The true heart of darkness

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2007)

Periodically in the history of warfare there arises situations that seem to be of transcendent madness and darkness. While Vietnam was already a fully developed and unnecessary war, the civil war that erupted in Cambodia has only the European Holocaust as perpetrated by the Nazi's to be more evil. It is estimated that over 2 million people died as a result of the Khmer Rouge. The levels of brutality that Cambodians foisted upon one another is breathtaking in it's scope and depth. The wholesale slaughter of intellectuals, the educated professionals only touches upon the torment that tore apart an entire nation. The forcible relocation of millions of people into death/labor camps where brainwashing and starvation were applied with a ferocious evil; one can only wonder if death was gladly welcomed when it came. Life itself was for a time so bleak, so hopeless, so many cut off from any outside help, almost all nations having had their embassies forced closed, staff evicted; it beggars the imagination to wonder how this happened?
Years later, Robert McNamara admitted that he and those around him (during the war) totally misunderstood the Vietnamese and their intentions. What was even more galling was the secret bombing of Cambodia (as ordered by Nixon and Kissinger). The relentless spread of war from Vietnam into bordering countries only looks like the spread of a virus. That the US played their deadly game of seeking an exit with honor at the expense of millions of Vietnamese and by extension, Cambodians, is a very dark spot in American history.
The film is graphic in it's depiction of the horrors of the war. There are many scenes that haunt the mind long after the film is over. All the actors give excellent performances, especially Haing S. Ngor. His recreation of suffering is heartbreaking to watch. It is even more heartbreaking to shed a tear for him at the end of the film when you learn of the senseless death he suffered - the real person, in real life just a few years ago. All in all it is a depressing film because it is so close to the truth. It is a story of ambition and courage, chaos and survival. Cambodia is one of the poorest nations on the planet, and it is something of a miracle that the country survives. Why such horror happens in such poor places (think of Haiti as another example) is hard to calculate. Many countries have undergone civil wars; this one was one of the very worst in recent world history. The film is an anguished cry and is a fitting testimony to true darkness.