'Quiet american' portrays Vietnam war
HANOI - The Vietnam that piqued Phillip Noyce's interest was not the bloody, war-ravaged nation
of Hollywood films.
Instead, the Australian director became intrigued with novelist Graham Greene's version — the elegant
white-suited era of 1950s French colonialism depicted in ``The Quiet American,'' the book that eerily
foreshadowed American involvement in the Vietnam War a decade later.
He recently arrived in Vietnam to film an adaptation of the novel, which revolves around a tumultuous love triangle
involving cynical British journalist Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine), naive American aid worker Alden Pyle
(Brendan Fraser) and Fowler's beautiful young Vietnamese mistress, Phuong (newcomer Do Hai Yen).
What begins as a love story turns into a broader cautionary tale on the folly of foreign intervention, Noyce said.
``This is a book that asks and answers the big question, 'Why? Why did the Americans get involved in Vietnam?'''
he said during a break in filming in Hanoi. ``There have been so many films made about fighting the Vietnam
War, but very few films that tried to explain why it happened.''
Ever since he stumbled across a copy of ``The Quiet American'' during a trip to Vietnam in 1995, Noyce — whose
credits include ``Dead Calm,'' ``Patriot Games,'' ``Sliver,'' ``Clear and Present Danger'' and ``The Bone Collector''
— has been doggedly pursuing a way to turn the book into film, a challenge made difficult by the political material
and his own reputation as a director of thrillers and action films.
Sydney Pollack, famed for directing ``Tootsie'' and ``Out of Africa,'' owned the rights to the book and considered
directing a film version but says he changed his mind after meeting Noyce.
``What convinced me was his obsession with the material. At first blush, he wouldn't seem the first choice. But he
spoke so passionately about it and kept after it,'' said Pollack, the film's executive producer.
Noyce also became enchanted with the country itself, convincing the movie's backers of the need to film in
Vietnam.
``I was impressed by the vividness and beauty of Vietnam, which was at odds with the agony that took place
here,'' he said.
At $30 million, it's the largest film project and the first major Hollywood production undertaken in Vietnam.
With that pioneering step came a host of difficulties operating in a country unused to movie crews, said line
producer Antonia Barnard.
``It's been quite tricky. We're trying to do something that hasn't been done before on this scale. It can be very
frustrating,'' she said.
The movie crew was required to get nine levels of approvals for every scene, from having government censors
pore over the script to getting OKs on every location, she said.
After much haggling, a crucial explosion scene involving 500-pound bombs was approved, but government
denials on other locations, including a military airport, shortened the shooting period.
Still, Barnard said, ``It's such a well-known book, and a very specific era. We didn't really consider any other
place.''
Filmmakers set about meticulously transforming four different locations around the country into various
incarnations of 1950s-era Vietnam.
For a week, downtown Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, was transformed, complete with vintage Citroens,
rickshaws, bicycles and extras in period dress.
Faithfully rendering Greene's vision also meant casting a Vietnamese woman as Phuong. In an earlier film
version, shot in the 1950s, an Italian actress played the part.
``Despite the fact that Do Hai Yen spoke very little English, in the end, she was the only one,'' Noyce said. ``She
has that certain grace, charm and gravity we were looking for.''
A dancer, the 18-year-old from Vietnam's northern Bac Ninh province was discovered when she was
accompanying her actor boyfriend to an audition — and she caught the eye of casting directors.
``Everything about me and acting has been luck,'' said Yen, adding that her star turn ``has made my parents very
happy, very proud.''
The filmmakers' attempts to follow Greene more faithfully is a departure from the first film version. In keeping with
the politics of the '50s, the earlier movie departed from the book's plot by portraying Pyle, played by Audie Murphy,
as an anti-Communist hero.
It's clear the current script's more anti-American bent, lauded by Vietnamese officials on the grounds that it
``condemns the maneuvers of hostile forces and foreign aggressors against the Vietnamese people,'' provided
for a more positive reception in Vietnam.
Noyce characterizes the plot more diplomatically: ``I don't think it's anti-American but it does hold up a mirror to
America's aspirations at the time.''
Executive producer Bill Horberg puts it another way: ``Making this film today 25 years after the war's end, after a
genre of movies that examined the soldier's experience, has finally become possible. Now we're in a different
time and place.''
By Tini Tran - The Associated Press - May 2nd, 2001.
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