The Quiet American/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: In the novel at least, Phuong is deliberately left open for this trope. We learn virtually nothing about her true feelings. Fowler and Pyle are also candidates for this, since the story is told from Fowler's point of view.
  • Crazy Awesome: Pyle, at least in the book, where he's portrayed more of just a misguided jingoist. At one point he takes a boat up to visit Fowler in North Vietnam without any apparent recognition that he's putting himself in danger.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The soundtrack was composed by Craig Armstrong, and that's all that really needs to be said.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Pyle's bumbling naivety seems like a commentary on America's ultimately ineffectual handling of the Vietnam War... until you realize that the book and the first film were both written well before the war actually started.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Pyle endorses a terrorist strike against civilians as part of his attempt to set up a new political force in Vietnam.