The Killing Fields (1984)

Director:

Roland Joffé

Writer:

Bruce Robinson (screenplay)

Release Date:

2 November 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Tagline:

He was a reporter for the New York Times whose coverage of the Cambodian War would win him a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. But the friend who made it possible was half the world away with his life in great danger... This is the story of war and friendship, the anguish of a country and of one man's will to live.

Plot:

A photographer is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero" cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million "undesirable" civilians.

Plot Keywords:

Cambodia | New York Times | Khmer Rouge | New York | Airport

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 18 nominations

Cast

Sam Waterston	...	Sydney Schanberg
Haing S. Ngor	...	Dith Pran (as Dr. Haing S Ngor)
John Malkovich	...	Alan 'Al' Rockoff
Julian Sands	...	John Swain
Craig T. Nelson	...	Major Reeves
Spalding Gray	...	U.S. Consul
Bill Paterson	...	Dr. MacEntire
Athol Fugard	...	Dr. Sundesval
Graham Kennedy	...	Dougal
Katherine Krapum Chey	...	Ser Moeum
Oliver Pierpaoli	...	Titony
Edward Entero Chey	...	Sarun
Tom Bird	...	U.S. Military Advisor
Monirak Sisowath	...	Phat - Khmer Rouge Leader
Lambool Dtangpaibool	...	Phat's Son

Runtime:

141 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | Khmer

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) | Argentina:18 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Netherlands:12 | Netherlands:16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/16 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Enigma (First Casualty) Ltd.

Trivia:

The year the film was released, Time Magazine's Cultural Highs and Lows of the Year, had as the lowest point, 'David Puttnam's decision to use John Lennon's Imagine in The Killing Fields'.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Sydney is talking to Dith Pran in his room, Sydney's hairstyle changes between shots. It goes from neatly combed to hanging down over his forehead to neatly combed again.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sydney Schanberg: Cambodia. To many westerners it seemed a paradise. Another world, a secret world. But the war in neighboring Vietnam burst it's borders, and the fighting soon spread to neutral Cambodia. In 1973 I went to cover this side-show struggle as a foreign correspondent of the New York Times...

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Band On The Run

Powerful Drama But Hard To Watch

It's been over 20 years since I saw this film and parts of it still haunt me.....brutal, emotional scenes which I do NOT want to see ever again. It's just too gut-wrenching and uncomfortable to sit through a second time. Generally, it's two hours of suffering and torture. Who wants to watch that?

It IS a powerful story, though, based on the true life adventures of Dith Pran (played by Haing S. Ngor) who somehow survived the unbelievably-brutal regime of Cambodia dictator Pol Pot. Other reviewers here have detailed the storyline, so there is no sense me rehashing that.

Suffice to say this is a movie that - be warned - is very tough to view in many spots - but will leave you emotionally drained. Ngor's harrowing performance is one to remember, as is the horrible story of what happened in the mid '70s in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. This movie was filmed with Thailand and the scenery there, along with the excellent cinematography, makes this a visual treat.

Some have complained that the film is too slow for them. Others didn't like this because it was overtly anti-American in some regards (the bombing of Cambodia). I can understand those complaints. What bothered me most was that I just found the whole based-on-a-true happening story too sad.