Excellent portrayal of the Killing Fields through gore and personal stories

Rating: 10/10 (27 March 2006)

"The Killing Fields" is an excellent movie portraying the atrocities of the Cambodian civil war/ bombing through gore and personal stories. The films excellent cinematography thoroughly succeeds in capturing the tragedy and horrors of Cambodia as the communist Khmer Rouge terrorizes the country. The movie depicts the "civil war" between the Khmer Rouge and the U.S.-backed regime of Lon Nol. In the beginning of the movie, viewers see the involvement of the United States, who strives to fight against the Khmer Rouge in order to not let Cambodia become the net domino in the Communist take over in Southeast Asia. The disorder and chaos of the period is shown through the personal stories of Sydney Schanberg, a New York Times journalist reporting the horrific killings and bombings and Dith Pran, a Cambodian translator and journalist who helps Sydney gain information. Both characters were greatly played to the actors' best abilities, and both actors did an excellent job relating the characters' emotions to the audience. The movie does an excellent job showing the lives of the people affected by the war. The movie also played off the true realities of the war, such as the fields of bones and skeletons and the ruthless killings caused by the Khmer Rouge. Like many Vietnam War related movies, the Killing Fields hits hard on American hearts. We see that the American's ridiculous bombings in Cambodia, and the many civilian and innocent lives that were taken and affected. When America pulled out, we left and abandoned Cambodia to its horrible fate. Viewers see in Sydney's speech after winning the award the negative public reactions towards the war. Sydney mentioned that Killing Fields in Cambodia were all due to America, and the "multi-million" dollar bombings on the poor country. As a student, I had never learned about the horrors in Cambodia till this year. This may be because of the negative perceptions it casts on America and its government and involvement in the war. However, the movie was extremely educational and real, and greatly showed the true events of the Killing Fields.