This film made me feel quite sick - not because it wasn't excellent, because it was, but because of the war it presaged. The characters, Fowler (played as ever brilliantly by Michael Caine) and Pyle (Brendan Fraser was a revelation here, - a young, less than idealistic intelligence officer, who looked and acted, right down to his mannerisms, like a tough, middle class American of that 1950s era, who was absolutely sure that he was in the right). The girl, beautiful and docile, is a mere foil for the men to vie over - anybody who thinks her character should be developed is in my opinion mistaken, they are not interested in her for her character,and she has no need of one in the context of this movie. The settings and cinematography are perfect. This is a wonderful movie, if only we didn't know what was coming next.There was some lip service paid to the Vietnam War right at the very end, which appears, naturally, neither in the original novel nor in the first movie made in 1958, but added a great deal to this version.

The story starts with the body of American Adrien Pyle , a medical specialist , being found in a river in Saigon . He has been stabbed to death and London Times journalist Thomas Fowler recounts to the authorities how he knew the man

TQE is a very strange film to comment on simply because I get the feeling that it is based on a very complex political novel by Graham Greene and it's interesting to note how many people on this page have commentated on how well or how badly it has been adapted to screen . It's also interesting to note that it was filmed in the spring of 2001 when George Bush's " war on terrorism " had not happened which clouds the issue more . People on the message boards have written many political threads to tie in with this but it's very interesting that Greene's original novel was written several years before Lyndon B Johnson sent combat troops to South East Asia , so Greene is criticisng American foreign policy in general and an intelligent , cogent way , not so much jumping on the fashionable bandwagon with Michael Moore , John Pilger and George Monbiot so I guess for that he deserves some credit

As a film what makes it so successful is with the casting . Michael Caine as we all know is a living legend and the fact that he has appeared in so many awful movies simply for the money while still retaining prestigious star quality speaks volumes for his talent and as you might expect in this type of role he's superb . What is even more amazing than Caine's performance is that of Brendan Fraser's as Adrien Pyle . I've just remembered how good he was in GODS AND MONSTERS and he's equally as good here as a man who's not what he seems to be . One can't help thinking how well he'd be regarded as an actor if he'd decided to skip THE MUMMY films which unfortunately seems to have prematurely killed his career . Certainly I wasn't reminded of Rick O'Connel while watching this

Where the film falters is - Again - where it shows its literary roots . There's no way you can confuse a Graham Greene novel with a Harold Robbins one , but there's maybe too much of a romantic subplot which gets in the way of the real story and you find your self questioning as to what the main story . Is it the political one or the love triangle ?