The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields
Directed by Roland Joffé
Starring Sam Waterston, John Malkovich, Haing S. Ngor

Academy Award winning director Francis Ford Coppola said in 1979 that “quality and integrity” are the two things that make a great movie. Five years later, Roland Joffé’s directorial debut, The Killing Fields, epitomised those two characteristics with 141 minutes of emotional, powerful and awe-inspiring film.

The story of Sidney Schanberg and Dith Pran is one of friendship amidst the harsh and terrifying realities of the war in Cambodia during the 1970s. Through the uncensored images of dead bodies and executions the audience is delivered a realistic view of life for, not just a journalist, but also a native in Cambodia at the time of the Vietnam War.

Pat Golden’s casting of Haing S. Ngor, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge and its labour camps, as Pran was a great success, allowing the debut actor to pick up the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor – the first male Asian actor to do so.

The Killing Fields gives an insight into the risk taken by war reporters every day, bringing to life the efforts of many journalists who have risked their lives in order to bring people the news from across the world. But the overriding theme is one of friendship between two men who would stand by each other even in the face of death.

Critically acclaimed, the film won three Oscars, with a further four nominations and 26 other awards from several institutions.

Watching this film, it is unsurprising to see why it has been rated as one of the 'greatest tearjerkers' of all time, grasping a sense of happiness, relief and raw emotion through the reuniting of Sidney and Pran in the final scene, as John Lennon's 'Imagine' plays over the top. A sensational film that provides everything an audience wants. A true masterpiece.