Great Movie, flawed by didactic elements

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2006)

The Killing Fields has endured as an excellent film about post-colonial wars in Southeast Asia. The cinematography, acting and music are all superb, as is the script. However, it is at points over-the-top (as was the journalism of its main character, NY Times correspondent Syndey Schanberg) in blaming the U.S. for the civil war and the inhumanity of the Khmer Rouge. How many times and ways can you blow up Coca Cola? I'm nearly convinced that they actually paid for product placement--the poison-beverage showed up so often in the movie as a metaphor for American materialism, decadence, soft imperialism, corruption, etc. Vending machines, bottle distribution facilities, restaurant signs...Coke is always being spilled--almost as much as blood. (For the most blatant placement of Coke products--nay, a two-hour commercial for the product--see, no, don't see!, "Strictly Ballroom"). Additionally, the Schanberg/Waterson character's self-righteousness and persistent blaming of US policy ("Maybe we didn't realize that so-much tonnage of bombs and billions of dollars spent on it's military could unleash such insanity" or some garbage like that). Still, a very powerful film.