Film Pairings — The Quiet American Times Two

The Book

Is there ever a time when there’s not a war somewhere? Is there ever a time when we – the U.S.A. – are not involved at least covertly? Two films were made based on Graham Greene’s powerful novel, The Quiet American.  Romance and suspense mix with a look at history as all unfolds in a literarily parallel construction.

I was in my early teens when the French failed to hold onto their colonial interests in Vietnam. We didn’t know that the ongoing fear of the Communists and a misguided belief in what was called the domino theory’ of increasing Red dominance would lead us into an unwinnable and perhaps unethical war – a lesson we failed to grasp then and now.

The Quiet American (1958) – Because of 50’s political fall out in the U.S. (the commie scare”) the film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz diluted Greene’s anti-war message and the U.S. complicity in atrocities. World War II hero-turned actor Audie Murphy played the innocent – or is he? – American, and Michael Redgrave portrayed the older, cynical journalist. The story of Vietnam’s dependence on their colonial ruler is a parallel to the young and lovely Vietnamese woman’s dependence on the British journalist. Is it love? This version was shot in black and white, which may account for its grittier appeal.  We don’t get to see much of Michael Redgrave (father of Lynn and Vanessa) in film. He does a fine job here.

The Quiet American (2002) – Time is supposed to provide perspective. Though it didn’t in the case of U.S. foreign policy with regard to Indochina, it did with the two films about the French and ultimate American failures there. With the benefit of hindsight, the2002 filmmakers wisely held closer to Greene’s book.  Phillip Noyce directed the remake. One of the major differences between the two films is that number two is shot in color, giving us a deeply sensuous look at an extraordinarily beautiful country. The difference is that this version realizes Greene’s dark vision of human behavior as it applies to the actions of nations and individuals, and the very sad fact that most of us do not know whom to trust. Brendan Fraser plays the seemingly idealistic American in French occupied Vietnam and Michael Caine the cynical British journalist.  Caine won an Academy Award for his role. Do Thi Hai Yen was just right as the young Vietnamese woman, the object of love or desire by Fraser and Caine.

To accompany the double feature, it should probably be something French. Pernod, maybe? A white wine?  Perrier? You decide.

  

Film Pairing – Mystery Writers Writing About Mystery Writers

There are two Sleuths, one with Lawrence Olivier as a sophisticated and revered best-selling thriller writer and Michael Caine as…as…well we don’t quite know as the games begin.  Hair stylist.  In the second Sleuth, it is Michael Caine who is the older and well-practiced game player. To keep things complicated (we’ll sort them out), Caine again plays a once-revered writer – this time a playwright in Deathtrap. I’m partial to movies portraying writers because writers tend to view themselves as sophisticated elegant, witty, and wise. Of course we are.

These are three films that seem, two intentionally, to be from the same seed:  Sleuth1972, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and written by Anthony Shaffer; Deathtrap 1982, written by Ira Levin and directed by Sidney Lumet; and Sleuth 2007 directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Harold Pinter. Unfortunately Olivier’ 1972 version isn’t available, so I’ll simply take the overwhelming number of positive reviews and its ample number of Academy Awards as a recommendation.  Unfortunately, the 1972 version is for another night.  For tonight there’s just the two:

Reeve & Caine In Deathtrap

Deathtrap (1982) — A long-running Broadway play, Deathtrap is an enjoyable way to spend an evening. It’s talky, of course and small, perfect for a TV screen. In addition to Michael Caine, we are reminded of Christopher Reeve’s good looks and acting skills.  Also, his daring.  One of the first on-screen male-to-male kisses (between Caine and Reeve] was the scandal of the times and purportedly cost the studio  $10 million in lost revenue. This is almost a “how-to” create a mystery plot with twists, surprises, misdirection and reverses, while also making fun of mystery conventions in general. At one point Reeve’s character claims to be writing a more “important’ novel than the thriller, which he claims is all plot with two-dimensional characters.

Sleuth (2007) — At one point in the more conventional Deathtrap, we see a deceitfully worshipful Christopher Reeve enter the aging playwright’s rustic cabin.  He says, “Wow, it’s beautiful. Michael Caine, the playwright, is obviously bored. He says he would prefer something more high-tech. In Sleuth we find another aging writer, this time Caine as a worldly mystery novelist, in his very high tech home about to engage in another game, this time with what first appears to be an innocent Jude Law.

Law & Caine In Sleuth

Much like the fencing match between Reeve and Caine, here we have a more abstract fencing match between Law and Caine.  And while Caine has no problem filling the frame in any movie he makes, Law chews the scenery in this one.   He does a masterful if not conspicuous job of changing character, from tough, boorishly masculine to flirtatiously bitchy. Law goes for broke and one can’t not watch him.  There are really only three characters here.  Caine, Law and the house, all of them showing off, keeping us riveted to a mystery that isn’t, a crime that never happens.  That, in itself, is fascinating.

In sleuth Caine drinks lots of Vodka and Law lots of Scotch, though a highly disturbed Law eventually guzzles Caine’s Vodka. Do what you will in the privacy of your own home.  As I’ve mentioned before a glass of ice with lemon and tonic can create a sense of behaving badly without behaving badly.

Film Pairing — The Dark Side Of Michael Caine Times 2

What do you do when people get in the way of your happiness and your ambition?  You kill them, of course.  Graham Marshall (Michael Caine) discovers this easy solution by accident when an angry, physically intimidating homeless man in a subway demands respect. Perhaps this hits too close.  Respect was what he wasn’t getting at home or at work.  The vagrant, an obvious failure in Marshall’s eyes, won’t go away.  A train and a little shove, not intended to kill — though it did — and poof, problem solved.  Now, on to other problems, larger, more irritating problems at home and at work.

In Shock to the System, based on the novel by Simon Brett, Caine plays an understated Don Draper, a man trying to advance in an advertising firm full of duplicitous, ass kissing executives.  The first death seems to light the way to the a dormant gene in Mr. Marshall’s constitution. He didn’t know he, who seemed to have a relatively mild, plodding personality, actually possessed the mind of a cold-blooded manipulator. He not only discovered this hidden talent, but now delighted in exercising it.  The cast — Elizabeth McGovern, Swoosie Kurtz and Will Patton — is solid, and the small, smart story is told well.  Is it possible to eliminate so many obstacles and not get caught?  We shall see.

Michael Caine makes so many films, he has to make some of them twice.   Sleuth is based on Anthony Shaffer’s award winning play. In the 1972 film, Caine played the younger of two characters in what turns out to be a deadly pissing match.  Lawrence Olivier played the older man, attempting to recover from the humiliation he felt at the theft his wife’s heart.  In 2007, the film was remade and updated, this time with Caine as the aging crime writer and Jude Law as the young actor or hairdresser (we’re not quite sure), who proves to be surprisingly adept at countering the sophisticated writer’s capricious, seemingly deadly moves.

What we have here is a stylish, mannered and fascinating two-person play in a stunning high-tech home, the third star of the film.  Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay and Kenneth Branagh directed.  Watching a cerebral and cunning Caine and a clever and outrageous Law going at each other is as good as it gets, a genuine championship bout. 

A Shock to the System is a fine undercard to Sleuth, which is clearly the main event.

Scotch would work as an accompaniment to the evening.  Martinis are probably too American for either film.  This is a British battle. By the way, both films, especially the claustrophobic Sleuth, work well on home screens.

Film Pairings — Intrigue In The Tropics, Politics And Strange Bedfellows

As cold weather approaches, this might be the time to entertain a couple of politically challenging films set where perspiration is more likely than goose pimples and a dramatic glimpse into recent history provokes thoughts about how our actions in foreign lands are more serious than we might think.  What does our government do when we’re not paying attention?

The Extraordinary Linda Hunt

The Year of Living Dangerously tells the story of an Australian journalist (Mel Gibson) who arrives in Indonesia during increasing public unrest, which finally results in the overthrow of its corrupt President Sukarno.  The question pits a hungry, get-the-scoop journalist against understanding the deeper issues that affect a population being undermined by its leaders.  Not too incidentally, he must choose between his career and the woman he loves.  Tough choices.  Linda Hunt gives her academy award performance as a young male dwarf concerned about the victims of corrupt leadership and Sigourney Weaver is the woman in the ambitious reporter's life.  The steamy, smart sexy, adventurous film directed by Peter Weir was released in 1982.  It was based on the book by Christopher Koch.

The parallels between this film and the film of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American are worth noticing. Director Phillip Noyce initially wanted to do The Year of Living Dangerously before losing out to Weir.  Here, we have CIA intervention in the affairs of 1950s Vietnam while the French were struggling with colonizing it, all supposedly part of domino theory that would again raise its ugly head in the 1960s with the U.S. trying to get rid of the “red menace.”

In this case, Michael Caine plays a cynical journalist posted to Saigon during the French occupation.    The U.S., which escaped culpability in Weir’s version of the Sukarno affair, doesn’t fair so well in The Quiet American.  In fact, this is a remake.  The first film, (1958) starring American war hero Audie Murphy, was virtually disowned by Greene as an American propaganda film.  This one (2002) was more faithful to Greene’s intent.  When we meet Brendan Fraser’s character, we believe he is an innocent do-gooder, a contrast to the older, wizened character played by Caine.  Things, we learn, aren’t always what they seem and right and wrong, as it is in both movies, aren’t necessarily easy to discern. The idea of “collateral damage” is brought up here and is just as serious and controversial today as are CIA dirty tricks. Both films have, a their heart, both doing right on a deeply personal level with those we love and doing right for a cause greater than ourselves.  And when are abominable acts justified in order to achieve a so-called greater good? Do Thi Hai Yen is the beautiful Vietnamese woman who symbolizes both the personal and the universal.

These are two perfect films for those who love history and politics mixed with a little steamy sex.  And if cold, gray winter has descended on your household, take a trip to places closer to the equator.  Turn up the heat and drink something that requires ice and a lime or a lemon.

Film Pairing — Autophilia, And When Remakes Are Justified

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard folks lament the remake of a good film. “Can’t they leave well enough alone?” They are remaking The Thin Man for example and that seems to have insulted a number of people. It is one of my favorite films and yet I don’t think one displaces another. Sometimes it is one film honoring another. Of course, as a writer, I wish they would make a first movie out of one of my books rather than a second or third out of someone else’s work. But I just recently saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. A few months ago I rented the PBS series from Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed it. Alec Guinness for heaven’s sake. Six parts. Fantastic. And yet there is a new version with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt, and Benedict Cumberbatch (the modern Sherlock). It is brilliant. The cinematography is masterful. The editing is immaculate. The acting is the best possible. The new movie doesn’t cancel the impact of the PBS series. However, it is extraordinary and worthwhile all on its own.

I say all of this to come to lesser dramas to be sure, but two that will make an entertaining, escapist evening. Unlike the LeCarré-inspired pieces that require you pay careful attention, these two films require only that you relax and have fun. You will not be intellectually challenged. If, in fact, you are not prepared for a little silliness or are unwilling to abandon any craving for reality-based drama, you might want to skip both these films. The first is The Italian Job, the British version made in 1969. The second is The Italian Job, the American remake, made in 2003.

The silliness is vastly more present in the original, British version of The Italian Job. If you have doubts about the purposeful absurdity of this heist movie, think of the casting: Michael Caine, Benny Hill, Rossano Brazzi and Noël Coward. Anyone who thinks this is going to be a gritty, noir-inspired film needs to…well…do something about his or her own unrealistic expectations. The real stars of this film and even more so for its remake are the automobiles. Great cars. Great chases. American audiences most likely received their first glimpse of Mini-Coopers when they took center stage as part of the ingenious robbery of ill-gotten gold in the Italian town of Turin. Fun, suspense, action and a travelogue.

For the American version we move initially to Venice for a clever plot to steal a safe. A canal-bound chase (we’ve seen them in James Bond films and in the recent mildly entertaining The Tourist). But the gondola-spilling is only a mild tease. The high-profile cast is perfect for this more muscular film. Mark Wahlberg, Jason Statham, Mos Def, Edward Norton play significant roles. So do Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron and, for comic relief, Seth Green. When our favorite criminals are betrayed, we witness the careful planning and brilliantly choreographed execution in, however, the less glamorous setting of L.A. The new and improved version of the Mini-Cooper is given a starring role (word is that sales of the baby Beamers went up by 22 percent. Talk about product placement). The addition of Theron and the revenge factor provide a dimension the original didn’t have. Also, entering the age of special effects, the cinematography renders this version much more visually exciting.

There has been discussion of a third film, a sequel to the American version called The Brazilian Job. But a search for information about the film suggested I was actually snipe hunting.

For drinks, let’s think Italian. Something light and not too serious. How about turning up the heat and pretending you’re in sunny Italy. Pop the cork on a chilled bottle of Prosecco.