Vietnamese give green light to show ‘Quiet American’

“The Quiet American,” a movie that was almost not released in the United States, is being warmly welcomed by communist Vietnam, which praises it as an accurate portrayal of early American involvement in Indochina.

The Southeast Asian country has not been as happy about other Hollywood flicks, condemning the portrayal of the Vietnam War in Mel Gibson’s “We Were Soldiers” and particularly the role played by Vietnamese actor Don Duong, who has been branded a traitor.

But the Phillip Noyce adaptation of Graham Greene’s 1955 book that was partly shot in Vietnam and stars Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser has been given the green light.

“Senior leaders of the Culture and Information Ministry have watched the film and agreed for it to be shown widely in Vietnam,” Nguyen Van Tinh, deputy director of the International Relations Department of the culture and information office was quoted as saying in Monday’s Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.

Noyce, whose credits include “The Bone Collector,” “Patriot Games” and “The Saint,” is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam on Dec. 16 for the local premiere, according to the newspaper.

The film is set in the early 1950s and depicts a country wracked by war as collapsing French colonial rule gives way to increasing U.S. involvement on what was seen as a front line against communism.

An earlier movie adaptation in 1958 fudged the ending to make it acceptable to U.S. audiences, while the remake is more faithful to the book.

Greene, who died in 1991, had been closely watched by the FBI, who tagged him as anti-American for his meetings with people such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro.