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Rating:  - COMMUNISM: AN IDEOLOGY OF MURDER
In 1984 Sam Waterston starred as New York Times reporter Sidney Scheinberg in "The Killing Fields". Clint Eastwood was offered the role, but turned it down. He said it was because he is a "Western WASP," not an East Coast Jew, but he probably ran from it because he is a Republican and knew that Scheinberg had been a biased Vietnam reporter and did not want to promote that. Scheinberg filed numerous reports advocating the message that the U.S. was not doing the right thing in Vietnam. The early part of the film promotes the liberal myth that it was U.S. bombs and U.S. aggression that created the situation in Cambodia. The perfidy of such a concept is mind-boggling. The U.S. did create the situation in Cambodia, because it was U.S. Democrats, led by Chappaquiddick Teddy, who de-funded the South Vietnamese until they collapsed. Then they have the bluster to tell the world, using their powerful friends in the film industry, that the Cambodian holocaust was not because they disarmed the forces of freedom, but because the Communists were incensed at American crimes, therefore justifying their rampages of mass murder against innocent civilians. Is there some alternate Universe in which this can be true. Answer: No.
However, like a fair number of films that liberals make, "The Killing Fields" ends up promoting a semi-conservative message when it gets into truthful events that cannot be portrayed any other way. Pol Pot's murder of Cambodia is undeniable. In putting it on film, it simply speaks for itself. There is little to conclude in walking out of the theatres that showed "The Killing Fields" beyond the simple conclusion that, "Communists killed millions of people," which is a fact that does not allow for much leeway. Leftists still try to find that leeway, however.
STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
Rating:  - So Powerful ...
I put off seeing this movie for so long, despite my fascination with that period of history (the late 70's) in Cambodia. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle viewing graffic depictions of the Khmer Rouge atrocities I had read so much about. Finally in college, while taking a course in Southeast Asian politics, my curiousity got the best of me and I rented it. I was pleased to find that the movie, while certainly intense, wasn't too much to stomach - even for a wimp like myself (no explicit torture scenes or anything like that). Yet I still walked away with a good feel for how horrible that era in Cambodia really was. Now I've seen this film countless times!
I continue to be amazed by the one scene where Dith Pran is saying goodbye to Sidney Schanberg, as he (Pran) is being forced into Khmer Rouge custody. Meanwhile Schanberg reluctantly gets to return to a life of freedom and luxury. Their farewells are so poignant and the music is PERFECT, with the rain pouring down on them - DAMN this scene is haunting.
Equally intense is the scene showing the heartpounding, panicked evacuation of the American embassy in Cambodia, as well as the cathartic finale of the movie: the way a zealous Schanberg sprints across the New York Times newsroom after receiving word from the Red Cross, leading to the film's fantastic final scene. It gets me teary-eyed every time.
Aside from the emotional fervor this movie inspired in me, I believe it was also very accurate from what I've read and researched. Even down to the cranky, impatient mannerisms of the real-life Schanberg, which were portrayed by an outstanding Sam Waterston. (Outstanding performances were given by all in fact, especially John Malcovich and Dr. Haing Ngor - who has an astounding past of his own with the Khmer Rouge.)
While overwhelmingly bleak, The Killing Fields was ultimately inspirational. Watch this movie to be educated, and moved!
Rating: - From the ashes... human courage will rise!
Prepare yourself for the most unique motion picture experience of your life time. The one and only movie (to my notion) about one of the most vile (and soon to be forgotten) atrocities committed in the 20th century, The Cambodian Holocaust. This is the true and sad story of journalist Sydney Chanberg and his native cambodian companion Dith Pran. In 1975, just a couple of month after the last american left Vietnam, Phonm Phen (the Capital of Cambodian)fell in the murdering hands of the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot's deadly guerrilla) and soon the country entered into a world of unspeakable horror where 3 million innocent people, most of them intellectuals, doctors, teachers and others touched by education were sadly murdered in the "killing Fields" by a brainwashing stupid idealogy of a Utopical peasant state.Welcome to Year Zero. Communist guerrillas not older than 15 years old murdered men, women and children, young and old in terms to create a peasant country. The story focuses on Dith Pran, Schanberg's aid and friend who saves him from execution. Pran is captured and sentenced to forced labor in the Killing Fields where he sees his whole family, friends and colleagues being murdered in cold blood and with no justification. This is a deeply and touching story of survival and how friendship and loyalty can break all the bounderies set by human cruelty and ideology. This beautiful film not to be missed and also a great history lesson on one of the cruelest events of the 20th century. This is the only film of my notion about the Cambodian Holocaust and this is deeply sad!!! Why does the media only exploit the Jewish Holocaust as a lesson of cruelty and survival....what about the Armenian Holocaust, The Cambodian Holocaust, Kosovo and Rwanda??? Do they need to rule the world like the Jews to tell their story? This is one of the most important films in my collection and I'm very happy to own it. A great history lesson of courage and survival is packed in this DVD...let the voice of the 3 million innocent Cambodians murdered in the Killing fields be heard. And I do agree with Schanberg speech...the U.S.A had lot to do with the early events that drove to the Cambodian Holocaust and all the other post Vietnam war Southeast Asian conflicts.
BEAUTIFUL MOVIE.
Rating:  - An otherwise-outstanding movie marred by left-wing bias
The first time I watched KF, when I was in my late teens, it blew me away. I would have given it five stars then. But I've grown up in the interim. The last time I watched it, its many defects became apparent. The movie's foremost defect is its anti-Americanism, perfectly encapsulated in Sam Waterston's speech in which he blames the genocide on America ("I was not aware of what insanity American bombs could produce!"). Really, to accuse the U.S. of causing the Cambodian genocide is historically moronic, and only a nutjob whose intelligence is subordinated to his ideology could make such a claim.
Shame, shame on the producers and writer for ruining what could have been one of the greatest movies ever.
Rating: - The truth about cambodia
THIS MOVIE is the best one there is out there that deals with injustice in third world countries. The Khmer Rouge not only destroyed a country's innocence and faith in goernment, they wiped out nearly 2.5 million people in 3.5 years. This is the best thing besides a documentary if you have a need to learn about this. I would not reccomend it as a "fun" movie.
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