Saigon - Year Of The Cat (1983)

Set in 1974 Vietnam, an English bank loan officer (Judi Dench) and an American CIA agent (Frederic Forrest) begin a tentative romance as the Vietcong approaches South Vietnam and the fall of Saigon to the communists is imminent. Directed by Stephen Frears (THE GRIFTERS) from a screenplay by the British playwright David Hare (PLENTY), the film has a good sense of the tension and urgency during the last days before Saigon falls and the hurried departure of American personnel and the abandonment of the very Vietnamese that helped them and leaving them to their fate under the communists. Hare's dialogue is problematic, often heavy handed. Dench manages to deliver Hare's words with assurance but Forrest seems to have difficulty wrapping his tongue around them and some of Hare's characters verge on caricatures like the American ambassador (E.G. Marshall). Fortunately, the subject matter is fascinating enough to hold our interest. The drippy score is by the usually reliable George Fenton. With Wallace Shawn, Roger Rees and Josef Sommer.