Review of The Killing Fields (1984) by Quinn S — 31 May 2013

A deeply moving account of how the US retreat from Vietnam in 1975 in fact solved little for the people of the region. The killing would go on for ten more years as the Khmer Rouge brutally shifts the theater of war west to Cambodia.

Roland Joffe moves the story along skillfully, strikes the appropriate dramatic tone and gives this film an unusually authentic look and feel. On a more personal note, I could have easily lived without John Lennon's banal, "bumper-sticker diplomacy" anthem "Imagine". An indulgent and sickeningly sweet ending to what, up to this point, was a serious and important film.