Otherwise great film held back by political baggage

Rating: Null/10 (23 February 2003)

Just about all the other comments on this movie are on the money. Great script, great cinematography, emotionally powerful, great acting, etc.
And yet...
I just can not enjoy it as much as I should because of the anti-American premise that is the centerpiece of the story. The filmmakers essentially blame the Cambodia genocide on America! As if America was directing Pol Pot in his massacre of two million of his people! I can not BELIEVE this film totally neglected to explain who the Khmer Rouge were, why they did what they did, and what they were trying to accomplish. Of course, the American involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia is expounded upon and criticized in great detail, but they don't even mention Pol Pot, not once! That tells you all you need to know right there; the film is more interested in giving America yet another black eye than telling the story of the Cambodian people. What should have been a vivid illustration and condemnation of the communist butchers America was FIGHTING AGAINST in southeast Asia (which is what I thought it was when I rented it), instead falls back on the tired liberal line of "blame America first".
There is a REASON "Schindler's List" will always be remembered before this movie. That movie had nothing to do with the politics and confusion of war and international policy; all it wanted to do was tell a story about the perseverance of people during the lowest period of human history. Sadly, I can not say the same for "Killing Fields".