The Killing Fields (1984) on Netflix
Sydney Schanberg of the New York Times reports on Cambodia's civil war with Dith Pran and photographer Al Rockoff. Pran sends his family out but stays as the Khmer Rouge advance.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.8/1064,340 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes91%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1973, Sydney Schanberg, a New York Times correspondent, comes to Phnom Penh to report on the fighting between government forces and the communist Khmer Rouge. He is joined by Al Rockoff, a photographer, and Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist who interprets for him. Schanberg and Pran travel to Neak Leung to look into a reported bombing by an American B-52, and are detained while trying to photograph two Khmer Rouge operatives being executed. Two years later the embassies in the capital evacuate as the Khmer Rouge close in. Schanberg arranges for Pran's family to leave, but Pran decides to stay and keep covering the story.
Cast
- Katherine Krapum Cheyas Ser Moeum (Pran's Wife)
- Oliver Pierpaolias Titony (Pran's Son)
- Edward Entero Cheyas Sarun
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Killing Fields (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ngor became one of only two non-professional actors ever to win an Academy Award for acting, the other being Harold Russell for The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946.
- Casting director Pat Golden discovered Haing S. Ngor by chance at a Cambodian wedding in Los Angeles rather than through a normal audition process.
- Actor Spalding Gray, who had a small role as the American consul, later turned his experience making the film into the solo stage monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which Jonathan Demme eventually filmed as its own movie.
