Go search it out and watch a piece of truly horrifying history within living memory.

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2016)

'The Killing Fields', is Roland Joffé's ground-breaking, British-made drama about the Kymer Rouge's brutal, 5-year regime in Cambodia. This Academy award-winning film, made in 1984, tells the true story of an American newspaper journalist, (Sydney Schanberg) and his Cambodian Assistant, (Pran) before, during and after the takeover by Pol Pot and his murderous Khmer Rouge regime.
The film is beautifully directed, shot and acted and it accurately portrays a truly harrowing and heart-breaking period in Cambodia's recent history. The Killing Fields should be compulsory viewing for anyone who lives in this region, particularly in Thailand, Cambodia or Vietnam. This genocide only took place some 37 years ago, yet for most people under thirty, they have little or no knowledge of what took place, right on their doorstep. Here in Thailand, there seems to be universal ignorance of tragic events that happened so close to their common border. Estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies during the period they controlled the country (1975-1979), including from disease and starvation, range from 1.7 to 2.5 million out of a population of around 8 million, or give or take, 25% of the population. One American reviewer recently described this film as 'The Ultimate Ugly American Movie' and goes on to say: '.that amazing film about the human price of American involvement in Southeast Asia.' The film includes some 'telling references' about America's dubious role in the terrible events that overtook Cambodia, such as: "After what the Khmer Rouge have been through, I don't think they'll be exactly affectionate toward Westerners." (spoken by a US embassy official) and: "Maybe we underestimated the anger that $7 billion in bombing would unleash." (Sydney Schanberg.)
During the U.S. war in Vietnam, Cambodia was embroiled in a bloody civil war between the communist Khmer Rouge, backed by China and North Vietnam, and Cambodian government forces backed by the U.S. From 1969-73, the U.S. military covertly carpet-bombed eastern Cambodia in an attempt to disrupt North Vietnamese operations and defend the government against the Khmer Rouge, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodian citizens. For a country which at the time had a population of about 6 million, the losses were enormously devastating. Amongst the Cambodian populace, resentment grew against the U.S. and what was perceived as the American "puppet government" in Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge represented resistance to the U.S. and consequently, as bombs continued to fall, Cambodian citizens flocked to join them.
Sydney Schanberg, who was a New York Times reporter and renowned for his experience in Cambodia at the time, said the Khmer Rouge " would point at the bombs falling from B-52s as something they had to oppose if they were going to have freedom. And it became a recruiting tool until they grew to a fierce, indefatigable guerrilla army." Eventually, the Khmer Rouge were able to overwhelm the government forces and establish control over Cambodia, leading to Pol Pot's "agrarian revolution", the killing fields, the torture centres and the loss of some 2 million Cambodian lives.
In his memoirs, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has denied that the U.S. is at all responsible for the rise of the Khmer Rouge.
But bitterly recounted descriptions of the bombings by survivors of the Khmer Rouge terror demonstrate that there is little to separate the U.S. bombings and Khmer Rouge brutality in the minds of Cambodian survivors. Who better to determine accountability than those who most directly suffered? It is impossible to say for certain, but such personal accounts are a powerful condemnation of the bombings and evidence that the U.S. government at the time was significantly responsible for what occurred thereafter.
It is impossible to know for sure whether the bombing of Cambodia from 1969-73 led directly or indirectly, to massive suffering and the deaths of a full one-third of Cambodia's population at the time. But worse is the dysfunction caused by that tragedy which continues to profoundly affect Cambodian society to this day. I have been to Cambodia several times in recent years, and it was a very rare occurrence when I met anyone over 40 years of age.
If you missed the Killing Fields when it was first released, or you were too young - or yet to be born - go search it out and watch a piece of truly horrifying history within living memory.