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Films that Promote Peace & Nonviolence |
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Films that Promote Peace & Nonviolence |
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UK, 1984, Drama, D Roland Joffe, Stars: Sam Waterson, Haing S. Ngor,
141 m
Dith Pran, aide to NYT journalist Sydney Schanberg in Vietnam, stays behind
as the war ends, and the horror of Pol Pot's Cambodia unfolds.
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From All Movie Guide
The
Killing Fields is a romanticized adaptation of an eyewitness magazine
story by New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg. Covering the U.S.
pullout from Vietnam in 1975, Schanberg (Sam
Waterston) relies on his Cambodian friend and translator Dith Pran (Hang
S. Ngor) for inside information. Schanberg has an opportunity to rescue Dith
Pran when the U.S. army evacuates all Cambodian citizens; instead, the reporter
coerces his friend to remain behind to continue sending him news flashes.
Although his family is helicoptered out of Saigon (a recreation of the famous TV
news clip), Dith Pran stays with Schanberg on the ground. Racked with guilt,
Schanberg does his best to arrange for Dith Pran's escape, but the Cambodian is
captured by the dreaded Khmer Rouge. Accepting his Pulitzer Prize on behalf of
Dith Pran, Schanberg vows to do right by his friend and extricate him from
Cambodia. The rest of the film details Dith Pran's harrowing experiences at the
hands of the Khmer Rouge, and his attempt to escape on his own. The Killing
Fields won Academy Awards for Hang S. Ngor (a Cambodian doctor who lived
through many of the horrific events depicted herein), cinematographer Chris
Menges, and editor Jim
Clark; an Oscar nomination went to Roland
Joffe, who made his directorial debut with this film. Spalding
Gray, who played a small role in the film, later elaborated on this
experiences in his one-man stage presentation Swimming to Cambodia. Hal
Erickson
On April 17th, 1975 the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group led by Pol Pot, took power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. They forced all city dwellers into the countryside and to labor camps. During their rule, it is estimated that 2 million Cambodians died by starvation, torture or execution. 2 million Cambodians represented approximately 30% of the Cambodian population during that time.
TV Guide Review:
A deeply moving film, THE KILLING FIELDS is the somewhat-fictionalized story of New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and his efforts to find his friend Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) after the Cambodian translator falls into the hands of the brutal Khmer Rouge. Although Dith's family is evacuated with the last US personnel to leave Phnom Penh, Schanberg persuades his translator to remain behind with him; and when Khmer Rouge troops enter the city, Dith convinces them that Schanberg and his photographer (John Malkovich) are French.Regrettably, Schanberg is unable to return the favor later, and Dith is sent off to a rural reeducation camp, which he barely survives but eventually escapes. While undertaking the arduous journey to safety, he comes across the horrifying remains of some of the three million people who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Meanwhile, racked with guilt, Schanberg, who has received a Pulitzer Prize for "international reporting at great risk," does everything he can to locate his friend.
THE KILLING FIELDS wisely emphasizes the human element of its story, concentrating on Schanberg and Dith's friendship, and lets the political situation speak for itself. Haing S. Ngor, the Cambodian physician whose real-life experiences were similar to those of the character he plays, gives a sincere, heartrending performance that is the film's emotional core. Although Waterston is less effective, he too contributes a believable performance, as does Malkovich in an impressive film debut. Aided by Chris Menges' spectacular Oscar winning cinematography, director Roland Joffe's first feature is a significant achievement, its sequences unfolding with precision as the emotions mount.
http://www.filmsite.org/kill.html Movie Review by Tim Dirks
The
Killing Fields (1984) is based upon a true story, and
follows the historical events surrounding the US evacuation from Vietnam in
1975. The authentic-looking, unforgettable epic film, shot on location in
Thailand, was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best
Actor (Sam Waterston), Best Director (first-timer Roland Joffe), and Best
Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Bruce Robinson). The
remarkable, deeply affecting film about friendship and loyalty, survival and the
horrors of war won three Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Haing S. Ngor), Best
Cinematography (Chris Menges), and Best Film Editing (Jim Clark). Cambodian
doctor, non-actor Haing Ngor, in his film debut, was an actual survivor of the
Cambodian holocaust. He was tortured and experienced the starvation and death of
his real-life family during the actual historical events revisited in this film.
American newspaper correspondent, New York Times [Pulitzer-Prize winning] reporter Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) is covering the secret US bombing campaign in Cambodia. After having persuaded his Cambodian assistant, friend and interpreter, Dith Pran (Dr. Haing S. Ngor) to remain behind with him to help cover the story after the communist Khmer Rouge takeover and withdrawal of US military forces, Schanberg unintentionally betrays his aide by miscalculating the situation. They are separated and Pran is forced to remain when Schanberg and other American journalists and Westerners evacuate to escape a life-threatening situation in occupied-Cambodia during the fall of Phnom Penh.
The film chronicles unforgettable scenes of suffering endured during the Cambodian bloodbath (known as "Year Zero"), when the courageous and indomitable Dith Pran endures the atrocities of the Pol Pot regime and is captured by the communist Khmer Rouge and punished for befriending the Americans. His struggle to stay alive in the rural, barbaric 're-education' labor camp, his two escape attempts from his captors, and his horrifying walk through the skeletal remains of the brutal massacres in the Valley of Death, the muddy "killing fields," all present potent apocalyptic images on his journey to Thailand.
Dith Pran narrates the last line of the film regarding the genocide in Cambodia: "Nothing's forgiven, nothing." A newer book compiled by Dith Pran is available from Barnes & Noble:
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Chanrithy Him vividly recounts her trek through the hell of the "killing fields." She gives us a child's-eye view of a Cambodia where rudimentary labor camps for both adults and children are the norm and modern technology no longer exists. Death becomes a companion in the camps, along with illness. Yet through the terror, the members of Chanrithy's family remain loyal to one another, and she and her siblings who survive will find redeemed lives in America.
The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Inc. The Project was founded by Dith Pran, a Cambodian refugee whose war time story was portrayed in the movie, The Killing Fields. Dith Pran and Kim DePaul, Executive Director of the Project, aim to continue to educate American students about the Cambodian genocide which occurred from April 17th, 1975 to January 7th, 1979.
WDBJ 7 News: 2/26/1996 An Oscar winning actor was
murdered last night in Los Angeles. Police say Haing Ngor (Hang Nohr) was
fatally shot as he arrived home. His body was found near his car. Ngor (nohr)
won an Academy Award for his supporting role in the 1984 film "the Killing
Fields." A Cambodian refugee doctor, Ngor (nohr) was the first
non-professional to win an Oscar for acting since Harold Russell in 1946.
