Outstanding, powerful tale of integrity and survival.

Rating: 9/10 (2 June 2005)

The Killing Fields is an urgent, powerful and visually upsetting film set in the mid-70s in Cambodia. Director Roland Joffe spares us nothing whatsoever in his devastating depiction of casualties, cruelty and torture during the appalling combat. But the film is not merely concerned with presenting a realistic snapshot of the atrocities in Cambodia at the time of the Khmer Rouge uprising. Joffe's film also works on a human level by telling the true story of the relationship between a N.Y. Times journalist and his Cambodian assistant and interpreter during these events. It is the expert balance of unflinching history and human drama that makes The Killing Fields such a tremendous movie.
N.Y. Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) is working in Cambodia in 1973 on a report about the consequences of American bombings against suspected communist bases. Assigned to aid and interpret for Schanberg is the native Dith Pran (Hang S. Ngor). As the months pass, chaos erupts in Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge seize control. Dith Pran places himself in danger to protect Schanberg from the victorious Khmer Rouge forces and even risks life and limb to help him gather controversial material for his dispatches back to America. But when Schanberg and the other remaining correspondents have to leave Cambodia, they fail to fool the authorities into believing that Dith Pran is an American citizen, and the unfortunate interpreter is taken to one of the infamous Year Zero re-education camps. After suffering and witnessing inhuman conditions and nauseating atrocities, Dith Pran escapes by crawling through corpse-littered paddy fields, and eventually is reunited with his American friend Schanberg in New York.
Slightly hampered by unclear scripting in parts, as well as Mike Oldfield's terrible music score, The Killing Fields is in every other way a stunning film. The appalling and traumatic experiences that Dith Pran goes through are conveyed with near unwatchable authenticity. Indeed, the film hits emotional heights rarely touched upon in movies by placing a lot of emphasis onto Dith Pran's unimaginable experiences, and by showing the way he strives to survive even after these experiences have stripped him of his dignity. Ngor as the Cambodian interpreter gives a performance of real power in the role. Sam Waterston is also terrific as Schanberg, a dedicated journalist who faced the gravest danger by remaining in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge rebellion, and who bore enormous personal guilt for failing to help his Cambodian colleague to escape from the ravaged country. One of the key films of the '80s, and indisputably one of the most provocative tales of survival in the history of cinema, The Killing Fields is an essential movie.