The film The Quiet American, based off the classic novel by Graham Greene and directed by Phillip Noyce. Based in Saigon, 1952, in the middle of the Vietnam war between the communist and the French. The film follows a long-time war journalist from London named Thomas Fowler and his complicated love life between a catholic woman who does not believe in divorce and the Vietnamese women named Phuong whom he has fallen in love with. Fowler meets an unlikely friend, Alden Pyle, an aid worker for the American Economic Mission who Fowler soon realizes has a second agenda in his work in Saigon. Pyle is a CIA operative who is helping the United States organize a third-party force who will go against both the Vietnamese and French forces.
The first scene of The Quiet American speaks a lot to what will unfold later throughout the film. Fading back and forth between a young, beautiful Vietnamese woman, bombings and a flickering flame. Following in the theme of switching between beauty and pain a voice starts speaking and says “Whatever you are looking for you will find, you will understand love in a few minutes. Smell promises everything, in exchange for your soul. The heat is horrible, makes you forget everything. At night, the river is beautiful. It could help you forget there was war.” The feeling this …show more content…
Going back and forth between the evils of war and the moments of love the entire film relates back to the first scene. Noyce understood what life was like during the fight against communism and portrayed it to his viewers in a way they could relate to. This film touches on the tragedies of war showing mass murders and bombings in the middle of squares while also showing there can be happiness. As much love is shown between the love triangle of Pyle, Fowler, and Phuong, Noyce also shows that not every woman had an easy life and the ways they had to live to try and escape
The first scene of The Quiet American speaks a lot to what will unfold later throughout the film. Fading back and forth between a young, beautiful Vietnamese woman, bombings and a flickering flame. Following in the theme of switching between beauty and pain a voice starts speaking and says “Whatever you are looking for you will find, you will understand love in a few minutes. Smell promises everything, in exchange for your soul. The heat is horrible, makes you forget everything. At night, the river is beautiful. It could help you forget there was war.” The feeling this …show more content…
Going back and forth between the evils of war and the moments of love the entire film relates back to the first scene. Noyce understood what life was like during the fight against communism and portrayed it to his viewers in a way they could relate to. This film touches on the tragedies of war showing mass murders and bombings in the middle of squares while also showing there can be happiness. As much love is shown between the love triangle of Pyle, Fowler, and Phuong, Noyce also shows that not every woman had an easy life and the ways they had to live to try and escape