MovieChat Forums > The Quiet American (2003) Discussion > How films like this ruin the books

How films like this ruin the books

posted 13 years ago by fleaaaaaa
4 replies | jump to latest

I haven't read the book of the quiet american but I know that if I do now I will have hard time picturing the characters as anything but the actors who portray the film. It's entirely my fault and it happens with anything that I see the film of before reading the book. I have read brighton rock and seen the film after but I wonder now if re-reading brighton rock will be difficult for me now I have seen it in film form. Anyway I love Greene's novels and this was also a good film.

[–] baeksu 13 years ago

It's a shame because the book is an absolutely terrific.

I understand the criticisms of the book - that the characterization of Pyle is too cliche, that the book would never had enjoyed it's elevated status had the Vietnam war not happened and, suddenly, made the book look prophetic.

Give yourself some time to forget about the movie and pick it up some time and read it. IMO one of Greene's strengths is his ability to describe Vietnam and capture the atmosphere of several of the his scenes.

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

It tends to be the case with any book you read thats already been adapted!

Its that man again!!

[–] Kawada_Kira 9 years ago

I have the same issue (and consequently have difficulty reconciling the book Fowler in his 40s with the movie Fowler in his 60s), but I still love the book. It's one of the books that I can and do read over and over again. In some ways it's even better than the movie. In the book, Fowler and Pyle have a really great, interesting conversation in the tower that's sadly missing from the movie.

The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of history.
-Mao Zedong

[–] Jes' Sayin' (5965) a year ago

Fraser is very close to what Pyle must have been like. Caine is a bit too old and a bit too softened to be a proper Fowler, but he's not bad. I really don't think that it's important at all what they look like though. In fact Greene doesn't really describe appearances much. We get the idea that Phuong, for example, is beautiful only because of the way all men treat her. Greene never tells us the first thing about what she looks like.