Zar

Maybe this belongs in Media and Popular culture, but the parallels to the current situation are too strong. I saw this film and loved it, and I think everyone here should see it, too. There is an emotional truth that seems to resonate for me in it that goes beyond the headlines, history lessons and bombastic caricatures of the Vietnam era and the earlier days of earnest American imperialism (in the wake of the decline of French imperialism.) The ravaged country of Vietnam, target of many invaders is depicted at the same time mysterious, horrifying, violent, beautiful, passionate and numb. Roger Ebert here warns against seeing it for political reasons, but I don't see how we can extract ourselves completely from that. Maybe the film itself can help us do that very thing because of its very human drama:

See Roger Ebert's Review here.

Anyway, I think more Americans should see The Quiet American.

Sakpo

I haven't seen the film (I probably will) so I can't recommend it (yet). I do highly encourage everybody to read the novel though, and definitely not to watch the first film (which totally betrays the novel), unless they've made themselves aware beforehand of how much that film betrays the novel.

Zar

Yes, that is what I hear, that the first version of the film basically inverts the theme of the book, making the Brit to be the bad guy and the American to be the "hero". Apparently, this film basically restores the original themes to their true thrust.

There may not be a monopoly on the media in America, since obviously dissenting opinion like the above film does sneak through from time to time, but it is also undeniable that there are an awful lot of people working really hard to lie to us and "jam the transmission" so to speak.