Short review, with SPOILERS. I must echo KDL, who hit the nail on the head.
How can a film about the ferocious atrocities perpetrated upon the Cambodian people by the Khmer Rouge be so unemotional? If you want to see a more graphic representation of the horrors unleashed by the fanatical zealots of the Khmer, then see "The Killing Fields."
If you want to feel the emotional despair and witness the subjection to violence experienced by those taken and driven to an unspeakable primal existence, then see "The Killing Fields."
If you want to get a complete understanding of the depths of depravity to which the Khmer Rouge sunk, read "A Cambodian Odyssey," by Haing Ngor, the actor who portrayed Dith Pran in "The Killing Fields." His personal story, having himself been taken prisoner by the Khmer, was arguably even more horrific than the role he played on film.
I can understand the attempt to present the story through the eyes of a child and the child's bewilderment of what was playing out before her young eyes, stripping away her innocence in the worst way imaginable. But narration was not the way to go.
The film quality was fine and the actors did their jobs for the most part. But just doing their job is not enough to save the film from becoming mired in what results as a rather sluggish attempt at retelling the hell of the Cambodian genocide.
Save for one or two scenes (i.e., realizing she has been caught in a mine field while trying to flee the Khmer Rouge), the young Sareum Srey is not given the chance to convey to the audience the full effect of what the child had to face.
How can a film about the ferocious atrocities perpetrated upon the Cambodian people by the Khmer Rouge be so unemotional? If you want to see a more graphic representation of the horrors unleashed by the fanatical zealots of the Khmer, then see "The Killing Fields."
If you want to feel the emotional despair and witness the subjection to violence experienced by those taken and driven to an unspeakable primal existence, then see "The Killing Fields."
If you want to get a complete understanding of the depths of depravity to which the Khmer Rouge sunk, read "A Cambodian Odyssey," by Haing Ngor, the actor who portrayed Dith Pran in "The Killing Fields." His personal story, having himself been taken prisoner by the Khmer, was arguably even more horrific than the role he played on film.
I can understand the attempt to present the story through the eyes of a child and the child's bewilderment of what was playing out before her young eyes, stripping away her innocence in the worst way imaginable. But narration was not the way to go.
The film quality was fine and the actors did their jobs for the most part. But just doing their job is not enough to save the film from becoming mired in what results as a rather sluggish attempt at retelling the hell of the Cambodian genocide.
Save for one or two scenes (i.e., realizing she has been caught in a mine field while trying to flee the Khmer Rouge), the young Sareum Srey is not given the chance to convey to the audience the full effect of what the child had to face.