Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3581 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-02-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 136 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

The Killing Fields: the best film ever on Cambodian Holocaust
David Puttnam, Roland Joffé, Chris Menges..... what a wonderful team whose individual creativity and collective synergy brought us two out-of-the-world pictures: "The Mission" & "The Killing Fields". Nothing to say about the former. Regarding the latter, the rich combination of such themes as ravages of war, power of friendship and unrequited loyalty makes it one of the powerful films in its genre and greatest films ever to have come out of the British cinema.

"The Killing Fields" takes us back to 1975s Phnom Penh, Cambodian capital, during which the communist guerrilla group Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot seized the city, formed a new government and forced the dwellers to move to the countryside to work in collective farms and labor camps with the goal of restarting of civilization in "Year Zero". During the next 4 years of their rule, these "policies" caused the death of ~ 3 million people (one third of the population) either from execution, torture, starvation, overwork, and disease. Under this apocalyptic environment, "The Killing Fields" tells the true ordeal and survival story of Cambodian photojournalist, Dith Pran, who endured the atrocities of Khmer Rouge regime: captured, tortured, punished for befriending American journalists and forced to work in labor camps in barbaric conditions.

To me, the most impressive thing about "The Killing Fields" is the ravishing cinematography by Academy Award winner Chris Menges. From start to end, The photography is nothing but gorgeous. All shots are meticulously planned, properly balanced and perfectly contrasted, harmonizing the beauty of countryside with ravages of war. The colors are well saturated and look wonderful. Subtle details are well presented, sharp and clearly visible with an emphasis on naturalism.

The outstanding cinematography and the gritty realism of the story was further enhanced by the taut direction of Roland Joffé, whose documentary-like precision contributes to the film's overall power. His battle footage and portrayal of atrocities are mostly documentary nature, but not presented with "cheap" bloodfest where unnecessary amount of blood and gore paint the screen. Let's not forget to mention the outstandingly realistic performance of first-time actor Haing S. Ngor, who deserves to win Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Watching John Malkovich, playing the hot-tempered American war photographer Al Rockoff, is particularly enjoyable.

To sum up, "The Killing Fields" is not just an essential film from historical standpoint of Cambodian Holocaust of 1975-1979, but it is also powerful in its visual and emotional moments in an otherwise hopeless and ruthless situation. (4.4/5.0)

Powerful but ultimately a little too tasteful
In the wake of a string of turkeys like Vatel, Fat Man and Little Boy, Super Mario Brothers and the infamous Demi Moore version of The Scarlet Letter, these days The Killing Fields increasingly looks like proof of the theory that anybody can make at least one good movie. Certainly Roland Joffe never made an entirely successful film afterwards, no matter how much money and talent were at his disposal. It's from that curious period when British cinema was taking on large-scale serious 'American foreign policy' stories that American cinema wouldn't touch (like The Deer Hunter, this was co-funded by EMI), in this case the Khmer Rouge atrocities in the wake of America's disastrous involvement in creating a 'sideshow war' in Cambodia. Unlike other white liberal angst fests like Cry Freedom it doesn't choose to concentrate on the white man's story at the expense of the pitiful foreign types - despite the oft-levelled criticism, it spends surprisingly little screen time with Sam Waterston's increasingly ineffectual journalist Sidney Schanberg after his return to New York, and even when it does, he doesn't get a free ride for putting his own ambitions ahead of his Cambodian translator's safety.

It's at its best depicting a country on the verge of collapse, and that curious stillness when life pretends to go on as normal in denial of the inevitable. Little in the film catches the atmosphere and still confusion, as well as the curious moral malaise of the war journalists, as the opening sequences, with sleepily disinterested inertia suddenly giving way to an energetic feeding frenzy to photograph the aftermath of a bombing attack. Curiously, once things start to get really bad it avoids the obvious and chooses not to demonise all the Khmer Rouge, emphasising their own divisions and confusions as one generation of freedom fighters find themselves victims for a more fanatical younger generation. Where it does fall down is in its good taste - at times the film just seems too squeamish, as if desperate to avoid alienating a mainstream audience by showing too much of the horror.

Unlike the disappointing early Polygram/Universal DVD release, Optimum's 2-disc set boasts a decent 1.85:1 transfer with a good selection of extras.

All too true...
I recently visisted Cambodia and whilst In Pnhnom Penh we went to S21 (the torture prison the khymer rouge used before taking the prisoners to the killing fields) and we also went to the actual killing fields. Its easily the creepiest place I've ever been, theres bones and rags everywhere. I didnt think this film could capture the essence of such a nasty event in history- but I think i was wrong. Obviously never having been involved in the event but having learnt about it- the film gives a very real impression of the horrifying events brother number one put into action. A good film to watch and learn from. I also reccommend a trip to Cambodia (!) just to see how far the Cambodian people have come since the khymer rouge and its a beautiful country too.