Astounding devastation

Rating: Null/10 (11 April 2006)

"The Killing Fields" (1984): Winner of 3 Academy Awards, starring Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, Craig T. Nelson, John Malkovich. This is the true story of Cambodia's collapse during and after America's war in Viet Nam, when the Khmer Rouge began the Holocaust against their own citizens. Centered on real life characters, we join a writer and photographer from the New York Times, lead by their Cambodian interpreter/life saver. The story is amazing, frightening, very graphic, sad, disgusting, and joyous. We see the Best and the Worst of human behavior. The scoring is overdone (Mike Oldfield of "Tubular Bells" fame), and too abstract & detached from the grittiness of the scenes). The photography has a solid documentary feel, and the constructed scenes of devastation absolutely astounding. There are scenes you will never forget.