Protraph Lack of good storyline.

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

bkoganbing It's 1963 and the United States is getting drawn into the internal affairs of a Southeast Asian country named Sarkan. It's got a Communist north and a western leaning south. It has a king ruling with a prime minister with the habit of employing a lot of his relatives in positions of authority.What makes it a bit different from Vietnam where we were getting drawn in bit by bit is that Sarkan also has a charismatic leader who retired DeGaulle like after Sarkan won its independence from Japanese occupation. He's the key to solving the country's problems for better or worse.Because of a past relationship with Eiji Okada who plays the Sarkanese DeGaulle, Marlon Brando has been appointed ambassador to Sarkan. Back during World War II Brando and Okada worked well together doing damage to the Japanese occupiers.Problem now is that the Sarkanese see the Americans as occupiers and the Communists are exploiting the situation to the fullest. A road called Freedom Road that the USA is constructing has become a flash-point of resentment.It all ends as badly here as it did for America in Vietnam though I certainly won't go into details. Brando delineates a very good interpretation of a Cold Warrior diplomat. We and the Russians fought for global primacy with competing ideologies for over 40 years. Neither superpower was particularly cognizant of the wishes of the countries that blood was spilled over.Eiji Okada was a major star in Japanese cinema and this was his only English language film. He's an impassioned Sarkanese patriot who's exploited by some evil forces and only realizes it too late.Smartest guy in the room and in the film is Pat Hingle who is the boss constructing the road. His wife played by Jocelyn Brando runs a hospital for the natives and is beloved. He offers the only real solution to winning the hearts and minds of the Sarkanese. Build a hospital somewhere where you want your bloody road to run and the Sarkanese will fall all over themselves building a road themselves to it. Too bad no one listens.Brando and Okada make a fine pair of former friends and now dueling adversaries. Hopefully one day we might get an administration who is more concerned with winning hearts and minds all over the world. We might even realize some cheap oil in the bargain.The Ugly American is still a fine film with some lessons for today's diplomats and military men.

Ddey65 (**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**) Movies like this set the political tone for the 1960's, and contrary to the title, it wasn't as anti-American as it looks. While it never denied that the communist bloc were the true imperialists, it never overlooked the fact that some issues are more complicated than whether or not one group or another was pro-communist. Marlon Brando plays Harrison Carter MacWhite, the new U.S. Ambassador to South Sakhalin, who tries to diffuse the growing political tension in the country. And from the beginning, we realize it's going to be one hell of a battle.The following factions must be distinguished here: The United States of America: Determined to stop the communist threat since 1945, and help other nations do so.The Soviet Bloc: Determined to spread communism by any means necessary, just like in real life.The Kingdom of South Sakhalin: A far-eastern monarchy split in half after axis and colonial occupation, by the Soviet Bloc.The People's Republic of North Sakhalin: A creation of the Soviet Union for the sole purpose of expanding communism throughout Sakhalin, just as they've done in real life in Europe(Karelo-Finnish S.S.R., Armenian S.S.R., East Germany, East Austria, Warsaw Pact), Japan(Kurile Islands), Korea(North Korea), Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia(North Vietnam).The people of Sakhalin: Prefers to wish the entire cold war away, despite the fact that their country is already being turned into it's next battleground.For the record, we must keep in mind that when the book this movie was based upon was written the USSR and Red China were still allies, so it's not so far-fetched that they would work together to spread communist terror. Are the rebels lead by Brando's ex-friend really lead by communists? Maybe and maybe not. But regardless, the reds are determined to steal the revolution from the people, just as they've done in real life. Also, contrary to the lies of the far-left today we have NOT "deteriorated into a war-mongering world-wide dictatorship." The moral of the ending is far too obvious -- if we ignore the facts and details of each situation during the cold war, we will lose. And part of the reason we lost in Vietnam, besides the fact that anti-war protesters distorted the truth about why we were there in the first place, was that many refused to take the grievances of those who were dissatisfied with the South Vietnamese government seriously.

peter-1527 I read the book by the same name and was somewhat disappointed by the startling differences in the two. But I was more disappointed in how they made up the country name. What kind of political change is going to occur with a bogus name like "Sarkan"? Any chance of making a political statement is gone. When I first read the book and watched the film about 15 years ago , I was interested in our country's involvement in the Vietnam war. Now , I am interested in why we were there in the first place. And the lies that surround the answer. If one of the many reasons JFK was killed was his idea "it is their war, they must fight it on their own", then he understood the premise of the Ugly American. I read the book once, but I have watched this movie over and over again.

diegosantti Marlon Brando is just amazing in this intelligent film.Most people don't understand Brando's career choices during the sixties.But I think that as years go by,they will.His ideas were way ahead of his time.His talent and range is unbelievable.Every actor tries to imitate his intensity (deniro,penn,nolte,.....) with no success.Definitely the king of acting.