Australian director Phillip Noyce, who brought us the less-than-distinguished The Saint and Sliver, had the good fortune to see two films he made released almost simultaneously to huge acclaim.  Along with Rabbit-Proof Fence was The Quiet American, his adaptation of Graham Greene's novel concerning a love triangle in 1950s Vietnam, with Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.  Two things in the press release accompanying the CD strike me as being incredibly odd - first, that Michael Caine told Noyce that he would only be in the film if Craig Armstrong did the music.  Now, Armstrong has shown reasonable promise with some good scores, like The Bone Collector, but I'm amazed Caine had even heard of him, let alone made such a demand.  Second, they say that Armstrong spent ages researching Vietnamese music to make his score as authentic as possible.  Well, if the Vietnamese spent their time listening to chilled-out pop beats with layers of synth atmosphere and electronic percussion during the 1950s then he succeeded admirably, but that does seem rather unlikely.

The fact that it would seem to be totally anachronistic aside, this is an entertaining enough album.  Most of the tracks are accompanied by the synth percussion but I must admit that I prefer it when we just have the orchestra - "Brothers in Arms" is a great track.  Armstrong's most striking musical device is the use of Vietnamese vocalist Hong Nhung on many of the cues - her beautiful (mostly wordless) intonations adding a lot to the score.  It is interesting to compare Armstrong's work on The Quiet American with that of Jeff and Mychael Danna on Green Dragon, one of the most beautiful scores in years.  I've no idea whether the Dannas' work was any more authentic, but it certainly sounded that way, and for me made a much more satisfying album.

The Quiet American ends with a song, in English, "Nothing in this World" (again sung by Hong Nhung, who provided the voice for the wordless vocals in the rest of the score).  Again it seems far too modern in style for this movie, but I'm not the expert here.

This is a pretty entertaining and enjoyable album of chilled-out, easy listening music.  As a film score I'm not so sure.

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Tracks