Graham Greene's novel was published in 1955, before the United States was committed to an Indochinese war, and foreshadowed a great deal of American foreign policy. It has been filmed before, in 1958, but Hollywood changed the ending back then. The new film version is faithful to the book. An American Aid worker, Alden Pyle (Fraser) arrives in Saigon in 1952, during the Vietnamese struggle for independence against French colonial rule. He befriends Thomas Fowler (Caine), a disillusioned correspondent for the London Times and an opium addict. When Fowler introduces Pyle to Phuong (Yen), his beautiful Vietnamese mistress, the three are caught up in a tempestuous love triangle. But despite Pyle's polite and pleasant veneer, he is surreptitiously working for the CIA to establish a 'third force' in Indochina (an alternative to the French colonials and the Communist Viet Minh). Pyle's 'good intentions' have a disastrous outcome. The Quiet American was planned for an Autumn US release in 2001. The events of September 11 led Miramax to pull the film from distribution, sensing that the national mood would hurt the film's success. The film was released a year later on the eve of another American war and on this occasion the timing gave the film a contemporary relevance.

Private Roland Bozz (Farrell) is a Texan drifter drafted in to the Army. Uncomfortable with military life, scornful of its discipline, unconvinced by the justice or logic of the war in Asia, Bozz has already spent most of his service in the stockade. Once released to complete final combat training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, Bozz reverts to type. He flouts authority, makes a joke of drill and inspires small acts of resistance in his platoon. Initially indifferent to his fellow enlisted men, Bozz becomes increasingly disturbed by their likely fate and turns his knowledge of military law to their advantage, playing the barracks lawyer to enable one after another to secure a discharge. Unsurprisingly, Bozz makes his share of enemies at all levels. As embarkation for Vietnam closes in, Bozz must choose between desertion and playing the game.

Tigerland incorporates plenty of the staples of the war film genre (casual profanity, sadistic NCOs, etc.), yet the ambiguity and complexity of Bozz's character saves the film from dissolving into cliche. Directed by Joel Schumacher of Batman fame, it is nothing like his earlier films, but is much more thoughtful, with a grainy aesthetic that evokes documentary or TV footage from the 70s