The Quiet American (film)

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For the 2002 film, see The Quiet American (2002 film).

The Quiet American
The movie cover for The Quiet American.
Directed by	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Produced by	Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Written by	Graham Greene (novel) Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring	Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave
Music by	Mario Nascimbene
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	February 8, 1958
Running time	120 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Quiet American was the first film adaptation of Graham Greene's bestselling novel, released in 1958. ^[1] The film, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, and Giorgia Moll, was critically well-received, though not considered a box office success.

The film script was written by Mankiewicz, with uncredited input from CIA officer Edward Lansdale, who was often said to be the actual inspiration^[1] for the American character "Pyle," played by Murphy.

The film was also dedicated to Ngo Dinh Diem,^{[citation needed]} the U.S.-backed president of South Vietnam who took office shortly after the novel's publication. In a Hollywood still recovering from the blacklist of American communists, the film stirred a controversy,^[1] as Graham Greene was furious that his anti-American message was excised,^[1] and he disavowed the Mankiewicz film as a "propaganda film for America." ^[1]

1 Plot
2 See also
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Set in Saigon during 1952, as the Vietnamese national liberation forces are delivering some major strikes against the French colonial rulers, the film unfolds along the framework of a complex love story and murder mystery^[1] with political intrique.

The film departed from Greene's premise at the end of the book, sanitizing Pyle's moral culpability, and portraying the Communists as actually responsible for the terrorist acts that, in the novel, were provocations by anti-Communists. This removed the anti-American sentiment of the book. It is also important to note that the movie refused to allow Fowler to win back Phuong at the end.

[edit] See also

The Quiet American - the novel upon which the movie is based.
The Quiet American (2002 film) - 2002 film adaptation.

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "A haunting portrait of US-backed terror in 1950s Vietnam," Richard Phillips, World Socialist Web Site, 2002, webpage: WSWS-TQA-d17.