Review of The Killing Fields (1984) by Benjamin N — 08 Jan 2017

The the rise horrific regime of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during the mid-late 1970s is told in this moving film about the friendship of journalist Sidney Schanberg and his Cambodian interpreter, Dith Pran.

The pair were caught up in the chaos of Phnom Penh as the Americans and then French pulled out of the city and Pran was forced to stay behind and try as best he could to survive the madness of the revolution.

There's a real sense of the panic and trauma the population of the country underwent. This is perhaps most vividly shown on the screen as the Khmer soldiers enter the city and force the civilians to evacuate.

The movie doesn't flinch from showing some of the atrocities Cambodia endured at the hands of both the US with their bombings and the Khmer militants. The casual shootings and beatings, sometimes by family members, the way in which people were suffocated by having plastic bags put over their heads and the mass graves in which bodies are dumped are all portrayed but in a manner that feels shocking and moving rather than gratuitous.

This was an awful and shameful piece of human history which the movie captures well. Sam Waterston, John Malkovich and Julian Sands play the chief Western characters but the movie is held together by Dr.

Haing S. Ngor, himself a survivor of the genocide, who really holds the movie together. His portrayal of Sith Pran is extraordinary and he rightly won an Oscar for his role in this magnificent film from director Roland Joffé.

An unusual score by Mike Oldfield adds perfectly to the sense of confusion and terror during the evacuation of Phnom Penh and takes on a more measured and sympathetic tone during the quieter scenes. The Killing Fields stands as a demonstration of how the human spirit and friendship can at times overcome terrible adversity and despite the harrowing nature of the subject matter, this is ultimately an uplifting story.