The Killing Fields (1984)

Director:

Roland Joffé

Writer:

Bruce Robinson (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 February 1985 (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 | Photographer | Khmer Rouge | New York Times | Awards Dinner

Awards:

Won 3 Oscars. Another 26 wins & 20 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
Ira Wheeler	...	Ambassador Wade
David Henry	...	France
Patrick Malahide	...	Morgan
Nell Campbell	...	Beth
Joan Harris	...	TV Interviewer
Joanna Merlin	...	Sydney Schanberg's Sister
Jay Barney	...	Sydney Schanberg's Father
Mark Long	...	Noaks
Sayo Inaba	...	Mrs. Noaks
Mow Leng	...	Sirik Matah
Chinsaure Sar	...	Arresting Officer
Hout Ming Tran	...	Khmer Rouge Cadre
Thach Suon	...	Sahn
Neevy Pal	...	Rosa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Charles Bodycomb	...	Jeep Driver (uncredited)

Directed by
Roland Joffé

Writing credits
Bruce Robinson		(screenplay)

Produced by
David Puttnam	....	producer
Iain Smith	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Mike Oldfield

Cinematography by
Chris Menges

Film Editing by
Jim Clark

Casting by
Marion Dougherty
Susie Figgis
Pat Golden
Juliet Taylor		(as Juliette Taylor)

Production Design by
Roy Walker

Art Direction by
Roger Murray-Leach
Steve Spence

Costume Design by
Judy Moorcroft

Makeup Department
Ronnie Cogan	....	key hair stylist
Yvonne Coppard	....	makeup artist
James Keeler	....	hair stylist: Toronto
Ken Lintott	....	makeup artist
Tommie Manderson	....	makeup supervisor
Sophy Pradith	....	makeup artist
Chris Taylor	....	hair stylist
Freddie Williamson	....	makeup artist

Production Management
David Coatsworth	....	production manager: Toronto
Robin Douet	....	production supervisor
Charles Hubbard	....	unit production manager: Thailand
Claude Hudson	....	production manager: Bangkok
Philip Kohler	....	production manager: Phuket (as Phil Kohler)
Barrie Melrose	....	production manager: Thailand

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
David Barron	....	assistant director
David Brown	....	assistant director
Alan Goluboff	....	assistant director: Toronto
Charles Hubbard	....	assistant director: second unit
Buranee Rachjaibun	....	assistant director
Howard Rothschild	....	assistant director: Toronto
Sompol Sungkawess	....	assistant director
Gerry Toomey	....	assistant director
Bill Westley	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Martin Atkinson	....	assistant art director
Paul Bradburn	....	props
Jacques M. Bradette	....	set dresser: Toronto
Howard Brown	....	graphic designer
Ken Court	....	assistant art director
Tessa Davies	....	set dresser
Len Day	....	chargehand carpenter
George Dean	....	chargehand painter
Andrew Deskin	....	head props: Toronto
Patrick Doyle	....	stagehand
Len Furey	....	construction manager
John Gorham	....	graphic designer
Julie Graysmark	....	draughtswoman
Fred Gunning	....	supervising chargehand carpenter
Bill Harman	....	construction manager: Toronto
Frank Henry	....	chargehand carpenter
Ronald Kent	....	painter
John Porter	....	carpenter
Michael Quayle	....	chargehand plasterer
Ron Quelch	....	production buyer
John Roberts	....	master painter
Alan Seabrook	....	chargehand painter
Mickey Spence	....	supervising plasterer
Thomas Tarry	....	supervising plasterer
Alan Taylor	....	supervising carpenter
Andrew Tombs	....	plasterer
Terry Wells	....	property master
Dave Midson	....	stand-by prop (uncredited)

Sound Department
Peter Compton	....	footsteps editor (as Ray Compton)
Ian Fuller	....	dubbing editor
Leonard Green	....	assistant dialogue editor (as Lenny Green)
David Grimsdale	....	assistant dubbing editor
Dushko Indjic	....	boom operator (as Dushan Indjic)
Eddy Joseph	....	dialogue editor
Ray Merrin	....	assistant dubbing mixer
Ric O'Connor	....	assistant footsteps editor (as Rick O'Connor)
Bill Rowe	....	dubbing mixer
Niwat Sumneangsanor	....	sound assistant
Robert Taylor	....	second camera sound mixer (as Bob Taylor)
Clive Winter	....	sound mixer
Tony Jackson	....	sound recordist: UK (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Alan Bryce	....	special effects technician (as Allan Bryce)
Fred Cramer	....	special effects supervisor
Andrew 'Sandy' Overholtzer	....	special effects technician (as Andrew Overholtzer)
Melvyn Pearson	....	special effects technician
Jay King	....	special effects technician (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Neil Sharp	....	opticals
Costas Charitou	....	opticals: Camera Effects Ltd (uncredited)

Stunts
Terry Forrestal	....	stunt arranger

Camera and Electrical Department
James Ainslie	....	clapper loader
David Appleby	....	still photographer
Jonn Barry	....	electrician
Peter Bloor	....	gaffer
Ray Boyle	....	gaffer: Toronto
Tony Breeze	....	assistant camera: second unit
Peter Casey	....	generator operator
John Clark	....	best boy
Tony Cridlin	....	grip (as Tony Cridlin Jr.)
John Field	....	rigger
Judy Freeman	....	video operator
Jeremy Gee	....	focus puller
Eddie Knight	....	electrician
Agapios Louka	....	camera maintenance
Robert McRae	....	key grip: Toronto
Eric Melville	....	electrician trainee
Allan Mills	....	electrician
Satharn Pairaoh	....	assistant camera
Mike Roberts	....	camera operator
Stephen Samson	....	rigger
Ivan Strasburg	....	director of photography: second unit
Roland Neveu	....	special shoot photographer (uncredited)

Casting Department
Say Hong	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Anthony Black	....	wardrobe assistant
Keith Denny	....	wardrobe supervisor
Norman Dickens	....	wardrobe master
Keith Morton	....	wardrobe master
Marc O'Hara	....	wardrobe master: Toronto
Doungporn Soawapap	....	wardrobe assistant
Gary Wells	....	wardrobe assistant

Editorial Department
Bryan Oates	....	first assistant editor
Anne Sopel	....	second assistant editor
Tony Tromp	....	editor trainee

Music Department
David Bedford	....	composer: additional music
David Bedford	....	music arranger: choral
David Bedford	....	orchestrator
Greg Fulginiti	....	music engineer
John Gale	....	music consultant
Eberhard Schoener	....	conductor

Transportation Department
Brian Hathaway	....	action vehicles manager
John Hollywood	....	unit driver: London
Michael Jones	....	transportation coordinator
Pamela Wells	....	transportation manager

Other crew
Barbara Allen	....	production coordinator: Thailand
Judy Arthur	....	press liaison: USA
Simon Atherton	....	armorer
Joan Bull	....	unit nurse
Paul Caldicott	....	catering assistant
Rachelle Charron	....	accountant: Toronto
Diane Chittell	....	production coordinator: Canada
Nobby Clark	....	supervising rigger (as Roy T. Clark)
Dominic Clooney	....	catering supervisor
Teresa Colman	....	assistant to producer
Con Cremins	....	assistant accountant
Penny Eyles	....	continuity
Kate Fitzmaurice	....	voice coach
Brian Harris	....	production accountant
John Hemmings	....	liaison
Gilly Hodson	....	publicity: Enigma
Christine Hoy	....	assistant accountant
Alan Kingham	....	catering assistant
Dean McGill	....	catering assistant
Richard Morrison	....	title designer
Richard Nesbitt	....	unit doctor
Len Nieder	....	catering manager
Uberto Pasolini	....	unit runner
Santa Pestonji	....	production executive: Thailand
Betty Sharp	....	secretary to accountant
Julie Sheppard	....	attachment: National Film School
Phillip Small	....	catering assistant
Andy Birmingham	....	production accountant (uncredited)
Hugh O'Donnell	....	location assistant (uncredited)
Sasisupa Sungvaribud	....	assistant to production supervisor: Thailand (uncredited)

Thanks
Denis Cameron	....	thanks
Murray Carmichael	....	thanks (as Dr. Murray Carmichael)
Tim Carney	....	thanks
Patricia Churchill	....	thanks (as Pat Churchill)
Pat Coulter	....	thanks (as Majot Pat Coulter)
Neil Davis	....	thanks
Sylvana Foa	....	thanks
Mervyn Jones	....	thanks
Paul McCartney	....	thanks
Sarah McLean	....	thanks
John Norton	....	thanks
Bruce Palling	....	thanks
Adrian Stevens	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Enigma Productions (as Enigma (First Casualty) Ltd)
• Goldcrest Films International
• International Film Investors

Distributors

• Columbia-EMI-Warner (1984) (UK) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros (1984) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Bros. (1984) (Canada) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros. Canada Inc.)
• Concorde Film (1985) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Film (1985) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Filmverleih (1985) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (1986) (UK) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1986) (USA) (VHS)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1988) (USA) (TV)
• Braveworld (1991) (UK) (VHS)
• Festival Video (1994) (Australia) (VHS)
• EuroVideo (1999) (Germany) (DVD)
• Atlantic Film (2001) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Video Film Express (2001) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Indies Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Optimum Releasing (2005) (UK) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2006) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2006) (Argentina) (VHS) (re-edited)
• Warner Bros. (2006) (Argentina) (all media) (re-release)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2009) (Australia) (DVD)
• Warner-Columbia (1985) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Flashstar (Brazil) (DVD)
• Flashstar (Brazil) (VHS)
• MTC Video (1985) (Greece) (VHS)
• Thorn-EMI Video (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (198?) (Argentina) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Bapty and Co.  armourer's employer
• Blowup  stills processing
• Camera Effects  opticals
• Coca Cola Export  grateful thanks
• International Committee of the Red Cross  grateful thanks
• Joe Dunton & Company  grateful thanks (as Joe Dunton Cameras)
• Lee Electrics  grateful thanks
• Location Caterers  catering
• Mayflower Recording  adr recording
• New York Times, The  grateful thanks
• Olympic Optical  grateful thanks
• Optical Film Effects  opticals
• Oxfam  grateful thanks
• Thai International Airways  grateful thanks
• The Grip House  grip's employer
• Thorn EMI Film Studios Ltd.  dubbing mixing
• Toronto Star Newspapers (TSNL)  grateful thanks
• United States Marine Corps  grateful thanks
• William F. White International  grip and lighting equipment

Also Known As:

Runtime:

141 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | Central Khmer | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:18 (original rating) | 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 | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) | Peru:14 | Argentina:16 (re-rating) | Canada:R (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Enigma Productions

Trivia:

The real Dith Pran was born on September 27, 1942 at Siem Reap, Cambodia, and died of pancreatic cancer on March, 30, 2008 in New Jersey, USA. He was 65.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dith Pran is in the French embassy, he is wearing his watch which he previously gave to a Khmer soldier in order to be taken with the American photographers.

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 its 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 "Zomergasten: Episode #4.5" (1991)

Soundtrack:

Band On The Run

The Ultimate Ugly American Movie

Oh, this brings me back alright. It was the last days of 1984, and earnest college students like me had much to talk about. Wasn't it wonderful that Walter Mondale had chosen a strong woman like Geraldine Ferraro to be his running mate, and wouldn't the Democrats sweep the Northeast at least for that brave move? Does buying a Coke at the local convenience store signal support for the apartheid government in South Africa? Did anyone else see that amazing film about the human price of American involvement in Southeast Asia?

It's nearly 20 years later, and I've managed to shake the ill effects of my youthful liberalism easily enough in most cases. This film, however, packs the kind of punch that isn't explained away by political trendiness.

"The Killing Fields" is a great film that tries and succeeds in capturing much of the carnage and tragedy of Cambodia as the radicalized Khmer Rouge and the U.S.-backed regime of Lon Nol controlling Phnom Penh clash in a fight to the death to be/not be the next domino in the Communist rollover in Southeast Asia. By particularizing the conflict to that of the true-life relationship of two men, New York Times reporter Syndey Schanberg and his Cambodian apprentice and aide-de-camp, Dith Pran, the film forces a level of empathy that is at once uncomfortable and absorbing. It is possible to walk away from this film hating the manipulation, the America-bashing, the easy liberal guilt. But it's impossible to walk away from the human experience borne witness to before the movie's done, if one has any pretense of being human, and that's its great strength.

Oh, it's polemical alright. We hear comments about how the Khmer Rouge's excesses were the direct result of Nixon's secret bombing campaign. (U.S. Counsel: "After what the Khmer Rouge have been through, I don't think they'll be exactly affectionate toward Westerners." Schanberg: "Maybe we underestimated the anger $7 billion in bombing would unleash.") It makes its point, absolves Pol Pot and condemns Kissinger with the same broad brush, and it feels a bit jaded and hollow for that, but I don't know. Schanberg betrays the attitudes of a knee-jerk liberal, and I outgrew that, and maybe I feel superior for that, but Schanberg had AK-47s pointed at his head by 12-year-old brainwashed boys, and I didn't, so shut up already, know what I mean?

The performances are incredible in their verisimilitude, particularly the leads. Sam Waterson burns with righteous anger as Schanberg, and I like his performance for what it is and how he creates that extra level of tension, but he's a butterfly compared to the condor that's Dr. Haing S. Ngor, one of the Academy's most obscure best supporting actor recipients (there was even a joke about it in an episode of "The Simpsons") but someone who didn't just walk the walk. He relived his experience surviving a holocaust that was, per square mile, even more savage than the Holocaust itself. The fact he won a Best Supporting Actor award (Waterson instead was nominated for Best Actor, and lost to F. Murray Abraham for "Amadeus") is one of those perversities of film history, given he carries more of the film than Waterson (who slinks to the background two-thirds of the way in) but also that he personalizes the story in a way that makes the incomprehensible immediate and involving.

We lost Ngor to a senseless murder a few years ago, and have little left to explain what was going through his mind as he relived an experience that cost him his wife and child when he actually lived through it. Roland Joffe does a nice job in the DVD commentary, though, a commentary I put up there with P. T. Anderson's "Boogie Nights" and William Peter Blatty's "The Ninth Configuration" for being worth the price of the DVD and then some by itself. He recalls Ngor's reaction to one child actress whose hard face in enacting a scene convinced Ngor she wasn't just pretending to be Khmer Rouge, and Ngor's request that Joffe participate in one critical scene by muttering real torments Ngor suffered at the hands of the "KR" as a way of enhancing his performance. At one point, trying to convince him to come aboard, Joffe said something about Ngor owing it to his country to bear witness to his story, and that of Dith Pran, and that did the trick, though Joffe seems to wonder if the same sort of manipulation Schanberg pulled on Pran wasn't going on here, too.

It's a great movie because it doesn't shy away from uncomfortable truths, because it never loses sight of the human dimension, and because it gave a pretense of understanding to one of the great human traumas after World War II. We never wallow in gore, but the cost of this war is always with us while we watch. The experience is both endurable and humiliating.

I just wish they reshot that ending, with "Imagine." Joffe in his commentary even notes the lyrics are the sort of thing Pol Pot would have gone along with. It feels forced. Did Yoko Ono give her approval after they explained the scene her dead husband's song would appear in, or after they told her the first nasty execution scene would be shot while "Band On The Run" issued forth from a soldier's radio?

A great movie, of an awful moment in human history. If we have any chance of overcoming man's sorry past, it will be because movies like this one get made once in a while.