The Killing Fields

Roland Joffe, UK, 1984, 141 minutes

During the civil war in Cambodia, an American journalist, Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston), working for the New York Times is trying to report on some of the stories from the country. Together with his local liason, Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), they uncover a lot of the madness, tragedy and loss of the war. When the American forces pull out of Cambodia, Pran stays behind to help Schanberg cover the event, knowing that they may not get another chance to leave the country.

The Killing Fields is quite possibly the most moving film about war ever made. By concentrating not on the soldiers, but mainly on the viewpoint of a local man, it achieves an emotional depth and resonance which hits harder than a bloody action sequence. Teaming director Roland Joffe (who went on to direct The Mission) and writer Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I) with a stunning cast (including supporting roles for John Malkovich and Spalding Gray), and gritty/pretty visuals from long-time Ken Loach cinematographer Chris Menges, the film delivers an apocalyptic journey through a landscape of guilt and despair. Add to this a soundtrack featuring Mike Oldfield and Lennon and McCartney and you have a film which is a perfect poetic vision of the senselessness of war.

In particular, Haing S. Ngor, who won the Oscar for his role and who experienced being tortured at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, gives us a harrowing view of Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero" which claimed the lives of two million "undesirable" civilians. A film to be remembered.

Review by Neil Chue Hong
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2003