The narrative premise, of a foreign correspondent caught up in a country coming apart at the seams, might ring a few bells from very close-by cinema history. But the unstagy staging of crowd scenes, the vivid impressionistic detail, the fine sudden jolts of violence, the prolonged stretches of confusion and uncertainty -- all this goes to show that there was still something to be added to such scoops as Circle of Deceit, Under Fire, and The Year of Living Dangerously. That the story here is based on the actual experiences in Cambodia of the New York Times's Sydney Schanberg must have helped sharpen the individuality and (what comes out of that) the credibility of the thing. But one always has to be wary when sorting out the virtues of this kind of movie: the kind that encourages film critics to feel that what they are covering is every bit as serious as -- but only because exactly the same as -- what is being covered in the "hard news" pages of their publications. And The Killing Fields, at that, gives very wide range to unleavened instructional urges, which sometimes (as witness Schanberg's sessions in front of his TV back home, or his acceptance speech at the Press Club) rather crudely burst the boundaries of the story proper. Where the movie would have done better to shine some further illumination would be, in its first half, on the personal bond between the Times writer and his Cambodian colleague, Dith Pran, who serves as his indispensable guide, translator, and troubleshooter -- so indispensable, in fact, quite apart from having once talked their way out of the clutches of the Khmer Rouge, that Schanberg exerts some subtle pressure to keep Pran in the country longer than is reasonably safe for him. And consequently when Schanberg has at last gotten out himself, but (despite a resourceful and valiant effort) has failed to get Pran out with him, one can see clearly enough the question of journalistic ethics. The friendship angle is a bit foggier. With Sam Waterston, John Malkovich, and Dr. Haing S. Ngor; directed by Roland Joffé. (1984) — Duncan Shepherd
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