Hollywood Elsewhere friendo Phillip Noyce (Salt, Clear and Present Danger, The Quiet American) toured around Vietnam last month to promote a Vietnamese-language edition of Ingo Petzke‘s “Phillip Noyce — Backroads to Hollywood.” He and his family visited Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and several points in-between. And there’s economic health everywhere, he says. There’s a super-rich class (plus a middle-class and lower-class), thriving industries, friendly people, beautiful jungles and beaches. Delicious food, magnificent architecture. A nice place to visit.

Why exactly did 58,000 young Americans die over there between ’62 and ’75? To keep the Communists from landing on the shores of Santa Monica? I forget.

All I know is that reality-facing political insiders knew North Vietnam couldn’t be beaten early on, we all knew the war was a lost cause by early ’68, and we stayed for another seven years until the last chopper flew off the roof of the American embassy in Saigon in ’75. And for what? 58,000 Americans, mostly blue-collar guys, ate lead and shrapnel and rose up into the sky and became droplets of water in the great eternal fountain, and for what?

Vietnam’s Wiki page says that poverty levels are now smaller than that of China, India, and the Philippines. According to a forecast in December 2005 by Goldman-Sachs, Vietnamese economy will become the 17th largest economy in the world in 2025, with a potential growth rate of almost 10% per annum in real dollar terms that could push it up to around 70% of the size of the UK economy by 2050. Vietnam is now the largest producer of cashew nuts with a one-third global share, the largest producer of black pepper accounting for one-third of the world’s market and second largest rice exporter in the world after Thailand. Other key exports are coffee, tea, rubber, and fishery products. There’s also a thriving tech industry.

A DVD of Henry Hathaway‘s Woman Obsessed (’59) arrived yesterday. I watched about half of it last night. (It’s slow and draggy.) There’s a scene with Susan Hayward, Stephen Boyd and Hayward’s kid visiting a circus and taking a look at “the fat lady” — a side-show attraction. 50 years ago women this size were considered freaks; today they’re considered Middle-American housewives.

In the ’70s I flew across the country (Van Nuys to LaGuardia) in a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza. The pilot was a Russian pediatrician named Vladimir. He’d agreed to take me and a guy named Gary in exchange for gas money. We left in the early morning, stopped for gas and lunch in Tucumcari, New Mexico, bunked in a St. Louis airport motel that night, flew out the next morning and arrived at LGA by the early afternoon. Anyway…

The fog was so thick when we were coming into St. Louis the air-traffic-controller guy had to talk us down. I was sitting shotgun and the air was pure soup, and I quickly fell in love with that soothing, Southern-accented voice, telling us exactly what to do, staying with us the whole way…”level off, down 500, bank right,” etc. When we finally got close to the landing strip and the fog began to dissipate, the landing lights looked like they do in this scene from The High and the Mighty. This glowing beacon of Christianity welcoming you, telling you everything’s gonna be okay, etc.

It was almost enough, during that moment and later that night as I thought about it, to make me think about not being a Bhagavad Gita mystic any more and coming back to the Episcopalian Church.

When the kids were toddlers they’d call this or that film is a “talking movie.” People sitting indoors and playing verbal ping-pong, etc. Well, John Michael McDonagh ‘s The Guard is one these, but what talk! What delicious Irish ping-pong! It’s a witty ramble-on thing that’s simultaneously digressive and twinkle-eyed, and one of the best “cops and bad guys batting the ball around” movies in ages. I don’t know if this indie Irish production will be eligible for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, but it ought to be. It’s all dessert.

Brendan Gleeson, star of The Guard, and director-writer John Michael McDonagh following an LA Live Regal showing — Friday, 6.24, 11:05 pm.

I did a short phoner with McDonagh a couple of days ago. I’ll post it tomorrow.

I had a little bit of trouble hearing all the dialogue when I first saw The Guard at Sony Studios (Jimmy Stewart, room #24) last week. Irish-speak has a certain gliding, looping, burry sound that can you can lose the ear for if you’re not careful. It’s a little like Shakespeare — once you find it you can hear it, but you can fall off the track if you’re not careful. In any event I heard every syllable during last night’s 10 pm screening at the LA LIVE Regal. I think it was because the sound sounded a bit sharper and cleaner.

Gleeson’s role as Boyle, an irreverent constable who’s mildly, indifferently corrupt in little and medium-sized ways but at the same a good bloke, is probably the best of his career. He’ll definitely be in line for some Best Actor action when 2011 Oscar season kicks in.

Last night’s passage of New York State’s gay-marriage law was cause for celebration among decent people everywhere. I wish I could have taken part in the Manhattan celebrations outside the Stonewall near Sheridan Square, or on the 8th Avenue strip from 14th Street to 23rd Street. I wasn’t in Berlin either when the wall came down.

Senator Mark J. Grisanti, a Republican from Buffalo, was the 33rd vote for the bill. “I apologize for those who feel offended,” he said. “I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife.”

It goes without saying that President Obama is too scared of hee-haw swing voters to have supported it, but hats off to Governor Andrew Cuomo.

“Ever since I had a memory about what my mother taught me, and my grandparents taught me, I believed that discriminating against people was wrong,” Obama said in New York two nights ago. “And I believed that discrimination because of somebody’s sexual orientation or gender identity ran counter to who we are as a people. It’s a violation of the basic tenets on which this nation was founded. I believe that gay couples deserve the same human rights as every other couple in this country.”

Most of the morning has been spent working hard on things that aren’t yet column stories or items or reports. It’ll all have to keep until I get around to it later this afternoon. It’s very easy to fall behind in this daily-column racket. Al you have to do is wake up a little bit late, and then take your time getting into things…and before you know it the time is 12:59 pm.