Sam Waterston

Haing S. Ngor

John Malkovich

Julian Sands

Craig T. Nelson

Spalding Gray

Bill Paterson

Athol Fugard

Graham Kennedy

Katherine Krapum Chey

Oliver Pierpaoli

Edward Entero Chey

Tom Bird

Monirak Sisowath

Lambool Dtangpaibool

Ira Wheeler

David Henry

Patrick Malahide

Nell Campbell

Joan Harris

Joanna Merlin

Jay Barney

Mark Long

Sayo Inaba

Mow Leng

Chinsaure Sar

Hout Ming Tran

Thach Suon

Neevy Pal

Charles Bodycomb

Richard Nixon

Chris Menges

Roland Joffé

Marion Dougherty

Bruce Robinson

Steve Spence

Mike Oldfield

Juliet Taylor

Jim Clark

Judy Moorcroft

David Puttnam

Pat Golden

Roy Walker

Susie Figgis

Roger Murray-Leach

Iain Smith

Sacha Semeria

Jake Eberts

Paul McCartney

Ken Lintott

Sophy Pradith

Yvonne Coppard

Freddie Williamson

Ian Fuller

Martin Atkinson

Paul Bradburn

Jacques M. Bradette

Len Day

Ken Court

George Dean

Howard Brown

Tessa Davies

Len Furey

Ron Quelch

Andrew Deskin

Julie Graysmark

Frank Henry

John Roberts

Fred Gunning

Bill Harman

Ronald Kent

John Porter

Terry Wells Sr.

Alan Seabrook

Alan Taylor

Terry Forrestal

Alan Bryce

Dave Midson

Andrew Overholtzer

Fred Cramer

Costas Charitou

Ray Merrin

Say Hong

Eddy Joseph

Tony Jackson

Melvyn Pearson

Stefan Lange

Leonard Green

Dushko Indjic

Jay King

Ric O'Connor

Bill Rowe

Niwat Sumneangsanor

Peter Compton

David Grimsdale

Robert Taylor

Clive Winter

James Ainslie

Peter Casey

John Clark

Ray Boyle

Tony Breeze

Tony Cridlin

Eddie Knight

Peter Bloor

Jonn Barry

Jeremy Gee

Mike Roberts

Anthony Black

Keith Denny

Satharn Pairaoh

Keith Morton

Anne Sopel

Norman Dickens

Marc O'Hara

Bryan Oates

Eric Melville

Allan Mills

Agapios Louka

Roland Neveu

Gary Wells

Ivan Strasburg

Robert McRae

Doungporn Soawapap

Eberhard Schoener

Greg Fulginiti

David Bedford

Tony Tromp

John Gale

Penny Eyles

Drama

History

The Killing Fields

Goldcrest

Enigma Productions

International Film Investors

United Kingdom

English

Français

Pусский

journalist

vietnam

cambodia

civil war

based on novel or book

photographer

mass murder

1970s

evacuation

embassy

national socialist party

killing fields

red khmer

pol pot

pulitzer prize

based on true story

brutality

genocide

communism

violence

CinemaSerf

Sam Waterston is New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg on post in Cambodia as the civil war comes to it's violent, cruel conclusion. Working with local journalist Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) they report on the rapidly deteriorating situation. When the American forces evacuate, Pran manages to get his family to safety but he can't leave himself and so Schanberg dedicates himself to the task of extricating his friend from the clutches of the brutal Pol Pot regime in the course of which he discovers just how extensive the "Year Zero" campaign that killed hundreds of thousands of the largely peaceful, agrarian population is. Roland Joffé has never made a better film; the poignancy with which he elicits loyalty and affection from the two principals, whilst at the same time pushing home the true horrors of the behaviour of the new government makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up- even now, 35 years later. The visions of skull strewn paddy fields coupled with a splendidly evocative score from Mike Oldfield really do hit home. The dialogue very much takes second place to that imagery; our eyes and ears do much of their own work with a sensitive, but really quite minimal guide from Bruce Robinson's screenplay. That's not a criticism; it's precisely nuanced to allow the story to breathe and develop in a truly engrossing manner that made me want to follow up. As an aside, having been to Cambodia in 2019, it is astonishing how this nation has healed after such a ghastly period in it's history, and I wonder how much that reconciliation had to do with the depiction in this film of just how horrific war can be.

Filipe Manuel Neto

**A remarkable film that deserves to be viewed and that recalls a barbaric moment in the history of a country.**

When there's a war, there's bound to be a film about what happened during that same war. Human conflicts have always fueled the film industry. It's something instinctive, we are attracted to the horror of carnage at the same time that we feel guilty about it, and we get tired of condemning violence and cruelty. I think that only those who have lived through a war have the ability to overcome this paradox, not only because of the memories evoked, sometimes traumatic, but also because of the awareness that there is nothing truly beautiful about this.

What happened in Cambodia (and Rwanda, Bosnia and other countries) was much worse than a war. It was a genocide, a crime against humanity carried out due to the political fanaticism of a small group of “men” who tried to impose their own vision of the world and kill anyone who disagreed. What this film does is give us a flavor of what happened, bringing us the true (obviously fictionalized) story of a Cambodian journalist who, in 1973, saved the lives of a group of colleagues from the West, but ended up being left behind. behind, imprisoned in a Cambodian prison camp.

I think I wouldn't be incorrect if I said that, considering the documentaries I've seen on the subject, the film shows a very light and attenuated view of the cruelties that happened there at the time. Roland Joffé balanced it well, giving the film a raw realism without making it excessively graphic, and focusing on the emotional charge, on the emotions that everything can awaken in the audience. We don't need to see more than what we see to feel the pain of those people and the fear they went through.

Sam Waterston does an interesting job as an American journalist who desperately tries to find the man to whom he feels he owes his life. Julian Sands and John Malkovich also appear, but they don't have much time or material to stand out, limiting themselves to what they can do. Who is in the spotlight, with all merit, is Haing S. Ngor, a Cambodian actor who gave life to the central character of this story and who knew very well the horror that his country had gone through: he himself had seen the realities that he interpreted as actor, and had been a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge. Therefore, there is a painful load of realism in his interpretation that permeates the screen and reaches us, and to which we cannot and cannot remain indifferent.

Technically, the film is perfect: filmed mostly in Thailand, it makes good use of the settings and creates something we can believe in. The sets and costumes are the most realistic there is, and the cinematography is a bit reminiscent of those old war films in Vietnam. There are good special effects and some anthology-worthy scenes, such as the one that shows us the prison camps and the “brainwashing” that their captors were subject to force. The soundtrack is not always effective, sometimes it sounds excessively melodramatic, but it is the only drawback to a remarkable production, which deserves to be seen, again and again.

**_When a Southeast Asian country decides to reset to Year Zero_**

Just after the USA withdraws from Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge overtakes Phnom Penh in April, 1975 as an American journalist (Sam Waterston) is forced to leave his Cambodian buddy behind (Haing S. Ngor). The latter has no choice but to endure Pol Pot’s genocide over the next 3.5 years.

“The Killing Fields” (1984/1985) is a harrowing docudrama based on the true story. It’s the furthest thing from a fun flick, but it effectively takes you back to the Cambodian holocaust and provides a good idea of what went down. It’s the furthest thing from a conventional war flick, so stay away if that’s what you want.

The best part is Dith Pran’s mind-blowing experiences after his American buddies depart, but that doesn’t occur until an hour and 28 minutes into the film, which reveals the weakness of the production: There’s too much padding in the prior section. For instance, a dozen minutes is blown on a sequence at the French embassy concerning making a fraudulent passport for Pran, which turned out to be irrelevant anyway. Cutting 20 minutes from the runtime would’ve worked wonders.

I should add that John Malkovich, Julian Sands and Craig T. Nelson appear in peripheral roles. It’s interesting to see them when they were younger. 

It runs 2 hours, 21 minutes, and was primarily shot in Thailand.

GRADE: B

The Killing Fields ≣ 1984 ≣ Trailer

The Killing Fields - Trailer #1

The Killing Fields( 1984)

Here, only the silent survive.

Overview

Top Billed Cast

Social

A review by CinemaSerf

Written by CinemaSerf on Sun Mar 27 2022

Media

Recommendations

Facts

Status

Original Language

Budget

Revenue

Keywords