The Quiet American - A Libertarian Review

This movie (1) is set in Vietnam during the 1950's when the French colonists were fighting the Ho Chi Mihn's Communist forces. Thomas Fowler--a British journalist in his 50s--is a correspondent for the London Times, covering the conflict. He meets a young American aid worker--Alden Pyle--who immediately falls in love with the former's Vietnamese mistress Phuong.

Although it seems that Phuong is in love with the older Fowler, she above all else desires to marry a Westerner so that she may move to their country with them. The problem is that Fowler is already married; and because his wife is a devout Catholic, he has not been able to divorce her and marry Phuong. This lead to Phuong leaving Fowler for Pyle, who she will be able to marry and then move to the U.S. with.

While all of this is going on, a "third power" (not French and not Communist) arises in Vietnam in the person of a General The. Pyle lets it be known that he supports this man and his cause since he believes that colonialism is not the answer to the problems in Vietnam, but Communism is not either. This seemingly noble idea runs into the fact that since the new general's rise to prominence, there has been an increase in atrocities (more like terror attacks) throughout the country that the West is blaming on the Communist forces. Fowler soon discovers that the "third power" The is behind these attacks, with American aide, in hopes of acquiring even more aid from the U.S.

Fowler then finds out that Pyle is not truly an aide worker, but really a CIA undercover operative sent to the country to find such a "third power" and assist in the rise of it, by means of the aforementioned terrorist attacks. Thus, Pyle had been complicit (directly or indirectly) in all of the killings of innocents that had been taking place. Once he finds this out, he agrees to assist his Vietnamese contacts assassinate Pyle.

The movie ends with Pyle getting stabbed and killed, and then Phuong returning to Fowler, who promises her that he "will never leave" Vietnam or her.

Links

1. http://www.amazon.com/The-Quiet-American-Michael-Caine/dp/B00005JLXB
2. https://www.corbettreport.com/?s=gladio+b - For more on the staging of terrorist attacks in foreign countries by the CIA in the furtherance of their objectives, please research "Gladio B"

The Americanization of Emily - A Libertarian Review

This is a very powerful film (Link 1) about the realities of war. It is a drama, with its various dialogues about war, a comedy, with many downright outrageous scenes, and also romantic, with Charlie and Emily's relationship.

Set in the months before and including D-Day, Charlie is a "Dog Robber" for an American admiral of the Navy--someone who must see to it that the admiral is very well fed and taken care of during the war. The setting is in London, far removed from any battlefront. Emily is one of Charlie's drivers and initially finds him very distasteful since he both is chauvinistic as well as not remorseful in getting to enjoy many of the items that the average British citizen has not been allowed to eat or possess during the war. However, she eventually warms up to him after attending one of the parties that he set up for the admiral. From then on, the two fall madly in love with each other.

The two are seemingly quite different. Emily is quite proud of being a war widow and having a father, brother, and cousins that have also died in war. On the other hand, Charlie believes that there is nothing to be proud of in regards to a soldier's death; that it is truly living that one should admire and respect. This conflict comes to a head when Charlie is sent to film  a live movie of the invasion of Normandy and believes that he will be able to avoid actually taking part. Emily believes that it is cruel and very dishonorable to wish to avoid the invasion while thousands of other soldiers will not be so fortunate. It is then that Emily breaks off their relationship.

After it is believed that Charlie dies on Omaha Beach, Emily comes around to Charlie's feelings about war. She lets it be known that she no longer is proud of death during war.

Throughout the film, there are several scenes that contain bitter criticism of war and how it is perpetuated. The most important of these is when Charlie meets Emily's mother (Link 2). During the exchange between Charlie and the mother, Charlie states that it is the public that are most to blame for continual war--not the generals and politicians at whom the finger is often pointed. He explains that it is the people and their glorification of war that makes it palatable to the public at large. For a current example of this, one only needs to look at how members of the U.S. military are treated--and often worshiped--by the average American.  This is the main message of the film. To put it another way, war will never truly end so long as it is seen as honorable to fight and die for one's country.

It can clearly be seen that the world today--especially in America--is not even close to this philosophy. However, if more and more people begin to see war for what is truly is (Links 3-5), then we may one day achieve this noblest of ideals.

Links

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MUd06J-F4w&spfreload=10
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reUstMn4bM8&spfreload=10
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk&list=PLfZW33CKLKfuIrh0abieHTVYlxZV22zgE
4. http://ronpaulinstitute.org/
5. http://antiwar.com/