Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2293 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-10
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 141 minutes

Synopsis
Roland Joffe's unflinching drama recounts the true story of New York Times journalist Sidney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and Cambodian journalist and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), who found themselves trapped in the nightmare of the Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia. While stationed in Phnom Penh in the early 1970s, Schanberg and Pran become close friends and confidants, negotiating and writing many groundbreaking stories. When the ruling Lon Nol government is overthrown by the Khmer Rouge, the country is turned upside down--killing is common in the streets, and children become gun-toting informants. Schanberg is forced to flee the country, with his fellow American photographer Al Rockoff (John Malkovich) and British journalist Jon Swain (Julian Sands). Despite their exhaustive efforts to free Pran, they have no choice but to leave him behind. Pran is forced to endure excruciating agony at the Pol Pot death camps, where any shred of individuality or dissent is beaten out of the prisoners. After years of brutal torture, Pran manages to escape and begins a long odyssey to Thailand and the border refugee camps. As Pran struggles to stay alive, Schanberg endures life in New York wracked with guilt over the loss of his good friend, desperately attempting to locate him. This haunting drama is epic in its portrayal of a war-torn country devastated by mass genocide. Images of both great horror and beauty resonate with awesome power and honesty. Joffe's first film features superb performances from a first-rate ensemble of actors, including Waterston, Sands, Malkovich, and Ngor in an Oscar-winning role.

Customer Reviews

Tribute to Haing S Nor
A very touching film that recounts the excesses of the Khmer Rouge during the 1970's regime of Pol Pot. This is the most important film that recounts the instability of South Eastern Asia and is on a par with other classics such as Deer Hunter and Apocalpyse Now.
The scene where Dith Pran's photo disappears as he is about to leave Cambodia, leaves an indelible indication of his ensuing fate.
The performances all around superb without exception. Haing S. Ngor, who was tragically killed a few years ago, delivers a riveting, emotionally wrenching turn as the guide who is trapped in Cambodia and forced to fight for his life. He deservingly won the Oscar, though it's a shame he was snubbed for the best actor award. Inarguably, he's the film's central character and he also has more screen time than top-billed Sam Waterston. Despite my complaint on that matter, Waterston is also excellent as the journalist with a guilty conscience.

The Killing Fields is a suspenseful and exhilarating experience, a journey through an apocalyptic landscape that features one shocking image after another. Watch, and you'll see why the film is so acclaimed.

Deserves the three oscars it received!
This film tells the true story of two journalists in Cambodia during the turmoil of 1970s Cambodia. One is the American Sydney Schanberg (played by Sam Waterston) and the other is the Cambodian Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor). As the Khmer Rouge approach the fall of capital Phnom Penh becomes imminent, the foreign embassies pack up and move out and the journalists are forced to take refuge in the French embassy. The Khmer Rouge have however demanded that all Cambodians in the embassy be turned over, and fearing attack, the occupants agree. Dith Pran is therefore in trouble. The foreign journalists come up with a plan...

The film is very well cast, with excellent acting and character depth as shown by Haing Ngor winning a well deserved oscar for best supporting actor. It is at times brutal, at others touching.

Highly Recommended

A masterpiece of a testimony !!!
This is a cult film in many ways even if time is making it a lot less poignant than it used to be. It is definitely a denunciation of the Cambodian caper of President Nixon. The bombing and then the invading of Cambodia were neither justified nor in any way effective. The Vietnam war was lost when Nixon decided to invade Cambodia and this invasion spread American troops and military means over two wide a territory to even pretend the war was not lost. The invasion of Cambodia was the last straw that broke the camel's back. We could wonder today whether Kissinger let Nixon do this mistake to bury him in this war and thus enable himself to negotiate some kind of a peace agreement. An American journalist lost in this chaos and overwhelmed by the arrival of the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh was a witness to this senseless and absurd caper or continuation of a ridiculous war. But he had to use the services of a local journalist to be the interface between him and the locals. Unluckily this Cambodian journalist stayed too long and he could not escape from the claws of the Khmer Rouge. Then it is a story of resistance and resilience to survive the most horrendous conditions. He will manage to escape absolutely alone though he had started in a group of six or seven. Even the child he had been entrusted with will die along the way blown up by a mine. This is a true story, a testimony about one of the most astounding catastrophe and tragedy of our modern world, a war unjustified and lost even before being started waged by the USA in a country that they did not even know leading to one of the worst ever genocide in modern history performed by the Cambodians themselves onto the Cambodian people they made regress to some medieval state in just a few months and for a few years that lasted centuries. We westerners love exporting our worst nightmares to foreign countries and some of us never learn a lesson and are always ready to do better than some others before us. If the French lost the Indo-chinese war in 1954 there was absolutely no reason why the Americans could win it. If the French lost the Algerian war in 1962 and the British lost the Middle East and Egypt quite some time before there is absolutely no reason why the Americans could do better. This film is a testimony to the suffering the vanity of some of our inspired western leaders imposes onto millions of people around the world. For one case that ends with a little bit of joy, millions of cases end in plain death.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne