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Rating:  - Excellence!!!
theres no shadow of doubt that this is a classic that presents the khmer rouge issue in cambodia and an extraordinary history that everyone got to see.
Rating:  - Imagining the Unimaginable
The Killing Fields
As everyone knows by now, The Killing Fields is the story of New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg's search for his Cambodian companion
Dith Pran, who disappeared during the evacuation of Pnomh Penh in 1974.
I've read a lot about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, beginning with "Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare," and "The Lost Executioner.", both dealing with the insanity of Pol Pot's dystopian world ... A world in which time stops and the clock reset to "Year Zero," all private property is abolished,urban population displaced to the countryside, and even money and currency abandoned. It was truly Orwellian.
Sam Waterston is excellent as the Boston-bred Schanberg, down to the South Boston accent and the penchant for Johnny Walker Black and strong cigarettes. Dr.Haing S. Ngor, in his first acting role, won a Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Dith Pran. Ironically, Ngor was murdered in a gangland killing in Los Angeles. The cinematography, which also won an Oscar (R) is excellent.
I am tempted to make a couple of comparisons: first, to "The Year of Living Dangerously," in which Mel Gibson plays a journalist in the confusion of Indonesia, and secondly to Empire of The Sun directed by Steven Spielberg. In the Gibson film, the relationship between a reporter and a loyal translator is the primary theme. The translater (played by Linda Hunt) opens the reporter's eyes to the real story, just as the faithful Dith Pran "fixes" things for Schanberg. He goes through a major guilt trip after leaving Dith Pran behind in the confusion.(Although in fairness to Schanberg, he did get Dith's family out)In Empire of the Sun, a British schoolboy becomes a pawn in the Japanese invasion of Shanghai before World War II. The response of captives to their captors is the major theme of both pictures.
It's too bad that Spielberg's movie was virtually dismissed by critics and audiences when it came out, but now that it's on DVD it's getting more attention.
Other Works Referenced;
Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare
The Lost Executioner: A Story of the Khmer Rouge
The Year of Living Dangerously
Empire of the Sun
Rating: - The hardest movie for me to watch
I first watched this movie when it came out in 1984, the second half of the movie was so emotionally charged for me that it was more than ten years before I could watch it again. To watch graphic depictions of the consequences of our abandonment of all of Southeast Asia was to Emotional for me. Although there were no movies and little news coverage, even by The New York Times (All The News That Fits), The same camps and murders were taking place in Laos, and Viet Nam, only on a lesser scale. Even Joan Baez was shocked, and upset.
The first half of the movie, was pure Liberal spin, poor Sid Schanberg who nobly reports the mistaken bombing of a town by American B 52's, but he somehow missed the fact that the Khmer Rouge had been murdering thousands of "Counter Revolutionary's" for several years. Poor Sid treats Dith Pran like a collie while he employs him (in effect blackmails him into staying in return for getting his family out) then after Dith saves his life he fails to get him out. In response poor Sid, perhaps feeling guilty, sends out posters, as if looking for a lost cat. At this point the story has to leave poor Sid and go back to The Killing Fields, this is where the real movie begins. This part is Auschwitz in color and cinema-scope. After Dith escapes and walks across Cambodia to a Thailand refugee camp, noble Sid drops everything to fly off to Thailand to rescue Dith from the red cross, and get the story.
As a post script, Dith Pran moves to a poor area of L.A. where he is murdered by a gang, and Poor Sid gets a Book and Film deal. Thus is History written by Sid, and The New York Times.
Rating: - Chilling
At the time of release this was a shocker. Not many realised what genocide was. How this could go on without intervention by the wider world was disturbing. With the passage of time, and similar atrocities almost every day, it seems we have become sensitised. Worth viewing to remind us to be alert.
Rating: - The Khmer Rouge
A very good film, The Killing Fields, sheds light on the atrocities committed by the communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during their reign of terror in the 1970's.
The film follows Dith Pran as he is left behind by his employer, an American reporter, only to be captured by the Khmer Rouge and subsequently experience what amounts to living a nightmare.
Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, and the rest of the cast, have carried out their performances well, nevertheless one cannot help but feel disdain for Sidney Schanberg (and by extension Sam Waterston) for preventing his assistant from reaching shelter when he could.
The acting, the setting, the plot, and the dialogues are all good though the movie could have done much more to show the Communists' sheer brutality. Moreover, there were quite a few dialogues not translated that left us in the dark.
In short, The Killing Fields is a movie definitely worth watching as it will surely provide good insight on one of the most infamous regimes of the twentieth century.
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