The Quiet American (2002, 101 min, R) ***1/2 – Directed by Philip Noyce, starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser. Enter a colonial Vietnam that’s as world-weary and cynical as the Vienna of “The Third Man” (it should be; both films are from novels by Graham Greene). The love triangle formed by a jaded British journalist (Caine), a Vietnamese dancer, and an idealistic American aide worker (Fraser) mirrors the shifting power structure of the country itself. Caine’s longtime expatriate is all moral relativism and hard liquor, brilliantly contrasted by Fraser’s open-faced and self-righteous youngster. The movie is as prescient today as it was in the 1960s, as the first world continues to tinker bloodily in the third.
Quigley Down Under (1989, 120 min, PG13) ***1/2 – Directed by Simon Wincer, starring Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo, and Alan Rickman. Terrific old-fashioned western pits a likable American sharpshooter (Selleck) against a gang of thugs in the Australian outback. Rickman does some great scenery-chewing as the villain and Selleck is a straight-shooting (no pun intended) man of principle. Beautifully photographed, expertly scored by the great Basil Poledouris, and blessed with some of the finest, most expansive gunfights in recent memory. |
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