Certainly I wasn't reminded of Rick O'Connel while watching this Where the film falters is - Again - where it shows its literary roots. One can't help thinking how well he'd be regarded as an actor if he'd decided to skip THE MUMMY films which unfortunately seems to have prematurely killed his career. I've just remembered how good he was in GODS AND MONSTERS and he's equally as good here as a man who's not what he seems to be. What is even more amazing than Caine's performance is that of Brendan Fraser's as Adrien Pyle. Michael Caine as we all know is a living legend and the fact that he has appeared in so many awful movies simply for the money while still retaining prestigious star quality speaks volumes for his talent and as you might expect in this type of role he's superb. People on the message boards have written many political threads to tie in with this but it's very interesting that Greene's original novel was written several years before Lyndon B Johnson sent combat troops to South East Asia, so Greene is criticisng American foreign policy in general and an intelligent, cogent way, not so much jumping on the fashionable bandwagon with Michael Moore, John Pilger and George Monbiot so I guess for that he deserves some credit As a film what makes it so successful is with the casting. It's also interesting to note that it was filmed in the spring of 2001 when George Bush's ' war on terrorism ' had not happened which clouds the issue more. He has been stabbed to death and London Times journalist Thomas Fowler recounts to the authorities how he knew the man TQE is a very strange film to comment on simply because I get the feeling that it is based on a very complex political novel by Graham Greene and it's interesting to note how many people on this page have commentated on how well or how badly it has been adapted to screen.

The story starts with the body of American Adrien Pyle, a medical specialist, being found in a river in Saigon.

De stille Amerikaan by Graham Greene