Flick of The Day: The Killing Fields

Films with a political undercurrent are difficult to pull off. For one, the viewer can become irritated by the feeling they are being preached to and rally against the underlying message of the film. There are some subjects that are above politics however, that get to the very heart of the human condition. The tale told in Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields is one such subject. It tells the tale not just of the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge and their inhuman regime in Cambodia but also a much simpler tale, that of the friendship between two journalists, an American Sydney Schanberg and a Cambodian Dith Pran.

The Killing Fields

I first read of the brutal atrocities committed under the auspices of the Khmer Rouge's Year Zero campaign in Cambodia many years ago in an article in The Irish Times. My initial reaction was incredulity that something like this could be allowed to happen in the modern world. Where was the force of international opinion that should have intervened to save Cambodia and its people? Of course, as the years go by you come to accept that genocide occurs far too often in this world and that the international community is so often selective in its determination to intervene on behalf of the oppresssed. To Cambodia, you can add Rwanda 1994, Bosnia 1992 and Sudan 2010 as a list of bloody genocides where the world stood by and watched until it was too late. You could add innumerable others.

The film opens in 1973 in Phnom Penh as New York Times journalist Schanberg, played with steely determination by Sam Waterston is covering the ongoing conflict in Cambodia with his interpreter Dith Pran, a wonderful Oscar winning performance from Haing Ngor. They cover the ongoing secret war being perpetrated by Richard Nixon's administration and the various atrocities it leads to. The film the moves forward to 1975, to the American pull-out and the ensuing mayhem it created. Schanberg arranges for Pran's family to be evacuated but pressurises Pran to stay and help him cover the final days of the war. Of course, as it turned out all involved had underestimated the brutality of the Khmer Rouge. When they take Phnom Penh, they instigate their brutal policy of Year Zero, of forced migration to the countryside, of labour camps, of murder, of torture, of the systematic removal of all intellectuals. Initially the pair take cover in the French Embassy with all of the foreign journalists however eventually they are evacuated including Schanberg, leaving Pran behind. The remainder of the film tells the story of Pran's experiences under Pol Pot's regime and a guilty Schanberg's attempts to find his friend.

"We must be like the ox and have no thought, except for the Party. No laugh, but for the Uncle. People starve, but we must not grow food. We must honour the comrade children, whose minds are not corrupted by the past."

The film is at times deeply moving and the images of the killing fields will live with you long after the film has ended. Having visited Cambodia I can attest at first hand the emotional power of a site like the killing fields, even today. The film is at times hard to watch but it is worth it, the emotional payoff comes as Pran struggles to freedom as the Khmer Rouge fall from power. The film ends on 9th October 1979 as Schanberg and Pran are reunited.

This is a film that should be seen by as wide an audience as possible, not just so that the Cambodian conflict is not forgotten. That is reason enough however on its own it is a very finely made film. Chris Menges cinematography captures both the horror and the beauty of Cambodia. The film never preaches, you never feel as if an issue or point of view is being shoved down your throat. The facts are presented and you are left to draw your own conclusions as to the how and why. It is undoubtedly the case that the actions of the Nixon administration in secretly bombing Cambodia for year after year contributed to the rise of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge. However, it must also be said that the international community was once again remiss in doing very little to stop the horror. It took an invading Vietnamese Army to finally remove the Khmer Rouge from power.

If the film has any message, it is the strength of human friendship and maybe that is what should be taken from this tale. Watch it.