Excellent Film

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2008)

The Killing Fields is a brilliant film about friendship under extra-original circumstances. The film tells the story of American journalist Sydney Schanberg, who was reporting in Cambodia during the Vietnam war. America was secretly bombing Cambodia and then invade. He was present during the rise of the communists, the Khmer Rouge. Sydney befriends a Cambodian journalist and interpreter Dith Pran and both men see the country become war-torn and then see the Khmer Rouge become truly brutal against the people. Both men are forced by 1975 to hide in the French embassy with other journalists and Cambodians. Both men get split up, Sydney goes back home to New York whilst Dith is forced to under the brutal regime and goes into forced labour.
This a beautiful film about friendship and both men do have a love for each other. It also show how brutal the regime of Pol Pot was and that he was on of the worst dictators in the twentieth century. It is well acted and Roland Joffe shows that he was once a good director. A aspect that I liked out the film was it felt like you were really they, you didn't know what was going one, like the people and you only got information from television or the radio. It also shows how difficult journalism can be in a situation like that. It also does shows the American government to be not doing enough to solve the situation.