“The Killing Fields” Just As Soon Shoot Them

Ga.Pi. News Ga.Pi. News As the Khmer Rouge victory becomes inevitable, there are scenes of incredible tension, especially one in which Dith Pran saves the lives of his friends by some des- perate fast talking with the cadres of adolescent rebels who would “The Killing Fields” just as soon shoot them. Then there is the confusion of the evac- uation of the U.S. Embassy and a last glimpse of Dith Pran before he Roger Ebert – January 01, 1984 came that Pran was still alive and friend went back to Vietnam to res- disappears for four years. had made it across the border to cue another. Sitting in New York There’s a strange thing about a refugee camp. The two friends writing letters is not quite heroism In a more conventional film, he stories based on what the mov- were reunited, in one of the rare on the same scale. And yet, what would, of course, have really dis- ies insist on calling “real life.” The happy endings that come out of a else could Schanberg do? And, appeared, and we would have haphazard chances of life, the un- period of great suffering. more to the point, what else could followed the point of view of the anticipated twists of fate, have a Dith Pran do, in the four years of his Schanberg character. But this way of getting smoothed down into As a human story, this is a com- disappearance, but try to disguise movie takes the chance of switch- Hollywood formulas, so that what pelling one. As a Hollywood story, his origins and his education, and ing points of view in midstream, might once have happened to a it obviously will not do because pass as an illiterate peasant, one of and the last half of the film belongs real person begins to look more the last half of the movie is essen- the countless prisoners of Khmer to Dith Pran, who sees his coun- and more like what might once tially Dith Pran’s story, told from Rouge work camps? By telling his try turned into an insane parody have happened to John story, and by respecting it, of a one-party state, ruled by the Wayne. One of the risks “The Killing Fields” becomes Khmer Rouge with instant vio- taken by “The Killing Fields” a film of an altogether higher lence and a savage intolerance for is to cut loose from that tra- order than the Hollywood re- any reminders of the French and dition, to tell us a story that venge thrillers. American presence of the colonial does not have a traditional era. Many of the best scenes in the Hollywood structure, and to The movie begins in the film’s second half are essentially trust that we’ll find the char- early days of the journalistic played without dialogue, as Pran works in the fields, disguises his acters so interesting that we coverage of Schanberg. We origins, and waits for his chance. won’t miss the cliché. It is meet Schanberg (Sam Wa- a risk that works, and that terston) and Pran (played The film is a masterful achieve- helps make this into a really by Dr. Haing S. Ngor, whose ment on all the technical levels, affecting experience. own story is an uncanny it does an especially good job of parallel to his character’s), convincing us with its Asian loca- and we sense the strong The “real life” story behind the tions, but the best moments are movie is by now well-known. friendship and loyalty that the human ones, the conversa- Sydney Schanberg, a corre- they share. We also absorb tions, the exchanges of trust, the spondent for the New York the conditions in the country, waiting around, the sudden fear, Times, covered the invasion where warehouses full of Co- the quick bursts of violence, the of Cambodia with the help ca-Cola are blown up by ter- desperation. At the center of many of Dith Pran, a local journal- rorists who know a symbolic of those scenes is Dr. Haing S. ist and translator. When the target when they see one. Ngor, a non-actor who was recruit- country fell to the communist Life is a routine of hanging ed for the role from the ranks of Khmer Rouge, the lives of all out at cafes and restaurants Cambodian refugees in California, foreigners were immediately and official briefings, punc- and who brings to it a simple sin- at risk, and Schanberg got tuated by an occasional trip cerity that is absolutely convincing. out along with most of his fel- to the front, where the Amer- Sam Waterston is effective in the low Western correspondents. ican view of things does not somewhat thankless role of Syd- He offered Pran a chance seem to be reflected by the ney Schanberg, and among the to leave with him, but Pran suffering that the correspon- carefully drawn vignettes are Craig elected to stay. And when dents witness. T. Nelson as a military attach, and the Khmer Rouge drew a Athol Fugard as Dr. Sundesval. bamboo curtain around Cam- The whole atmosphere of bodia, Pran disappeared into this period is suggested The American experience in his point of view. Hollywood con- a long silence. most successfully by the charac- Southeast Asia has given us vention has it that the American ter of an American photographer, a great film epic (“Apocalypse Back home in New York, Schan- should fight his way back into the played by John Malkovich as a Now”) and a great drama (“The berg did what he could to discov- occupied country (accompanied by cross between a dopehead and Deer Hunter”). Here is the story er information about his friend; renegade Green Berets and Hell’s a hard-bitten newsman. He is not told a little closer to the ground, for example, he wrote about four Angels, and Rambo, if possible), stirred to action very easily, and of people who were not very im- hundred letters to organizations blast his way into a prison camp, still less easily stirred to caring, portant and not very powerful, like the Red Cross. But it was a and save his buddy. That was the but when an occasion rises (for who got caught up in events that futile exercise, and Schanberg had formula for “Uncommon Valor” and example, the need to forge a pass- were indifferent to them, but nev- Concept & design: GianAngelo Pistoia ● Article: www.rogerebert.com ● Photos: Warner Bros. Pictures ● Photos: Warner Article: www.rogerebert.com Concept & design: GianAngelo Pistoia ● given up his friend for dead, when “Missing in Action,” two box-office port for Dith Pran), he reveals the er stopped trying to do their best © one day four years later word hits, and in “The Deer Hunter” one depth of his feeling. and their most courageous. 9 8 9 10.

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