Monday, February 6, 2012

The Quiet American



Ewan ba kung anung meron kay Brendan Fraser at hinahanap hanap ko sya lalo na pag nireregla ako hahahahaha!

Seriously, I happen to watch The Quiet American while hoping to watch The Mummy (My favorite Fraser movie) in Hulu.Com. Alas, walang the Mummy, but it was coincidental to see a drama that I believe was underrated.

I didn't like how Brendan's character was portrayed here, though I do believe in his cause, it doesn't make sense. Why fight a war that people are not willing to help themselves with? What will Americans get out of from helping a third world south east Asian country? Bananas???

This movie (or the book) was obviously done by a European (though financed by a US film company), someone who hated war to a point because they used to live it. They started it by being the original colonials. Now they try to pin it on Americans simply because well, Americans are the new cowboys of the era. As I was having a thought piercing conversation with one of our physician lay lecturers before I left Manila, I perceived the Americans to be the modern-day Rome, but in a good way - and he agreed.

I do not negate the author's (Brian Greene) emphasis on Alden Pyle's (Brendan Fraser's character) 'Third Force' axiom - a theory that neither Communism nor colonialism is the answer in foreign lands like Vietnam, but rather a "Third Force", usually a combination of traditions, works best. This theory was supported by renowned scholar York Harding and has influenced the delusional Alden Pyle. The theory makes sense but Pyle's major mistake was that he had to machinate violent means in order to achieve it. Also in the film (and in the book I perceive), the author gave Alden Pyle's character a sense of 'superhero complex' which apparently led to his doom. And let us not forget that the story revolved around a docile doe-eyed Asian woman.

I would like to not dwell on the conspiracies behind their cause and to gain it at a cost of lives. True, Americans are not perfect and should not be 'glorified' but they portray Americans as the villains in this film where they did nothing mostly but help out. I feel it similar to a political argument accusing that the US government's interest to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan was nothing but control of oil which have been proven time and again (by facts nonetheless) as false - and as Donald Trump have retorted, 'well, we might as well have!'

Why do American people have to suffer? Why do Americans have to do everything? Will anyone care or even dare lift a finger if not for them? If Vietnam is so progressive being a communist, why is it still a third world country? Why were there a lot of FOBs (fresh off the boat refugees) that even our own country was not spared? Imagine the Philippines having to aid and harbor - and have a community of Vietnamese refugees e pare pareho lang naman tayong gutom, nagiimport pa nga tayo ng bigas from Thailand, nu ba yun? 

One may hate Americans by watching this movie but it actually moved me to a point that if only people would understand the evils of communism, we wouldn't turn a blind eye on what's happening and wouldn't have wasted thousands of soldiers (and civilians') lives. The bigger picture here - Americans might have lost this war, but Vietnam also lost its freedom. If democracy (or a Republic) could speak out, it would have said 'there goes another one who bit the dust.'



0 comments:

Post a Comment

 

My Playpen Design by Insight © 2009