A Rousing Film About a Bloody Subject

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2008)

A visceral, kinetic and exciting film from Roland Joffe (whatever happened to him?).
Set against the bloody backdrop of Cambodia during the civil war that saw the surge of the Khmer Rouge, "The Killing Fields" tells the story of an interpreter (the non-actor Haing S. Ngor) who befriends an American journalist (Sam Waterston) and then descends into the nightmare of Cambodia while Waterston sits helplessly in America wondering if his friend is dead or alive. It's one of those liberal films Hollywood loves to make, that asks us to feel guilty about our cushy American lives even as people in other countries are being butchered. It's not heavy handed or manipulative though, and Joffe films the whole thing with a journalistic approach that fits the subject matter and lends the film a documentary-like quality.
Ngor, who had never acted before, is amazing, and though Waterston gets top billing as the most recognizable actor, Ngor is the film's true star.
Grade: A