Philip Noyce produced two films simultaneously: Rabbit Proof Fence and Quiet American. I previously seen Rabbit Proof Fence and I watched The Quiet American last night. It is based on the classic Graham Greene novel that forewarned against US involvement in Vietnam , and is about colonialism and empire as seen through the experiences of a washed out, ageing and jaded English foreign correspondent.

I was disappointed, very disppointed. It looked very good on the surface. There was little historical reflection in the moviearoudn Vietnam. Hell, it is 50 years latter, and we interpret the looming defeat of the France and the entry of the Americans into South Vietnam from where we are now. Yet the film was more about the characters and their relationships---eg., the classic romantic triangle is at the centre of the story--- with the historical context pushed into the background, apart from the Americans attempts at backing a violent "third force," neither colonialist nor communist. We are not given a portrait of the escalating political tensions as the French retreat.

Many people thinks it's a courageous movie, especially after 9/11. That's a very American response.

There was little deconstruction of orientalism. Edward Said had argued that the West had constructed a wrong and often abusive image of the Orient, not because of ignorance but because this was the way the West justified the oppression of the people of the East. This negative image was actually the major tool of subjugation.