The Killing Fields

In Roland Joffe’s The Killing Fields, reporters take many different roles. From the role of the foreign correspondent as both concerned and out for a good story, to the local people (and local reporters) left behind to fend for themselves, this film sends mixed messages but somewhat true-to-life emotions concerning very real situations which are still occurring in our world today.
International reporting in hot spots such as this is intimidating at best, and deadly at its worst. The Committee to Protect Journalists puts out a report each year, stating the world’s most dangerous places to be a journalist based on the number killed, missing, kidnapped and tortured over the past year. Currently, the most dangerous place is Iraq. Other areas include countries with recent histories of civil unrest, government oppression, high drug-trafficking, and wartime (The Committee to Protect Journalists). The experiences of the journalists depicted in The Killing Fields were true to life, the Vietnam War spilling over into Cambodia and the civil unrest which ensued, resulting in the governmental takeover of the Communist Khmer Rouge Regime.
Unlike other films covering foreign correspondents, this film splits into two separate stories mid-way, focusing more on the genocidal situation in Cambodia and the survival and escape of a local reporter, Dith Pran, in order to let the world know his people’s story of oppression and struggle. Parallel to this, but less focused on, is the story of Sydney Schanberg’s return to America, his Pulitzer Prize for work done in Cambodia, and his search for Dith Pran.
The events of the fall of Cambodia and the rise of the Khmer Rouge as depicted in the first part of the film were fairly accurate, although unclear at times. For example, there is a part in the film, right when the Khmer Rouge has taken over the city of Phnom Penh, in which the reporters are arrested and Dith Pran saves them by convincing their captors that they are in reality French correspondents and therefore neutral in the situation. As a result, they are released to the French Embassy and eventually evacuated out of the country. Although this situation actually happened, in the film it is rather unclear of what exactly is happening. The audience is unsure if the regime is holding them to scare them, what Dith Pran actually convinces them of, and why exactly they’re at the French Embassy. However, this may in fact be how the situation was in Cambodia at that time, very confusing, and it is very possible that the reporters weren’t even sure of the situation or what was happening at the time.
At this same point in the film in which the reporters are arrested and released, Pol Pot was forcing the evacuation of all people from the city to the countryside. Anyone with any kind of education, any elite societal people, foreigners, anyone who spoke a foreign language, and even those who had bodily defects (such as wearing glasses) were systematically slaughtered; everybody left was to start a new life at “year zero” (LoBaido). Although the events were somewhat downplayed and a bit unclear as to what was truly happening, the film held onto its accuracy of the grave situation. In 1997, during an interview with Elizabeth Farnsworth, she asked Schanberg what it was like in Cambodia in 1975 when Phnom Penh was being emptied out into the countryside:
“It was like something obviously none of us had every seen–two million people being forced to leave their homes and marched into the countryside, hospitals emptied, patients severly wounded being pushed up the avenues on their beds with serum bottles dripping into their arms. I was truly a mad sight.”. ("Online NewsHour: Pot Pot's Legacy- June 18, 1997")

The American Press in the case of what happened in this film, had little or no influence on what was occurring around them. Largely hidden by the Vietnam War, the U.S. was taking military action in Cambodia which involved secret bombing raids on suspected Viet Cong bases within Cambodia’s borders ("Cambodia"). These acts of war continued unknown to the people in the U.S., and was touched on in the beginning of the film by the investigative efforts of Schanberg. The U.S. government was actually depicted in no better light than that of the Communistic Khmer Rouge takeover. The U.S. was secretly attacking Cambodia, killing innocent civilians, and when it all ultimately fell apart they ran like puppies with their tails between their legs. Nixon was even quoted in the film as saying that the U.S. may have already lost Cambodia. In fact, as the film shows, the U.S. didn’t really make an effort to save Cambodia from the holocaustal fate which it fell into. In fact, all these reporters could do was take in the events and try their best to stay out of the way, especially in the wake of the United States’ military actions and the tension that existed between the two countries at the time.
After leaving Cambodia and receiving the 1976 Pulitzer Prize (which he accepted on behalf of Dith Pran as well), Sydney Schanberg wrote The Death and Life of Dith Pran, which the movie The Killing Fields was based on. He continued on at the New York times and as a journalist, but also spoke out against the murderous acts which happened in Cambodia. His mission to let the world know about this genocide began with his reporting on the events as depicted in the film, and has continued on throughout his life.
Dith Pran, after escaping the Killing Fields into Thailand in 1979, has spent his life expanding the world’s knowledge of the past events of his homeland. In this manner, he has continued on with the mission of a truly dedicated journalists: making people of the world aware of global events and issues.
As Dith Pran said, “Part of my life is saving life. I don’t consider myself a politician or a hero. I’m a messenger. If Cambodia is to survive, she needs many voices.” ("Cambodian Holocaust Survivor"). This theme of journalists being messengers is very prominent throughout the entire film. Sending messages back to the U.S. about the war, sending messages to get family members out of the country, sending messages to save Dith Pran’s life, sending messages to his members taking refuge in the U.S., and the ultimate message of the atrocious holocaust which cost the lives of millions of Cambodians.

Another interesting aspect of this film is the actor, Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who played the part of Dith Pran in the film. Not only did he win the 1985 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in this film, but his story was very similar to that of Dith Pran’s as well. Although not a reporter, Ngor also was forced to hide his identity as an educated doctor during the Khmer Rogue’s rule and his time spent in the exhile of the forced labor camps. He too escaped to Thailand from which he was eventually able to leave for the United States. Unlike Pran however, Ngor was in the camps right up until the collapse of the regime in 1979. He spent the rest of his life, much like Schanberg and Pran, informing the world about the genocide of the Killing Fields and putting forth efforts to help the people of Cambodia. In a sudden turn of events, however, Ngor was shot to death outside of his home in Los Angelos by gang members. Although never proven, suspicions exist that these gang members were in fact Khmer Rogue sympathizers ("Haing S. Ngor").
Influence from the press concerning American Foreign policies came about as a direct result of the news reporting and journalism conducted by Pran and Schanberg in Cambodia during the revolution and afterwards. Among the efforts made by these journalists were meetings with the Red Cross in Geneva to promote safe passage internationally for victims of war, they testified before the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Senate and House about to discuss the situation in Cambodia, and founded The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Inc. ("Cambodian Holocaust Survivor"). This film, however, does not really touch on the effects the journalists have on American Foreign policies because all the actions to improve situations for the people of Cambodia and the efforts made for refugee help were provoked and initiated on a very large scale by Dith Pran. The movie ends with Dith Pran escaping the Khmer Rouge and the killing fields, he hasn’t even reached America yet. The only bit of the film which even alluded to efforts which were going to be made by the Americans were voiced by Schanberg in his Pulitzer Prize speech.
In the film, the American Press takes the side of the people of Cambodia, the innocent bystanders and citizens, such as Pran and his family. The Press doesn’t necessarily stand by the side of the U.S., or have the government’s support at all, considering that the Press started out the film investigating secret raids the U.S. army was performing within the Cambodian borders. The Press is also, however, against the Communist Khmer Rouge takeover. Really, the film stands on a middle ground between the two governments, objectively reporting on the situation. Later on in the film, and after the conflict has ended, is when the Press began to take sides with the ordinary people of Cambodia, but really didn’t show much involvement before hand other than managing to get Pran’s family out of the collapsing government.
A movie like this certainly has an emotional impact, if anything, on American popular opinion of overseas conflicts. The genocide as portrayed in the film hits close to home for many Americans, depicting situations very similar to that of the Jewish Holocaust in WWII. Whenever the can depict a true-to-life situation in a popular media form, such as a film, it tends to have a big impact on the population. This film had an even greater impact considering that it was up for several Academy Awards and in fact winning three, including Ngor winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, it was truly a mainstream film which attracted a lot of attention to itself, and therefore to the situation in Cambodia.