The Quiet American (2003)
82%RT Audience Score: 72%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
13 wins & 14 nominations total
Thoughtful and wonderfully acted, The Quiet American manages to capture the spirit of Green’s novel
The Quiet American is like a dance between love and political unrest, with Michael Caine giving one of his best performances as an English reporter. He’s a practiced cynic masking an aching romantic, and watching him dissemble and break down is a treat. The film establishes a believable atmosphere of quiet, old-fashioned gentility, making the moments of violence even more devastating. It’s an intriguing grapple with the idea that being human doesn’t inherently mean being good, but let’s be real, we’re all just here for Michael Caine’s performance.
Production Company(ies)
Ghost Pictures, Passion Pictures,
Distributor
Miramax Films
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Da Nang, Vietnam
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for images of violence and some language
Year of Release
2003
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:DTS Dolby Digital SDDS
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:1h 41m
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Language(s):English, French, Vietnamese
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 22, 2002 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 29, 2003
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Yen, Tzi Ma, Robert Stanton, Holmes Osborne, directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Graham Greene, Christopher Hampton, Robert Schenkkan, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Barbara Ellen, Alan Morrison, Derek Adams, Eleanor Ringel Cater, Adam Nayman, Marjorie Baumgarten, Felicia Feaster, Nick Rogers, Mark Steyn, Urban Cinefile Critics, MPAA rating R, love triangle, French Indochina War, Vietnam, murder mystery, opium, intrigue, betrayal, veteran English journalist, young American, beautiful Vietnamese woman, political unrest, moral ambiguity, subterfuge, Graham Greene novel, Christopher Hampton, Robert Schenkkan, William Horberg, Staffan Ahrenberg, Miramax Films, Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS, Scope (2.35:1)
Worldwide gross: $27,674,124
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $44,856,206
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,387
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 4,891,625
US/Canada gross: $12,988,801
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $21,053,181
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,398
US/Canada opening weekend: $101,663
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $164,783
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,741
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $30,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $48,626,152
Production budget ranking: 814
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $26,185,183
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$29,955,130
ROI to date (est.): -40%
ROI ranking: 1,624
Brendan Fraser – Alden Pyle
Do Thi Hai Yen – Phuong
Tzi Ma – Hinh
Robert Stanton – Joe Tunney
Holmes Osborne – Bill Granger
Director – Phillip Noyce
Producers – William Horberg, Staffan Ahrenberg
Writers – Graham Greene, Christopher Hampton, Robert Schenkkan
Director(s)
Phillip Noyce
Writer(s)
Graham Greene, Christopher Hampton, Robert Schenkkan
Producer(s)
William Horberg, Staffan Ahrenberg
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
13 wins & 14 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (155) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (135) | Rotten (20)
The Quiet American is a lovely little mover, barely breaking into a sweat as it dances its dreadful dance of love and need to the backing tune of political unrest, moral ambiguity and subterfuge.
January 2, 2018
Barbara Ellen
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Oscar nominations it richly deserves, not least for Michael Caine, whose performance as an English reporter goaded out of his comfortable, opium-clouded, ex-pat lifestyle ranks among the very best of his career.
December 30, 2006 | Rating: 4/5
Alan Morrison
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
[Caine] gives one of his best performances, whether dissembling a new-found inner steel under questioning or breaking down in the privacy of a toilet.
June 24, 2006
Derek Adams
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
Caine, who also starred in one other Greene adaptation, 1983’s The Honorary Consul, is the essence of almost all the author’s misfits — a practiced cynic masking an aching romantic.
August 2, 2003 | Rating: A-
Eleanor Ringel Cater
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TOP CRITIC
Adapts a Graham Greene novel with something approaching economy but far removed from finesse.
March 25, 2003 | Rating: 2.5/5
Adam Nayman
eye WEEKLY
TOP CRITIC
In so many ways, The Quiet American speaks volumes.
March 10, 2003 | Rating: 4/5
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
The Quiet American is an accurate if not entirely soul-quaking adaptation of Greene’s style to film. It establishes such a believable atmosphere of quiet, old-fashioned gentility that when a moment of violence occurs, the carnage is even more devastating.
February 4, 2020
Felicia Feaster
Creative Loafing
A stylish, gauzy thriller and a character study of zeal and detachment that meet on an inverse scale of idealism. An intriguing, if not entirely harrowing, grapple with the idea that being human does not inherently mean being good.
June 24, 2019 | Rating: 3/4
Nick Rogers
Midwest Film Journal
You can’t capture that prescience in a remake half-a-century on.
February 1, 2018
Mark Steyn
The Spectator
A subtle and penetrating work, made to look effortless; nothing is forced or pushed, so much so that it’s easy to overlook the extraordinary challenges posed by Graham Greene’s novel.
October 18, 2008
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Alm de trazer Caine em uma de suas melhores atuaes, esta belssima adaptao do livro de Greene combina com perfeio a tenso dramtica de um tringulo amoroso e a complexidade poltica do maior teatro de guerra das dcadas de 50 a 70.
July 31, 2008 | Rating: 5/5
Pablo Villaça
Cinema em Cena
December 7, 2007 | Rating: 4.5/5
Jennie Kermode
Eye for Film…
Plot
British Thomas Fowler enjoys his life in Saigon working as a reporter for the London Times, covering the war in Vietnam between the colonial French powers and the Communists, who seem to be winning the war. In the later stages of his career, he takes his job lightly now, filing stories only on occasion, and no longer doing field work. But most importantly, this posting allows him to escape from what he considers a dreary life in London, including an unsatisfying marriage to a Catholic woman, who will never grant him a divorce, which in turn allows him to have an affair with a young Vietnamese ex-taxi dancer named Phuong, whom he loves and would marry if he were able. Phuong’s sister doesn’t much like Fowler, if only because he cannot provide a stable future for her. His idyllic life is threatened when the head office suggests he go back to London. In this way, he decides to write a major story to prove to his superiors that he should stay in Saigon. In 1952, Fowler is called into the local Police Inspector’s office to provide any information on his friend, thirty-ish American Alden Pyle, who has been found murdered. Fowler had met Pyle the previous year when he arrived in Vietnam to work as part of the American contingent in the Economic Aid Mission. Fowler and Pyle’s relationship was not always harmonious, initially as Pyle admitted he too was in love with Phuong and wanted to marry her. That antagonistic relationship would extend to their professional lives, around Fowler believing that the story that would allow him to stay in Vietnam was the rise of a man named General Thé, and Pyle’s belief that a third power should come in to take over Vietnam from both the French and the Communists. The question becomes whether Fowler knows more about Pyle’s demise than he lets on to the Inspector.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The Quiet American features Michael Caine in one of his best performances.
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