An Incredible Movie

Rating: 10/10 (21 October 2019)

What an incredible movie. It was incredibly moving, incredibly sad, and incredibly real. Sam Waterson was wonderful as the lead character, Sydney Schanberg, a New York Times columnist covering the Vietnam War.
I had only known Sam Waterson as Jack McCoy from Law & Order. I like his performance as Jack McCoy--a moralistic but bland district attorney--but this character and performance as Sydney Schanberg is light years ahead of the well suited and often cozy Jack McCoy.
What I don't know about the Vietnam War could fill volumes. And what I know about its spill over into Cambodia and the atrocities there is even less. The Killing Fields was a deep plunge into the bloody conflict going on in Cambodia and two reporters that braved it to cover it.
Sydney Schanberg was a New York Times reporter being accompanied by Dith Pran (Dr. Haing S. Ngor), his driver, translator, companion, and also a journalist himself. As bombs were being dropped, bullets were being fired, and they were hustled to and fro at gunpoint, they tried to make deadlines and report the truth.
For me, war movies are never an easy watch, and this was probably one of the hardest. The imagery of dead and dismembered bodies is so visceral that it snaps you out of whatever revelry you were in. Though there were multiple scenes that jarred me, one of the most jarring was that of a toddler covering his ears and crying as bullets flew and bombs exploded all around him. It was such a heavy impactful moment. Almost as if that scene was inserted in the movie to let you know who were the biggest losers and hurt the most in all of this. The movie would only plunge the viewer deeper in despair before giving him a modicum of relief.
As horrendous, desperate, and anxious this movie was I loved it. I didn't love it like I love a Marvel movie in which everything that is occurring is fictitious and I can root for the good guy over the bad and all the destruction will be repaired by the next installment. I loved it for its authenticity and for punching me in the gut as it did. If I only loved it for letting me know that I haven't been desensitized by constant movie violence then that would be enough. But I loved it for more than that and one of the bigger reasons was the human bond made between Sydney and Dith Pran. Two men from different sides of the world that shared a common goal and even shared a love for one another. There's so much to love about this movie its just unfortunate its based upon real events.