The Quiet American (2002) on Netflix
R20021h 41mDramaMysteryRomance
Saigon, 1952. Thomas Fowler, a British reporter, lives with Phuong, a young Vietnamese woman, but his wife in London refuses a divorce. A young American, Alden Pyle, arrives and courts her too.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.0/1031,323 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes87%
Trailer
Plot summary
The First Indochina War is in its later years, and Thomas Fowler, a British correspondent, covers it from Saigon for a London paper, filing stories only now and then. The posting lets him stay away from his marriage to a Catholic woman who will not give him a divorce, and it lets him live with Phuong, a young Vietnamese former taxi dancer. Phuong's sister thinks he cannot offer her a secure future. Then Alden Pyle, a young American with the Economic Aid Mission, arrives, befriends Fowler, and says he also loves Phuong.
Cast
- Kevin Tranas Watch Tower Soldier
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Quiet American (2002)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The first rough cut screened to a test audience on September 10, 2001 and received positive ratings, but the September 11 attacks took place the next day, audience ratings dropped with each subsequent screening, and Miramax shelved the film for a year over the perception that it was not patriotic.
- The 118-minute theatrical cut was reduced to 101 minutes for television and video: cut were a kissing scene between Thomas Fowler and his young mistress Phuong, Pyle's courtship of Phuong including a dimly lit sex scene, and much of the police investigation at the end.
- The Vietnamese government gave the production permission to shoot in the country on the grounds that "it condemns the maneuvers of hostile forces and foreign aggressors against the Vietnamese people".
- General Thé, the corrupt militia leader whose Vietnamese splinter group Pyle uses to create a "Third Force" against the French and the Viet Minh, is based on the actual Trinh Minh Thế.
