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Sam Waterston, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands, Craig T. Nelson ... see more see more... , Athol Fugard , Spalding Gray , Bill Paterson , Jay Barney , Nell Campbell , Edward Entero Chey , Katherine Kragum Chey , David Henry , Sayo Inaba , Graham Kennedy , Mark Long , Patrick Malahide , Joanna Merlin , Oliver Pierpaoli , Ira Wheeler , Joan Harris , Monirak Sisowath , Haing S. Ngor

The Killing Fields is a romanticized adaptation of an eyewitness magazine story by New York Times correspondent Sidney Schanberg. Covering the U.S. pullout from Vietnam in 1975, Schanberg (Sam Waterst... read more read more...on) relies on his Cambodian friend and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) for inside information. Schanberg has an opportunity to rescue Dith Pran when the U.S. army evacuates all Cambodian citizens; instead, the reporter coerces his friend to remain behind to continue sending him news flashes. Although his family is helicoptered out of Saigon (a recreation of the famous TV news clip), Dith Pran stays with Schanberg on the ground. Racked with guilt, Schanberg does his best to arrange for Dith Pran's escape, but the Cambodian is captured by the dreaded Khmer Rouge. Accepting his Pulitzer Prize on behalf of Dith Pran, Schanberg vows to do right by his friend and extricate him from Cambodia. The rest of the film details Dith Pran's harrowing experiences at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and his attempt to escape on his own. The Killing Fields won Academy Awards for Hang S. Ngor (a Cambodian doctor who lived through many of the horrific events depicted herein), cinematographer Chris Menges, and editor Jim Clark; an Oscar nomination went to Roland Joffe, who made his directorial debut with this film. Spalding Gray, who played a small role in the film, later elaborated on this experiences in his one-man stage presentation Swimming to Cambodia. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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91% liked it

35 critics

R, 2 hr. 23 min.

Directed by: Roland Joffé, Craig T. Nelson, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands, Patrick Malahide, Sam Waterston, Spalding Gray

Release Date: November 2, 1984

Keywords: war

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DVD Release Date: March 13, 2001

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Flixster Reviews (1,205)

  • TheDudeLebowski65
    August 5, 2011
    TheDudeLebowski65
    The Killing Fields in the incredible true story of the atrocities committed by Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Brilliantly acted and directed The Killing Fields is a powerful film that touches on what is probably one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century along with the Holocaust. T... read morehe Killing Fields is a stunning drama film that brings to light a terrible crime. This is a brilliant film that exposes the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, and one mans survival through the ordeal. The Killing Fields is an accomplished film that though is a solid drama, also plays out like an important history lesson. The film will most likely want to make you read on the subject. The film is an important one, and like Schindler's List, also evokes the humane side to a terrible ordeal. A film that evokes emotions as you watch the events unfold before you. The cast that grace this film are terrific, and the thing that's pretty interesting is that actor Dr. Haing S. Ngor who plays Dirth Pran is an actual survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields. This is a superbly crafted drama film that has a strong story, and boasts some terrific performances. This is a must see film for anyone who is interested in the subject, and to those who enjoy a solid, drama film; The Killing Fields is a strong, near flawless picture, and one you can't easily forget.
  • FrizzDrop
    May 17, 2011
    FrizzDrop
    The horrors of the Cambodian genocide became buried in the first hour and twenty minutes of background information on the conflict between a small group of journalists, eventually huddling in an American embassy, versus an emperging Khmer Rouge government hellbent on capturing ph... read moreotographer Dith Pran. Thought to be benign, rebels overtake the government with the help of Americans, ignorant to their full power after the end of the Vietnam War. Not to say that these events were not important, but the film came across as more of a biography of Dith Pran, a captured Cambodian, then on the actual killing fields full of rotting corpses. For the next hour the tumultuous record of exposure to the dictatorship based on genocide is captured by Dith Pran, working the fields, trying to escape without being killed by small children, the hierarchy of the system. The ugly betrayal of humanity is alarming, not always documented by groups of people being slaughtered. It's etched across actor Haing S. Ngor's face as his mortality flashes before his eyes. My main qualm is the choice of music, which is either a reject 80's synth piece, or a racially insensitive set of bing bongs. Plus, the last song played is "Imagine", which stinks of a tearjerker cliche.
  • shauna1354
    March 31, 2011
    shauna1354
    An exceptionally well made film. The Killing Fields is an important, compelling and emotive story brilliantly brought to the screen by director Roland Joffé. Great performances from Sam Waterson, John Malkovich, Julian Sands and a heart-wrenching portrayal from Dr. Haing S. Ngor... read more as Dith Pran. I came across this film by accident really, but it drew me in and horrified me about an era of history I wasn't well informed of. The Killing Fields is an incredibly honest tale of war, tragedy and friendship, with the perfect placement of John Lennon's 'Imagine' at its beautifully poignant ending.
  • garyX
    February 1, 2011
    garyX
    The Killing Fields is based on the true story of Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist caught up in the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge who seized power in the mid seventies. I saw this film many years ago and it had a profound effect on me at the time, not having previously known of t... read morehe events it documents. To be honest, it is not quite the masterpiece I remembered it to be; the first hour is a pretty generic, if decent foreign-journalists-caught-up-in-civil-conflict story and it is showing its age a little. The soundtrack in particular at times sounded like it'd be more at home in a John Carpenter film than an epic human tragedy. Also the scale of what happened is almost impossible to get your head around and the rather dry, factual way it is presented means that the emotional connection of something like Schindler's List is not quite there. Where the film comes to life however is in the final hour, when you see what happens to Pran and his countrymen after the west inevitably did its usual disappearing act once Cambodia had served its purpose and the barbarians were at the gates. Pran's tortuous journey goes some small way to describe the horrors of a regime that rounded up anybody with an education and left them to rot in open mass graves which littered the country and these images are extremely powerful. In all a worthy and intelligent attempt to show the plight of yet another population used and then tossed to the wolves by an insidious foreign government (mentioning no names...)
  • CloudStrife84
    December 29, 2010
    CloudStrife84
    Seldom have I seen a movie that feels so real and authentic. Unlike so many of today's films, this one plays things really subtly and never goes into any over-dramatisation. That, added to the fact that most of the actors are unknown, makes it feel more like a documentary than a ... read moreHollywood production. There's some things you should know before watching it though, because the content is something that's not easily digested. Gruesome killings and shocking imagery is commonplace in this film, and there are moments so horrific that it'll leave a permanent imprint on your memory. Haing S. Ngor, who experienced these events on a first-hand basis, is as fantastic as to even outshine a big star like John Malcovich. And that is no small feat coming from someone who is not really an actor. The emotions he displays goes straight into your heart, and you can tell that his tears come from a very real and dark place. A movie of the same age as yours truly, that remains a powerful piece of cinematic excellence.
  • gokhale1
    October 23, 2010
    gokhale1
    "The Killing Fields" is a film that is one of those unlucky ones, based on a premise so strong, but sadly, made in an era that churned out mediocre fare, perhaps!

    Set against the backdrop of the war-infested Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge had taken charge during the mid-70s, this... read more is a story of those brave-heart journalists who made it back alive! And honestly, that is the only story this film tells! Khmer Rouge is merely a 'backdrop' as mentioned earlier in this paragraph and that is the very fact about this film that lets it down.

    This is a film that begins on a chaotic note and continues it further, and hence, for the viewer, the tension never really develops...it is already there, at the outset!

    The story centers around two of the main characters, Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) who are trying to cover the war situation in Cambodia in 1973. Things turn uglier soon enough when an American B-52 bombs the town of Neak Leung by mistake!

    Two years later, the Khmer Rouge seem to be taking over, and evacuation begins. Some Cambodian locals who have sought refuge in the French Embassy in Cambodia are forcibly trapped in the whole drama, including Dith Pran, who is there to assist Schanberg.

    The rest of the story focuses on how Schanberg is feeling guilty about letting Pran stay on with him and how Pran attempts to survive amidst the Killing Fields created by the Rouge.

    What this film doesn't quite clarify are the intentions of the Khmer Rouge itself on which the whole films seems to build its premise. The actions and the very reason of the existence of the Khmer Rouge isn't clear enough, neither is the actual situation in Cambodia. There is chaos throughout the film, so there isn't really any clear explanation given for the whys and the hows and the whats in this supposedly powerful drama.

    Sure, there are a lot of gut-wrenching scenes in this war-fest, but since we who are newly being introduced to the Khmer Rouge history aren't really told the inside story, it is difficult to relate to any of those who are mercilessly disposed of! So at this point, I would recommend the viewer to thoroughly study the Khmer Rouge story, in order to follow this film more closely!

    Good performances from the two lead actors Sam Waterston and Haing S. Ngor and a fine supporting act in an early role by John Malkovich, but that is just not enough to save this film based on a strong true story.

    "The Killing Fields" is a film begging for a remake, with hopefully a more focused script.
  • middleeasternfilms
    October 30, 2009
    middleeasternfilms
    Excellent film that follows the trials of a pair of journalists (Sam Waterston, an American and Haing Ngor, who is from Camboida) who are terrorized and barely escape alive from Cambodia while trying to cover the Vietnam War. It's nice to watch a film that isn't just shootous and... read more chaos in the middle of the jungles of Asia. Sam was incredible in an Oscar-nominated role and Dr. Ngor won Best Supporting Actor for a role he pretty much lived in his own life. Sadly, Ngor was shot and killed in a robbery attempt in 1996. He survived the Killing Fields in real life, but died in America. How ironic is that?
  • SirPant
    September 22, 2009
    SirPant
    A great, great film, Haing S. Ngor is fantastic in this powerful story based on real events. Brilliant!
  • Stinger839
    September 7, 2008
    Stinger839
    An engrossing true account of living under the Khmer Rouge. I was first shown this movie as part of an American history class over four years ago, and the amazing cinematography and full force acting still stick in my mind. I will always remember the scene in which Dith Pran must... read more pretend he doesn't understand what is being said on the radio. It is unfortunate that Mr. Pran is no longer living, as he was eager to correspond with anyone interested in his life and experiences; my teacher encouraged all of her students to e-mail him if they had questions, and various classmates staggered across the years had in-depth correspondence with him.
  • pier007
    July 19, 2008
    pier007
    Two passionate and courageous journalists of different nationalities become witnesses of the horrors of war in southeast asia, one of them is a native who will have to hang on to his life while the nightmare remains.
    Haing S. Ngor portrays the victim Dith Pran, with such candid... read moreness and affability that is hard not to shed a tear while you see all he had to go through, and all the sacrifices he made, for love and friendship. Remarkable, startling, but more important, incredibly uplifting.

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Critic Reviews

Richard Schickel
August 25, 2008
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine

It must be nerve-racking for the producers to offer a tale so lacking in standard melodramatic satisfactions. But the result is worth it, for this is the clearest film statement yet on how the nature ... Full Review

Dave Kehr
April 9, 2008
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

The screen is swamped by a bathetic, self-preening sententiousness. Full Review

Variety Staff
April 9, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

The intent and outward trappings are all impressively in place, but at its heart there's something missing. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

The movie is diffuse and wandering. It's someone telling a long, interesting story who can't get to the point. Full Review

John Hartl
January 1, 2000
John Hartl, Film.com

The director, Roland Joffe, and his photographer, Chris Menges, capture all of this with a realism that hasn't been so poetically convincing in a nondocumentary context since Gillo Pontecorvo's Battle...

Dennis Schwartz
June 7, 2011
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A gripping romanticized and somewhat fictionalized adaptation of an eyewitness magazine piece by New York Times journalist Sidney Schanberg. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
March 12, 2011
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

The movie is too conventional and fictionalized to qualify as a genuine political epic, but it's emotionally touching in describing the friendship between the NY Times reporter and his Cambodian trans... Full Review

Pablo Villaca
April 15, 2009
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Se a primeira metade impressiona pelo virtuosismo técnico, a segunda fascina pela coragem em observar sem sensacionalismo a magnífica força de vontade de um sobrevivente, beneficiando-se ainda da mara...

Sean Axmaker
May 14, 2008
Sean Axmaker, Seanax.com

First time feature director Roland Joffe shoots the drama with an unforced realism lent a terrible grace by the handsome images and smooth, unobtrusive long takes... Full Review

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    • Sydney Schanberg: Anyone who knows my work will know that half of this belongs to Dith Pran. Without Pran, I wouldn't have been able to file half the stories I did. It's nice to congratulate ourselves on occasions like this. But I can't stand here tonight... without thinking of those innocent people. Pran dedicated himself to helping me bring to the notice of the public.
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The Killing Fields Trivia

  • Which of these films is NOT about the Vietnam war?  Answer »
  • Which film starred Julian Sands, John Malkovich and Sam Waterston ?  Answer »
  • Which 1983 film portrayed USA military involvement in Cambodia?   Answer »
  • What movie is this line from "What are you going to do blow my @#$%in head off?"  Answer »
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