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So much average

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Graham Greene's novel, "The Quiet American", was about a naive and rather dumb CIA operative whose blunders led to tragedy and death in Vietnam following the withdrawal of the French in the 1950s. It is definitely NOT a story that advises a greater American presence in the country and could even be seen as a huge counterpoint to American foreign policy in the 1960s. So what does Hollywood do? They buy the story and change it completely--and in the process that pretty much make it into a film saying the opposite of Greene in his novel!!! Not surprisingly, the author and many others were ticked and ended up hating the film. So, as a retired history teacher, I could not help but automatically hate the film because of its dishonesty. But that isn't the only problem with the movie...it's also very boring and was filled with Asians who aren't really Asian. All in all, you could certainly do better than this turgid little romance.

"A young naive American and a cynical older British diplomat disagree over politics in 1952 Vietnam and over a beautiful young native girl. " The Quiet American features Audie Murphy as the role of The American in search of a "thrid force" in Vietnam, Michael Redgrave as Thomas Fowler, a British correspondent covering the Indo-China War, and Giorgia Moll as Phuong, Fowler's mistress. When Fowler and The American end up in a Vietnam guard tower, we are treated to Vietnam's pitch black night and the War's prominent gunfire. They are seated with two Vietnam boys who barley know how to operate a gun. All four of them are huddle together in this small bird's nest, unaware if they'll be alive tomorrow morning.

The next thing to do after seeing The Quiet American is to see the version done 44 years later. The novel by Graham Greene is set in French Indo-China in 1952 and this version is prophetic. The other one surely has the advantage of a whole lot of hindsight. This film done in 1958 has a lot of foresight.I don't know what to make of Audie Murphy's character, it's never brought out, but he seems to be a CIA man. In the novel he's from the Ivy League, but due to Murphy's speech pattern, his character is from Texas. He's bringing in plastic for industrial purposes purportedly, but we see how the 'plastic' is really used.The political picture of Indo-China in 1952 has the United States already seeing the French won't hold on and they're getting ready to put in their own surrogate in when the French do fall. Murphy is forever talking about a 'third force' who will bring western style democracy.Murphy also becomes romantically involved with Giorgia Moll who is also the mistress of British newspaper correspondent Michael Redgrave. The rivalry between the two prevents either from acting coherently though Redgrave has a much better idea of what's really happening.Interestingly enough the United Kingdom was also fighting to hold on in Malaya the same way that the French were trying to hold on to Indo-China next door. The British were far more successful though.The Quiet American should have been seen by policy makers in Washington through six administrations in America. A lot of valuable lessons could have been learned and a lot of valuable lives might never have been lost.

Like some other Joseph L.Mankiewicz movies,this is an investigation.The form recalls "Barefoot contessa" which began with the heroine's funeral and was a long flashback .But ,by and large,"Suddenly last Summer " ,the follow-up,was also an investigation (by a shrink)If we forget "guys and dolls" these are three investigations in a row.And anyway ,what are "letter to three wives" or "people will talk"? The plot is complex,and I must admit I do not find it as palatable and as accessible as most of Mankiewicz's works,which,although very talky,manage to remain absorbing till the last pictures : all in all ,all Mankiewicz movies look like filmed stage productions from "All about Eve" to "the Honey pot" and from " a letter to three wives " to " Sleuth" Even a work like "Cleopatra" features more intimate scenes than in an usual epic.The cast,for the first time in Mankiewicz 's canon (it never happened again),is weak:only Redgrave is convincing.Audie Murphy is a wooden actor(but we will not forget he was a hero in real life) and Italian Georgia Moll was a starlet who got lost in two-bit spy thrillers or sword and sandals in the sixties :why an Italian by the way?Just compare this acting with those of" Suddenly Last Summer" ! or "the honey pot" and I won't even mention "All about Eve".The plot mixes politics,economics and love affairs.The center of the story is a simple question of vocabulary:the meaning of the word "plastic" (explosive or plastic to make toys?)It leads the hero (who is not a nice person anyway:it's a cynical man getting old who cannot forgive the American his idealism )into a crazy spiral.He's been manipulated just as Mrs Holy,her son and the shrink were by Mrs Venable (Suddenly last Summer) or the guests and even McFly by Cecil Fox(The honey pot) .In "Sleuth" probably Mankiewicz's pinnacle ,Wyke manipulates Tindle and vice versa.In Mankiewicz 's best works ,people work behind the scenes (Cousin Sebastian in "Suddenly Last Summer" Cecil Fox after his death in "honey pot" and the most important scene in this film -the murder- which we do not see!!-And when they take the stage,they are wearing masks ("Sleuth")