The Killing Fields (film)

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Theatrical release poster
The Killing Fields
Directed by	Roland Joffé
Produced by	David Puttnam Iain Smith
Screenplay by	Bruce Robinson
Starring	Sam Waterston Haing S. Ngor Craig T. Nelson John Malkovich Athol Fugard
Music by	Mike Oldfield
Cinematography by	Chris Menges
Editor(s)	Jim Clark
Studio(s)	Goldcrest Films International Film Investors Enigma Productions
Distributor	Columbia-EMI-Warner Distributors (UK) Warner Bros. (International)
Release date(s)	November 2, 1984 (UK)
Running time	141 minutes
Language	English French Khmer
Budget	$14.4 million
Gross revenue	$34.7 million

The Killing Fields is a 1984 British biographical drama film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg. It was directed by Roland Joffé and produced by David Puttnam for his company Goldcrest Films. Sam Waterston stars as Schanberg, Haing S. Ngor as Pran, Julian Sands as Jon Swain, and John Malkovich as Al Rockoff. The adaptation for the screen was written by Bruce Robinson; the musical score was written by Mike Oldfield and orchestrated by David Bedford.

The film was a success at the box office and an instant hit with critics. At the 57th Academy Awards it received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture; it won three, most notably Best Supporting Actor for Haing S. Ngor, who had no previous acting experience, as well as Best Cinematography and Best Editing. At the 38th British Academy Film Awards, it won eight British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ngor.

In 1999 the British Film Institute voted The Killing Fields the 100th greatest British film of the 20th century. In 2016 British film magazine Empire ranked it number 86 in their list of the 100 best British films.

Plot

In the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, during May 1973, the Cambodian national army wages a civil war with the communist Khmer Rouge group, a result of the Vietnam War spilling over Cambodia's borders during Richard Nixon's presidency. Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist and interpreter for The New York Times, awaits the arrival of reporter Sydney Schanberg at the city's airport, but leaves suddenly. Schanberg takes a cab to his hotel where he meets up with photographer Al Rockoff. Pran meets Schanberg later and tells him that an incident has occurred in a town, Neak Leung; allegedly, an American B-52 has bombed the town. Schanberg and Pran go to Neak Leung where they find that the town has been bombed. Schanberg and Pran are arrested when they try to photograph the execution of two Khmer Rouge operatives. They are eventually released and Schanberg is furious when the international press corps arrives with the U.S. Army.

Two years later, in 1975, the Phnom Penh embassies are evacuated in anticipation of the arrival of the Khmer Rouge. Schanberg secures evacuation for Pran, his wife and their four children. However, Pran insists on staying behind to help Schanberg. The Khmer Rouge move into the capital, ostensibly in peace. During a parade through the city, Schanberg meets Rockoff. They are later met by a detachment of the Khmer Rouge, who immediately arrest them. The group is taken through the city to a back alley where prisoners are being held and executed. Pran, unharmed because he is a Cambodian civilian, negotiates to spare the lives of his friends. They do not leave Phnom Penh, but instead retreat to the French embassy. The Khmer Rouge orders all Cambodian citizens in the embassy to be handed over. Fearing an attack from the Khmer Rouge, the ambassador complies. Knowing that Pran will be imprisoned or killed, Rockoff and fellow photographer Jon Swain of The Sunday Times try to forge a British passport for Pran, but the deception fails when the image of Pran on the passport photo fades to nothing, as they lack adequate photographic developer. Pran is turned over to the Khmer Rouge and is forced to live under their totalitarian regime.

Several months after returning to New York City, Schanberg is in the midst of a personal campaign to locate Pran; he writes letters to several charities and is in close contact with Pran's family in San Francisco. In Cambodia, Pran has become a forced labourer under the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero" policy, a return to the agrarian ways of the past. Pran is also forced to attend propagandist classes where many undergo re-education. As intellectuals are made to disappear, Pran feigns simple-mindedness. Eventually, he tries to escape, but is recaptured. Before he is found by members of the Khmer Rouge, he stumbles upon one of the infamous killing fields of the Pol Pot regime, where as many as 2 million Cambodian citizens were murdered. In 1976, Schanberg is awarded a Pulitzer prize for his coverage of the Cambodian conflict. During the ceremony, he tells the audience that American policy toward Cambodia was not considerate toward Cambodians themselves, and that half the recognition for the award belongs to Pran. Schanberg is confronted in the restroom by Rockoff, who harshly accuses him of not doing enough to locate Pran and for using his friend to win the award. Although Schanberg initially defends his efforts, he ultimately admits that Pran stayed because of what Schanberg wanted.

Pran is assigned to the leader of a different prison compound, a man named Phat, and charged mostly with tending to Phat's young son. Pran continues to behave as an uneducated peasant, despite several attempts by Phat to catch him in his deception. Phat begins to trust Pran and asks him to take ward of his son in the event that he is killed. During the Khmer Rouge's border war with Vietnam, Pran discovers that Phat's son has American money and a map leading to safety. When Phat tries to stop the younger Khmer Rouge officers from killing several of his comrades, he is ignominiously shot. In the confusion, Pran escapes with four other prisoners and they begin a long trek through the jungle with Phat's son. The group later splits and three of them head in a different direction; Pran continues following the map with the fourth man. However, Pran's companion activates a hidden land mine while holding the boy. As Pran pleads with the man to give him the boy, the mine goes off, killing the pair. Pran continues through the jungle alone until he eventually finds a Red Cross camp near the border of Thailand. In the United States, Schanberg receives news that Pran is alive and safe, and he travels to the Red Cross camp and is reunited with Pran. He asks Pran to forgive him; Pran answers, with a smile, "Nothing to forgive, Sydney", as the two embrace.

Cast

• Sam Waterston as Sydney Schanberg
• Haing S. Ngor as Dith Pran
• John Malkovich as Al Rockoff
• Julian Sands as Jon Swain
• Craig T. Nelson as Military Attache
• Spalding Gray as U.S. Consul
• Bill Paterson as Dr MacEntire
• Athol Fugard as Dr Sundesval
• Graham Kennedy as Dougal
• Patrick Malahide as Morgan
• Nell Campbell as Beth
• Joanna Merlin as Schanberg's Sister

Production

In an interview with The Guardian in November 2014, Joffé said:

David Puttnam asked to see me, which in those days was a bit like being invited out to Hollywood. He gave me Bruce Robinson's script, which was enormous, but it was so full of passion and energy I couldn't put it down. I'd heard about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, but didn't know much until I read it. I wrote to David saying that whoever made the film would have to be careful because it wasn't just a war story: it was about human connection, how friendships are born and what they do to us. I didn't hear from him for six months, then we bumped into one another and he said he'd interviewed most of the directors in the world – including some very big names who would make the studios happy – but no one had really understood it. "You're the only man who has," he said.

In the same interview actor Julian Sands said:

Roland's audition process was extraordinary. I was 24 and I've never come across anything as rigorous since. He was looking to put together a troupe of actors without much film experience, because he wanted the freshness of everything to resonate with us. He would gather lots of us in his office to improvise scenes. After about a month, he had a group he found interesting. John Malkovich, Sam Waterston and Haing S. Ngor weren't subject to that, but their meetings with him were still pretty intense. A lot was made of the fact that Haing hadn't acted before, but John put it differently: he said Haing had been acting his whole life – you had to be a pretty good actor to survive the Khmer Rouge.

Box office

Goldcrest Films invested £8,419,000 in the film and received £10,664,000.

Critical reception

The Killing Fields holds a 93% rating at the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 40 reviews from notable publications, with the consensus; "Artfully composed, powerfully acted, and fueled by a powerful blend of anger and empathy, The Killing Fields is a career-defining triumph for director Roland Joffé and a masterpiece of American cinema." Critic Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times: "The film is a masterful achievement on all the technical levels—it does an especially good job of convincing us with its Asian locations—but the best moments are the human ones, the conversations, the exchanges of trust, the waiting around, the sudden fear, the quick bursts of violence, the desperation." John Simon of the National Review wrote- "For all its flaws The Killing Fields is an important, indeed necessary, film".

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result
Academy Awards	Best Picture	David Puttnam	Nominated
	Best Director	Roland Joffé	Nominated
	Best Actor	Sam Waterston	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	Haing S. Ngor	Won
	Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium	Bruce Robinson	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Chris Menges	Won
	Best Film Editing	Jim Clark	Won
American Cinema Editors Awards	Best Edited Feature Film		Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Film	The Killing Fields	Won
	Best Actor	Haing S. Ngor	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	John Malkovich (also for Places in the Heart)	Won
	Best Cinematography	Chris Menges	Won
British Academy Film Awards	Best Film	David Puttnam	Won
	Best Direction	Roland Joffé	Nominated
	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Haing S. Ngor	Won
		Sam Waterston	Nominated
	Best Screenplay – Adapted	Bruce Robinson	Won
	Best Cinematography	Chris Menges	Won
	Best Editing	Jim Clark	Won
	Best Make Up Artist	Tommie Manderson	Nominated
	Best Production Design/Art Direction	Roy Walker	Won
	Best Score	Mike Oldfield	Nominated
	Best Sound	Ian Fuller, Clive Winter and Bill Rowe	Won
	Best Special Visual Effects	Fred Cramer	Nominated
	Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles	Haing S. Ngor	Won
British Society of Cinematographers	Best Cinematography	Chris Menges	Won
César Awards	Best Foreign Film	Roland Joffé	Nominated
David di Donatello Awards	Best Foreign Film		Nominated
	Best Foreign Director		Nominated
	Best Foreign Producer	David Puttnam	Won
Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures	Roland Joffé	Nominated
Golden Globe Awards	Best Motion Picture – Drama	The Killing Fields	Nominated
	Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama	Sam Waterston	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture	Haing S. Ngor	Won
	Best Director – Motion Picture	Roland Joffé	Nominated
	Best Screenplay – Motion Picture	Bruce Robinson	Nominated
	Best Original Score – Motion Picture	Mike Oldfield	Nominated
Guild of German Art House Cinemas Awards	Best Foreign Film	Roland Joffé	Won
Japan Academy Film Prize	Outstanding Foreign Language Film	The Killing Fields	Nominated
London Critics Circle Film Awards	Director of the Year	Roland Joffé	Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards	Best Supporting Actor	John Malkovich (also for Places in the Heart)	Nominated
	Best Cinematography	Chris Menges	Won
National Board of Review Awards	Top Ten Films	The Killing Fields	Won
National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Supporting Actor	John Malkovich (also for Places in the Heart)	Won
	Best Cinematography	Chris Menges (also for Comfort and Joy)	Won
New York Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Film	The Killing Fields	2nd Place
	Best Cinematographer	Chris Menges	Won
Political Film Society Awards	Special Award	The Killing Fields	Won
Premio Sergio Amidei		Bruce Robinson	Won
Writers Guild of America Awards	Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium		Won

Besides its place as 100th on the BFI Top 100 British films list, The Killing Fields is also 30th on Channel 4's list of the 100 Greatest Tearjerkers, and 60th on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers list.

Home media

The Killing Fields was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in Australia in March 2010. The DVD includes special features such as the theatrical trailer, audio commentary with Roland Joffé, an interview with David Puttnam and a BBC documentary titled The Making of The Killing Fields. In April 2013 Umbrella Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray in Australia.

In the UK, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Optimum Releasing and was released in North America on DVD by Warner Brothers, as part of their Warner Archive Collection.

Casting of Haing S. Ngor

Haing S. Ngor, who plays Pran, was himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime and the labour camps. Prior to the Khmer Rouge's 'Year Zero' he was a doctor based in Phnom Penh. In 1975, Ngor was one of millions who were moved from the city to forced labour camps in the countryside. He spent four years there before fleeing to Thailand.

Haing S. Ngor had never acted before appearing in The Killing Fields. He was spotted by the film's casting director, Pat Golden, at a Cambodian wedding in Los Angeles.

Of his role in the film, he told People magazine in 1985: "I wanted to show the world how deep starvation is in Cambodia, how many people die under Communist regime. My heart is satisfied. I have done something perfect."

Ngor became one of only two non-professional actors to win an Academy Award for acting, the other being Harold Russell (The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946).

Related work

The screenplay is adapted from a Sydney Schanberg story in The New York Times Magazine entitled "The Death and Life of Dith Pran: A Story of Cambodia".

In 1986, actor Spalding Gray, who had a small role in the film as the American consul, created Swimming to Cambodia, a monologue (later filmed by Jonathan Demme) based upon his experiences making The Killing Fields.

A book of the film was written by Christopher Hudson.

The soundtrack was mastered by Greg Fulginiti.

Gallery

External links

• The Killing Fields (film) at the Internet Movie Database

• The Killing Fields (film) at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Killing Fields (film) at AllMovie
• Film review by Tim Dirks
• Mike Oldfield Discography (Tubular.net) – The Killing Fields
• The Killing Fields at DVD Resurrections, by Fingers.

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