Probably my favourite Michael Caine movie Captured the flavour of Greene's novel really well. The politics is subtle, the pace perfect.
Great story — of course: Graham Greene — nicely carried over into film. Excellent capture of atmosphere. Great acting all around. (I loved the older sister)
Presently mining the Michael Caine seam, as I'm reading the second of his autobiographies. This beautiful film does full justice to the excellent Graham Green novel in every respect from interpretation, through casting and filming. The interview extras on the disc fill out background on the making.
In addition to the fully developed characters, lovely landscapes, real sense of threat, it also filled in a gap in my understanding as to how the USA became involved in Vietnam.
There was some sensitivity from that quarter when the film was released.
Quoting Michael Caine, "... it got a great critical reception and I was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor. I knew in my heart of hearts that there was no way that a film which implied even the slightest criticism of American foreign policy was going to have a good chance ..."
Hmm. Yes. Like poor old David Lean when Dr Zhivago was universally panned by the USA press!