|
|
Regular
Price $19.98
Starring:
Sam Waterston,
Haing S. Ngor,
John Malkovich,
Julian Sands,
Craig T. Nelson,
Directed By:
Roland Joffé,
Rated: R (Restricted)
Release Date: 1984-11-02
Studio: Warner Home Video
Format:
Anamorphic,
Closed-captioned,
Color,
Dolby,
DVD-Video,
HiFi Sound,
Widescreen,
NTSC,
|
Editorial Reviews and
DVD Information about
The Killing Fields
Amazon.com
This harrowing but rewarding 1984 drama concerns the real-life relationship between New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg and his Cambodian assistant Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), the latter left at the mercy of the Khmer Rouge after Schanberg--who chose to stay after American evacuation but was booted out--failed to get him safe passage. Filmmaker Roland Joffé, previously a documentarist, made his feature debut with this account of Dith's rocky survival in the ensuing madness of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal campaign. The script spends some time with Schanberg's feelings of guilt after the fact, but most of the movie is a shattering re-creation of hell on Earth. The late Haing S. Ngor--a real-life doctor who had never acted before and who lived through the events depicted by Joffé--is outstanding, and he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Oscars also went to cinematographer Chris Menges and editor Jim Clark. --Tom Keogh
|
Customer Reviews for
The Killing Fields
The hardest movie for me to watch
I first watched this movie when it came out in 1984, the second half of the movie was so emotionally charged for me that it was more than ten years before I could watch it again. To watch graphic depictions of the consequences of our abandonment of all of Southeast Asia was to Emotional for me. Although there were no movies and little news coverage, even by The New York Times (All The News That Fits), The same camps and murders were taking place in Laos, and Viet Nam, only on a lesser scale. Even Joan Baez was shocked, and upset.
The first half of the movie, was pure Liberal spin, poor Sid Schanberg who nobly reports the mistaken bombing of a town by American B 52's, but he somehow missed the fact that the Khmer Rouge had been murdering thousands of "Counter Revolutionary's" for several years. Poor Sid treats
Dith Pran like a collie while he employs him (in effect blackmails him into staying in return for getting his family out) then after Dith saves his life he fails to get him out. In response poor Sid, perhaps feeling guilty, sends out posters, as if looking for a lost cat.
At this point the story has to leave poor Sid and go back to The Killing
Fields, this is where the real movie begins. This part is Auschwitz in color and cinema-scope. After Dith escapes and walks across Cambodia to a Thailand refugee camp, noble Sid drops everything to fly off to Thailand to rescue Dith from the red cross, and get the story. As a post script, Dith Pran moves to a poor area of L.A. where he is murdered by a gang, and Poor Sid gets a Book and Film deal. Thus is History written by Sid, and The New York Times.The Killing Fields
Chilling
At the time of release this was a shocker. Not many realised what genocide was. How this could go on without intervention by the wider world was disturbing. With the passage of time, and similar atrocities almost every day, it seems we have become sensitised. Worth viewing to remind us to be alert.The Killing Fields
The Khmer Rouge
A very good film, The Killing Fields, sheds light on the atrocities committed by the communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia during their reign of terror in the 1970's.
The film follows Dith Pran as he is left behind by his employer, an American reporter, only to be captured by the Khmer Rouge and subsequently experience what amounts to living a nightmare.
Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, and the rest of the cast, have carried out their performances well, nevertheless one cannot help but feel disdain for Sidney Schanberg (and by extension Sam Waterston) for preventing his assistant from reaching shelter when he could.
The acting, the setting, the plot, and the dialogues are all good though the movie could have done much more to show the Communists' sheer brutality. Moreover, there were quite a few dialogues not translated that left us in the dark.
In short, The Killing Fields is a movie definitely worth watching as it will surely provide good insight on one of the most infamous regimes of the twentieth century.
The Killing Fields
Confusing Message
This was a very moving movie and I couldn't turn away. However, the political message was bizzare. Sydney rails against the USA for its efforts in Cambodia and the bombings. But the USA was trying to stop the Communist KR from taking power. The ensuing horrific blood-bath is the consequences of the Communist KR taking power. So naturally the outrage should be focused on the Communists. If anything, the USA could be criticized for withdrawing and NOT bombing the Communists more extensively. Then the movie ends with John Lennon's love-letter to communism, "Imagine" Very confusing political message indeed.The Killing Fields
DVD Jacket for The Killing Fields
While the DVD itself is an excellent film - the DVD Jacket is of extremely poor quality - not what I expected at all.
It looks like a photocopy using very thin paper - not what one would purchase new from a store.
A real disappointmentThe Killing Fields
|
