Question 1

Why is The Quiet American historically significant among Hollywood movies?

Accepted Answer

It was the first Hollywood movie made in Vietnam.

Question 2

How did Joseph L. Mankiewicz's adaptation differ from Graham Greene's novel?

Accepted Answer

The screenplay turns the novel inside-out: the blundering 'quiet American' becomes a shrewd, heroic figure, and Mankiewicz later called the movie 'very bad'.

Question 3

Which actors were originally cast as the leads before Audie Murphy and Michael Redgrave?

Accepted Answer

Mankiewicz originally wanted Montgomery Clift and Laurence Olivier; Clift withdrew for health reasons, and Olivier also left.

Question 4

What does the opening prologue of The Quiet American describe?

Accepted Answer

It describes an emperor ruling by permission of France, a war against a Communist army, and Chinese New Year as a time to forgive enemies and square accounts.

Question 5

What is the central conflict in The Quiet American?

Accepted Answer

Cynical British journalist Fowler falls in love with a young Vietnamese woman, but a naïve U.S. official also vies for her attention, leading Fowler to inform communists that the American is selling arms to their enemy.

The Quiet American

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