in French colony Vietnam. Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine) is a world-weary British ex-pat reporter in love with the country. Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser)'s dead body is found. Inspector Vigot interviews Fowler about the "quiet American" working for the Economic Aid Mission. Fowler doesn't want to return to his unhappy marriage and has a young Vietnamese girlfriend named Phuong. In flashback, Fowler befriends new eager Alden Pyle and travel up north to do a story.This is based on the Graham Greene novel. Michael Caine inhabits his role completely. Brendan Fraser is great at being an American political zealot. The only problem is a lack of intensity coming from the Vietnamese actress. The movie has a compelling sense of place and time. It's a great story of murky morality and absolute conviction in the two lead characters.

lewwarden Graham Greene writes so convincingly that tend to forget that he is a novelist. That is, he writes fiction, not history. His fiction here is that that the US involvement in Vietnam was based upon a CIA operation to murder Saigon civilians and lay the blame on the communists. But, historically speaking, US operations in Vietnam were based upon Washington's calculated policy that had its origins in JFK's pre- presidential Catholic Church support of France's crumbling hold on its Indo-China empire. It was a doomed venture that ignored Vietnam's long fear of China. Here was a Buddhist country, ruled by a Catholic-French supported aristocracy, the brightest star of French pre-WWII imperialism, battling a basically nationalistic, Communist dominated revolution that looked fearfully over its shoulders at their traditional enemy, China, and took no solace from the fact that China was now controlled by a Communist dictatorship. The fact that the US had a treaty with Vietnam was a meaningless excuse because that treaty had been reached with a French/Catholic government which everyone knew was doomed by the post-WWII world-wide drive against imperialism. The CIA in Vietnam, as it had become when JFK chickened out on the US planned Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, was simply JFK supporters' whipping boy, an excuse for his errors. The whole misadventure was intended to forestall his defeat in the post Bay of Pigs presidential election. But as the philosopher said, "He who does not understand history is doomed to repeat it."