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Review of The Quiet American (Craig Armstrong)

2002 Promotional

2003 Varèse

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you enjoyed the crossover style of Craig Armstrong's score for The Bone Collector, for The Quiet American is largely an ethnic extension of that same sound.

Avoid it... if the merging of ethnic vocals and percussion, Western orchestral melodies, and modern electronic rhythms is simply too incongruous to fit the historical plot of this film for you.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

The Quiet American: (Craig Armstrong) The 2002 remake of the classic bittersweet tale of The Quiet American slipped under the radar, with only Michael Caine's superior lead performance gaining widespread recognition. Set in 1952 Vietnam, this cinematic recreation of the famous novel of the same name conveys the intriguing love triangle between two Western men and a beautiful Vietnamese woman in the surroundings of opium, betrayal, and the French Indochina War. Anyone familiar with the plot of The Quiet American knows that there exists no happy ending, and that stark, melancholy environment carries over to the music for the film. The project teamed composer Craig Armstrong once again with director Phillip Noyce, with whom Armstrong had collaborated to create the chillingly haunting score for The Bone Collector a few years earlier. In an interview, Michael Caine stated that he had told Noyce that he would portray the role of the veteran English journalist in The Quiet American only if Armstrong was hired to write the score for the film. There is no doubt that the composer's career was headed in the right direction in the early 2000's. The former string arranger for Madonna wrote several very strong scores on his own in the years surrounding The Quiet American, nearly sweeping the awards scene in 2001-2002 with his coordination and composition of music for the super-popular Moulin Rouge. Armstrong took the assignment of The Quiet American with vigor, studying over one hundred hours of traditional, native Vietnamese music in order to gain knowledge about the authenticity that would be needed to represent the concept.

The resulting sound of the score is a combination of several native specialty instruments, a light background choir, and three primary elements: the full orchestra, Armstrong's usual electronic rhythmic devices, and the haunting performances of a single Vietnamese female voice. The orchestra and solo female voice provide nearly all of the majesty to the work, while the electronics, though true to Armstrong's style, are somewhat of a curious choice for inclusion. It is a thematically rich and rhythmically smooth composition, with a compelling love theme worthy of the best cultural dramas in modern cinema. The rhythms and themes are simple in construct, but they are performed with strong harmony by a bass-heavy string section, contributing to a fullness of sound for the recording. The female voice is recorded with a slightly distant resonance; the wet mix of her contribution assists her voice in blending into the orchestra during both her wordless and seemingly lyrical performances (if she is performing lyrics, then they are in a non-English language, adding even more depth to the romanticism of the music for western ears). The mixing of the orchestra and vocals produces a vibrant, yet slightly distant sound, assisting to indicate the time period of the action on the screen. Listeners will recognize the consistent use of the piano from Armstrong's other scores, and shades of The Bone Collector especially expose themselves when the piano performs in unison with a light choir. The piano figures from The Bone Collector make a direct transition here, with a distinctly related ten-note phrase punctuating the thematic sequences in The Quiet American with nearly identical effect. Spine-tingling high strings, as usual, perform during scenes of extreme emotional turbulence.

New to the ears of Amstrong's collectors were the sparingly applied, but necessary use of the Sao flutes, Nhi fiddles, and other native instruments. They sometimes blend in with the electronic rhythms he employs to propel the action (or other busy) scenes in the film. The synthetics are similar in style to those heard in The Bone Collector as well, and if there is any criticism of the score for The Quiet American, it revolves around the use of those modern rhythms for a film set in 1952. At their strongest, however, those pleasant rhythms sound surprisingly similar to the ones heard in the middle portions of David Arnold's Tomorrow Never Dies, and Armstrong never loses the orchestral and vocal dominance over those rhythms. In cues such as the superb "Death in the Square," Armstrong turns to the authentic sound of native drums to carry the rhythm. The film ends with a more modern song variation of the Vietnamese female vocals (written by Armstrong and performed by Hong Nhung, too), and the piece fits well with the slightly defiant, bittersweet attitude of the score. A solo piano rendition of the theme is a more typical Armstrong inclusion, inserted into the middle of the listening experience on album here. The score was supposed to be released on commercial album by the Varèse Sarabande label on December 24, 2002, but that street date was cancelled. Armstrong personally had it released, however, as a "for your consideration" promotional product aimed at an Academy Award nomination in lieu of the commercial album. Varèse eventually rescheduled the commercial album's debut for March, 2003. The two albums feature identical contents, including all of the best, uninterrupted beauty of Armstrong's strong score for the darkly dramatic tale.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Both Albums:
Total Time: 48:02

• 1. The Quiet American (5:57) • 2. Saigon 1952 (4:54) • 3. Pyle's Best Friend/Asking for a Divorce (3:22) • 4. Drive Up Holy Mountain/General The' (3:02) • 5. Brothers in Arms (3:21) • 6. Escape from Watchtower/Dreams of Phuong (2:42) • 7. Death in the Square (3:28) • 8. Fowler's Temptation (3:29) • 9. The Quiet American Piano Solo (3:41) • 10. The Ritual of Revenge (4:44) • 11. Will You Let My Hair Down? (5:04) • 12. End Titles - Nothing in This World (Song for Phoung) - performed by Hong Nhung (4:12)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The promotional album's insert is blank on the inside, with no credits information. The commerical album from Varèse contains standard credits, but no extra information about the score or film.

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