The Killing Fields (1984)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Killing Fields (1984) – R. Joffé

Roland Joffé’s film tells the story of New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg and his friend Cambodian journalist Dith Pran as they experience the U. S. bombing of Cambodia, subsequent departure of international forces, and then the bloody rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, which resulted in genocide.  As expected, it is horrific.  But focusing on the central friendship allows the filmmakers to treat the terrible events as a sort of backdrop, letting viewers digest their awfulness while keeping their attention on the more specific concerns of Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and Pran (Haing S. Ngor), such as how to get Pran a forged passport.  Of course, the film could also be charged with the typical crime of giving American viewers a white protagonist to identify with rather than simply telling the story of the Cambodians -- but, conversely, Pran does dominate the film’s second half (in a work camp) and really becomes the film’s emotional center (and Ngor rightly won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar).  The film doesn’t really pull any punches either – there are brutal unjust killings throughout, plus the usual aftermath of war (injured and dead children, dead bodies piled up or cast aside), even as the cinematography can also be quite beautiful (showing sunsets of Thailand, where the film was shot).  The tension remains high for most of the picture and you never quite know who will survive.  Waterston, John Malkovich (playing an acerbic photog), Spalding Gray (who later developed his monologue Swimming to Cambodia about making this film) and Craig T. Nelson are some of the familiar faces who went on to further success after this film.  Cambodia itself took a lot longer to recover from the events portrayed here...which stand as a warning to the world and its leaders.  Powerful.