[VOA]

They know all too well what happened in that part of the world.

When I returned to graduate school, my cousin and a friend of his dragged me
to the movies one Friday night. They were just looking for a movie, any movie and
just picked "The Killing Fields" at random.

I'm just a bit older, so after the opening of the film, I remember where I've heard the
term (title of the movie)...and settled back to watch some of the horrified looks
on the mugs of my cousin and his buddy.

They were even more stunned when seeing the field/swamp basically full of
skulls/skeletal remains. It was slightly fun to say to them "And this is what really
happened."

Sad end-note: the fellow who played the reporter's assistant was killed during
a shooting (robbery?)here in Los Angeles.

[Petronski]

The film is based on the book by the very smugly liberal Sidney Schamberg (played brilliantly by Sam Waterston).

My favorite scene in the film is when Schamberg is shown listening to the famous opera tenor solo, thinking about Pran. You can just about feel his guilty ulcer gnawing at his gut and hear his teeth grinding to dust.

And I always want to shout at the screen "You're damn right you selfish bastard! You're too busy chasing pulitzers to recognize the man's risk."

My favorite sequence in the film is the desperate attempt to develop a new photo of Pran so he can become "Ankatiel Brewer" with a fake passport; and the moment when they see the grey box in the passport where the photo was. "Tres desole" indeed!


Fabulous filmmaking.