"The Killing Fields" review

“The Killing Fields” is a film about sacrifice and the power of friendship amid destruction and horror. Directed by Roland Joffe, the film depicts the genocidal decimation of Cambodia during Pol Pot’s murderous reign of the country during the 1970s. Released in 1984 and nominated for seven Academy Awards, “The Killing Fields” is significant today as war criminals from the barbaric Khmer Rouge are being brought to justice and many others have yet to answer for their acts of inhumanity. The film recalls a tragedy that should never be forgotten, but it is the human story within this larger framework that draws the viewer in.

Based on a true story, Joffe’s film opens in August 1973 when Sydney Schanberg, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times arrives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city, to report on the growing unrest in the country. There, he meets Pran, a photojournalist who serves as his guide. The contrast in the two men’s personalities is evident early. Schanberg, played by Sam Waterston, is the classic reporter-type – a cynical, impatient firebrand who smokes cigarettes and drinks Johnnie Walker Black. Pran is mild and easy going – a family man with a gentle, helpful disposition. Shortly after the two men meet, a U.S. military B-52 plane bombs the town of Neak Leung. Pran helps Schanberg sneak into the town to get a first-hand account of an incident the U.S. government wants to keep secret.

The film later jumps to 1975 as hostilities grow more intense in Cambodia. The United States clears out of its embassy and reporters take temporary residence in the French embassy. Khmer Rouge soldiers take Schanberg and other journalists hostage. In one intense scene, the men are held at gunpoint, squatting over the ground with their arms raised and hands behind their heads. A soldier stands behind them, pointing a rifle to their heads, prepared to fire at anyone who breaks position. Pran, as the only Cambodian in the group, is spared such torture. He pleads with Rouge officials and successfully negotiates their release.

Schanberg arranges for Pran’s family to flee to the United States, but he stays behind to help report on Cambodia’s unraveling. He plans to join them later, but as the French embassy shuts down and the press prepares to leave the country, the Khmer Roug orders all Cambodians within its walls, turned over. Frantic to get Pran safely out of the country, his friends set out to make him a fake passport, but their plans fall through and they have to leave him behind.

Pran is enslaved on one of Pol Pot’s collectivist farms. The most chilling parts of the film are not the violent scenes, graphic as they are. Rather, they are the scenes of people being brainwashed as part of Pol Pot’s re-education campaign. It is “Year Zero.” Your lives as you knew them do not matter anymore. Forget them. Children, blot out your parents. We are your family now.

Back in the states, Schanberg keeps in contact with Pran’s family and constantly works with humanitarian organizations, trying to secure his release. He wins a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Cambodia’s human rights crisis, but the honor exacerbates the guilt he feels over leaving his friend behind. Schanberg could have never written his stories without Pran’s assistance. He wanted Pran to stay behind and help him. If Schanberg would have helped Pran leave when he had a chance, he could have spared his friend the horror of the killing fields. Pran saved Schanberg’s life. But Schanberg’s selfishness could have led to Pran’s death.

Pran does escape, however, crawling through swamps and jungles, hiding from armed soldiers and leaving behind dead traveling companions. He escapes to Thailand. In the poignant final scene, he is reunited with his old friend. Schanberg humbly asks, “Forgive me,” to which a smiling Pran answers, “There’s nothing to forgive.”

Haing S. Ngor won an Academy Award as best supporting actor for his brilliant portrayal of Pran. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9FgzH4xizU Amazingly, he had never acted before being cast in this movie. But the role was not a stretch for him. Ngor, himself, had lived a Khmer Rouge concentration camp. His wife died there, giving birth. Ngor held to a locket bearing her picture for the rest of his life. He never remarried. In researching “The Killing Fields,” I was saddened to learn that he was shot to death in a Los Angeles in 1996 during a robbery by an Asian-American gang. He was killed when he would not hand over the locket. http://haingsngorfoundation.org

Dith Pran immigrated to the United States and had a long career as a photojournalist for the New York Times, while speaking out about Cambodia’s genocide and working for human rights on the side. He stayed with the Times until his death in 2005. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/nyregion/31dith.html

Waterson was also excellent in his role as Schanberg. People only familiar with Waterson as the prosecutor in TV’s “Law and Order” will be surprised to see him looking so young. (I’m still mad about the original “Law and Order” being cancelled.) For “The Killing Fields,” he embodied the character of the hard-nosed reporter, and he had a great South Boston accent. By the way, Schanberg is still working as a journalist. http://www.thenation.com/authors/sydney-h-schanberg

I watched “The Killing Fields” as an extra credit project for a geography class. This film is relevant to what we studied in class. The goal of the class is that students will come away with greater geographical literacy, a deeper knowledge and respect for the many cultures throughout the world and an understanding of how we are all interconnected within the global community and our actions have an impact on one another.

The opening scenes of “The Killing Fields” reveal a beautiful country. It is easy to see why Chris Menges won an Academy Award for cinematography for “The Killing Fields” because his work is brilliant. The film’s opening shots evoke bliss, a meditation on God’s handiwork as a sunrise backdrop envelopes a pastoral scene. Farm oxen call to mind this country’s ancient traditions. A child is shown wearing a helmet. It is a foreshadowing of the rouge military uprising that will decimate the country, upsetting the quiet of its rural land and destroying the innocence of its children.

Joffe’s film is strong in its indictment of the U.S. role in fomenting Pol Pot’s rape of Cambodia. Early in the film, we hear radio news reports of Pres. Nixon’s illegal bombing of the country. It speaks volumes about the arrogance and abuse of power that Nixon and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, would act in secret away from the auspices of Congress and the American people so they could escalate the Vietnam War and spend billions in bombing raids that ultimately led to at least over two million lives lost among Cambodians, Vietnamese and Americans, collectively. Cambodia was a peaceful country intent on staying neutral in the war between its neighbor, Vietnam and the U.S. The North Vietnamese used spots on Cambodia’s border as supply routes, something the country could not have stopped and this was used to justify bombing them. Unfortunately, the bombing led to instability as Cambodia’s government – favored by its people – was overthrown and the Khmer Rouge, which had been only as small nuisance, was able to seize control.

In this way, “The Killing Fields” not only illustrates global connectedness and the impact one country’s actions can have on another – in particular the consequences a powerful nation’s decisions can have on a weaker one. The film should lead us to question U.S. foreign policy today and if we are being told the truth about our military actions in the world. In Jaffe’s film, when the U.S. government cannot deny the bombing at Neak Leung, the military feeds the press a whitewashed PR version of the story. The media today is gargantuan compared to what it was 37 years ago, but are we getting better coverage? Apathy, a lack of geographic literacy and our diversion by that opiate of the masses -- entertainment – seem to leave conditions ripe for governmental obfuscation.

We have seen several videos and had several discussions as a class about the loss, or potential loss of cultures. My classmates and I share the consensus that it is sad when this happens. I think we have all come away with a deeper respect for other ways of life. That is another reason why “The Killing Fields” is relevant. The Khmer Rouge tried to send century’s old traditions down the memory hole. From Cambodia’s Angkor kingdom, which ruled from 900 to 1200, the country has a history of Hinduism. Like its neighbors, Laos, Tailand and Burma, Cambodia has a rich culture steeped in Theravada Buddhism. Yet the Khmer Rouge sought to obliterate all of that and, as a classmate put it, take Cambodia “back to the stone age.”

When people in Cambodia share family bonds and worship as they please, they overcome the evil of the Khmer Rouge. However, many young people are not being told the truth about their country’s history. Their textbooks glaze over Pol Pot’s wipeout of the country. Like Hitler, Pol Pot committed suicide before he could be brought to justice. The government has been slow to pursue others. A UN backed tribunal in Cambodia recently sentenced the chief Khmer Rouge executioner, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch to imprisonment, albeit to only 19 years. http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Editorial-Board-Blog/2010/0727/In-the-verdict-against-Khmer-Rouge-jailer-Duch-and-what-really-got-convicted At least, that is something. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said he does not want any more Khmer Rouge trials. That would mean Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s second in command who has been under arrest since 2007, would not be brought to trial. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0730/From-C

These men are among those most responsible for putting Cambodia through a holocaust and the world should care. If “The Killing Fields” leads people to care, then it has done a good thing.

Gateway film:

“Enemies of the People” – This documentary about the Khmer Rouge genocide won a special jury prize at the 2010 Sundance Awards. The film is being shown in limited screenings, but none are scheduled for in the Wichita area so we might have to wait for the DVD.

Gateway books:

“First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.)” by Loung Ung. This book is one of several memoirs by survivors of Cambodia’s killing fields.

“Sideshow, Revised Edition: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia” by William Shawcross. In an updated version of a book Shawcross originally published in 1978, the British journalist details the history and connection between U.S. foreign policy and the killing fields.