History Main / ForeignCorrespondent

* Newspaper editor William de Worde's cameo appearance in ''MonstrousRegiment'' offers an outsider's perspective into the crazy closed country of Borogravia. his insiights even offer native characters a chance to see their country as it is viewed from the outside.

* In ''The Year of Living Dangerously'' the period leading up to Indonesia's 1966 coup d'état is presented through the eyes of two Australian journalists and a British civil servant.

* Averted, strangely enough in the Creator/AlfredHitchcock film of the same name, where the editor states from the off-set that he does not want another Foreign Correspondent in Europe. He sends a crime reporter instead, who ''still'' gets embroiled in the start-up to WorldWarII.

* Creator/EvelynWaugh's novel ''Scoop'' is a comic novel version of this -- the protagonist and many supporting characters are all journalists covering an Eastern African country likely based on Ethiopia.

* Both Maddy and Daniel in SexTraffic.

So, you're looking for a story idea. You fixate on a real-life event in a remote, exotic location. Say, a revolution in Indonesia, a genocide in Cambodia, or the partition of the Asian subcontinent. Still, you can't make it ''too'' exotic, or you will lose your audience. So you give them a protagonist they can relate to, usually a reporter, doctor, tourist, or other plausible visitor from a rich western country. This character is given a story arc of his own that plays out against the backdrop of major world events. He may be taking an active interest in these events, or he may just be trying to live his life without getting involved. Chances are that at some point he will have to make a change, though. He will be made aware of how bad the situation really is, become disillusioned, and/or realise the country is no longer safe for him. This usually precipitates a sequence in the last third of the movie in which the protagonist must escape from Deepest DarkestAfrica (or Deepest Darkest Java, Deepest Darkest Indochina, etc.). Alternatively, he may end up GoingNative.

* Many of the books of Paul Theroux and BillBryson. The latter even manages to do it while travelling in a country he lives in, or where he spend his early years.

* Contrary to what its title and marketing suggest, ''TheLastKingOfScotland'' is not so much about Idi Amin as about the fictional doctor Nicholas Garrigan who befriends him and gradually becomes disillusioned with his regime.
** Forest Whitaker's Idi still steals the show, though.

** For example ''The Quiet American'', mentioned above, as well as ''Our Man in Havana'', in which the foreign correspondent is a vacuum cleaner salesman in pre-Castro Cuba.

Not to be confused with the Creator/AlfredHitchcock film of the same name.

* ''TheQuietAmerican'' (2002) is largely about the rivalry between a young American man and an older British man for the affection of a Vietnamese girl. This soap-opera takes place against the backdrop of civil conflict in 1950s Vietnam.
** It's also symbolic of the conflict -- the aging European powers losing their grip on the world, the idealistic Americans trying to make a difference and not entirely understanding what they're getting into, and the Third World, caught between them.

* Some novels of the French author Creator/JulesVerne have Frenchmen in relatively passive "observer roles" among an otherwise non-French cast. Examples are Passepartout in AroundTheWorldInEightyDays or Professor Aronnax in TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea. (Although the educational element in aforementioned novels is less about politics, and more about science and geography.)

* Raymond Burr as reporter [[NamesTheSame Steve Martin]] in the US cuts of the original ''{{Godzilla}}'' and ''Godzilla 1985''.

* EvelynWaugh's novel ''Scoop'' is a comic novel version of this -- the protagonist and many supporting characters are all journalists covering an Eastern African country likely based on Ethiopia.

Not to be confused with the AlfredHitchcock film of the same name.

* Averted, strangely enough in the AlfredHitchcock film of the same name, where the editor states from the off-set that he does not want another Foreign Correspondent in Europe. He sends a crime reporter instead, who ''still'' gets embroiled in the start-up to WorldWarII.

So, you're looking for a story idea. You fixate on a real-life event in a remote, exotic location. Say, a revolution in Indonesia, a genocide in Cambodia, or the partition of the Asian subcontinent. Still, you can't make it ''too'' exotic, or you will lose your audience. So you give them a protagonist they can relate to, usually a reporter, doctor, tourist, or other plausible visitor from a rich western country. This character is given a story arc of his own that plays out against the backdrop of major world events. He may be taking an active interest in these events, or he may just be trying to live his life without getting involved. Chances are that at some point he will have to make a change, though. He will be made aware of how bad the situation really is, become disillusioned, and/or realise the country is no longer safe for him. This usually precipitates a sequence in the last third of the movie in which the protagonist must escape from Deepest {{Darkest Africa}} (or Deepest Darkest Java, Deepest Darkest Indochina, etc.). Alternatively, he may end up {{Going Native}}.

* Deployed in ''{{Anime/Monster}}'' in an interesting way: Tenma, the Japanese protagonist, is the audience's tie to the foreign backdrop of Germany and Czechoslovakia. Additionally, Tenma himself uses this trope as a cover for his research, claiming that his interests in Cold War secret police operations and organizations stem from a new Japanese fad.

* Contrary to what its title and marketing suggest, ''{{The Last King of Scotland}}'' is not so much about Idi Amin as about the fictional doctor Nicholas Garrigan who befriends him and gradually becomes disillusioned with his regime.

* Played straight and then averted in ''{{The Killing Fields}}''. The first half of the movie shows the American reporter Sydney Schanberg trying to escape from Cambodia in 1973. In the second part, Dith Pran - Sydney's Cambodian interpreter - finds himself stranded in Cambodia and caught up in the genocide. This is notably one of the few films in which a native of the country in question is allowed to become the film's protagonist.
* ''{{The Quiet American}}'' (2002) is largely about the rivalry between a young American man and an older British man for the affection of a Vietnamese girl. This soap-opera takes place against the backdrop of civil conflict in 1950s Vietnam.

* Some novels of the French author JulesVerne have Frenchmen in relatively passive "observer roles" among an otherwise non-French cast. Examples are Passepartout in AroundTheWorldInEightyDays or Professor Aronnax in TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea. (Although the educational element in aforementioned novels is less about politics, and more about science and geography.)
* Many of the books of Paul Theroux and [[BillBryson Bill Bryson]]. The latter even manages to do it while travelling in a country he lives in, or where he spend his early years.

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[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Live Action TV]]

Not to be confused with the AlfredHitchcock [[ForeignCorrespondent/Film film of the same name]].

The "Foreign Correspondent" acts as a lens through which the audience views the country he is visiting. Done well, this can produce a movie that is both moving ''and'' historically informative. Done too much, however, and it creates the impression that stories about foreign countries can ''only'' be told when they are seen through the eyes of a foreigner, as though the natives were incapable of telling their own stories.

* Contrary to what its title and marketing suggest, ''{{The Last King of Scotland}}'' is not so much about Idi Amin as about the fictional doctor Nicholas Garrigan who befriends him and gradually becomes disillusioned with his régime.
** ForestWhitaker's Idi still steals the show, though.

* Played straight and then averted in ''The Killing Fields''. The first half of the movie shows the American reporter Sydney Schanberg trying to escape from Cambodia in 1973. In the second part, Dith Pran - Sydney's Cambodian interpreter - finds himself stranded in Cambodia and caught up in the genocide. This is notably one of the few films in which a native of the country in question is allowed to become the film's protagonist.

* Many of the books of [[PaulTheroux Paul Theroux]] and [[BillBryson Bill Bryson]]. The latter even manages to do it while travelling in a country he lives in, or where he spend his early years.

** Regardless, ForestWhitaker's Idi steals the show.

* Deployed in ''{{Monster}}'' in an interesting way: Tenma, the Japanese protagonist, is the audience's tie to the foreign backdrop of Germany and Czechoslovakia. Additionally, Tenma himself uses this trope as a cover for his research, claiming that his interests in Cold War secret police operations and organizations stem from a new Japanese fad.

* In ''The Year of Living Dangerously'' the period leading up to Indonesia's 1968 coup d'état is presented through the eyes of two Australian journalists and a British civil servant.

* Averted, strangely enough in the AlfredHitchcock film of the same name,v where the editor states from the off-set that he does not want another Foreign Correspondent in Europe.

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** Regardless, Idi steals the show.