The Killing Fields **** (1984, Sam Waterston, Haing S Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian Sands, Craig T Nelson, Bill Paterson) – Classic Movie Review 6557

Director Roland Joffé’s 1984 British anti-war film about the friendship of American New York Times journalist Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and his local journalist guide Dith Pran (Haing S Ngor) is both angry and intelligent. It portrays the civil war in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot’s merciless ‘Year Zero’ cleansing campaign with frightening realism and great visual panache.

A real credit to producer David Puttnam’s Goldcrest studio, The Killing Fields won three Oscars – for Best Cinematography (cinematographer Chris Menges), Best Film Editing (film editor Jim Clark) and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (wonderful first-time actor Ngor). Ngor also won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture and the Bafta award for Best Actor, one of the film’s eight Baftas.

With the Bafta-winning screenplay by Bruce Robinson, based on Sydney Schanberg’s article The Death and Life of Dith Pran, the film is a great, emotional movie experience, and it is impossible not to be moved.

Also in the cast are John Malkovich, Julian Sands, Craig T Nelson, Bill Paterson, Athol Fugard, Spalding Gray, Graham Kennedy, Katherine Krapum Chey, Oliver Pierpaoli, Tom Bird, Ira Wheeler, David Henry, Patrick Malahide, Nell Campbell, Joan Harris, Joanna Merlin, Jay Barney, Mark Long and Sayo Imaba.

It is scored by Mike Oldfield and designed by Roy Walker.

The London Critics Circle voted Joffé Director of the Year.

No doubt spurred by its awards success, this serious-minded film was a box office hit, grossing $34,700,000 in the US on a $14,400,000 cost.

Haing S Ngor (1940–1996).

On 25 February 1996, Haing S Ngor was shot dead standing near his BMW in the driveway of his apartment building in Los Angeles, aged 55. A police investigation found that he was shot by three members of the Oriental Lazyboy street gang when he resisted a robbery attempt to get money to buy rock cocaine.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6557

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