The Quiet American: Activities

Activities

1. What is the role of Phuong in the film?

In what ways does she represent the political struggle between Fowler and Pyle?

In retrospect, which of the two offered her a better choice? Why?

2. Why was Vietnam valuable to the various competing forces?

Why were the French fighting?

Why was the United States fighting?

What were the issues that separated them?

3. How does the movie explain the motivations of the various Vietnamese groups?

What motivated the Viet Minh communists? General Thé?

4. What is the point of Pyle’s enthusiasm for the “third force”?

Was this position a valid one? What were the problems with that position?

Why, under Diem, was it destined to fail?

Why does Fowler distrust the idea of the “third force”?

5. How does The Quiet American present the U.S. policy of sending aid to foreign countries?

Do you think humanitarian aid should have a political purpose? Why?

6. How does the movie present Vietnamese women?

How do their expected social roles compare with those of U.S. women?

7. How does the film explain the role of journalists?

How does Fowler compare to the other journalists in the film?

Why does he abandon the position of neutrality and take sides?

How do these journalists compare to those portrayed working in Cambodia in The Killing Fields?

8. In what ways does The Quiet American predict the outcome of U.S. participation in the Vietnam war?

What alternatives did the United States have to intervening in Vietnam?

How did intervention in Vietnam reflect other issues of the cold war against communism?

9. How accurate are the headlines that end the 2002 version of the movie?

What is the story that they tell?

10. To what extent is the 2002 version of The Quiet American a “post-cold war” film?

How does it address issues of its own time?

Why did the distributor withhold the movie after the events of September 11, 2001? Do you agree with that decision? Why?

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