The Killing Fields

Sam Waterston - Sydney Schanberg
Haing S. Ngor - Dith Pran
John Malkovich - Al Rockoff
Julian Sands - Jon Swain
Craig T. Nelson - Military attache
Spalding Gray - United States consul
Bill Paterson - Dr. MacEntire
Athol Fugard - Dr. Sundesval
Graham Kennedy - Dougal
Katherine Krapum - Chey Ser Moeum
Oliver Pierpaoli - Titony
Edward Entero - Chey Sarun

Nominated for seven Academy Awards, the powerful story contained within Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields is the screen adaptation of the somewhat-fictionalised memoirs of reporter Sydney Schanberg, a New York Times correspondent in Phnom Penh at the time of the Khmer Rouge uprising in the mid 1970's.

War-torn Cambodia. Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston), a reporter working for the New York Times along with his interpreter colleague Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), tell the story of friendship and survival set against the most tragic events in the conflict. The Killing Fields is an often-harrowing account of civil war and its bloody aftermath once the Khmer Rouge has begun their take-over of Cambodia. Schanberg, along with photographer Al Rockoff (John Malkovich) and journalist Jon Swain (Julian Sands) are reporting US involvement in Cambodia, Schanberg persuades Pran to stay behind with him in Phnom Penh after the U.S. army evacuation even though this is putting his colleague at risk. Despite the protestations of the Western journalists and their efforts to make a fake passport for Pran, he is turned over to the Khmer Rouge, and struggles for survival when put to work in the 'killing fields'. Schanberg returns to the United States and wins the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting. What follows is the story of his Pran's struggle for survival and a guilty-ridden Schanberg's attempts to rescue him.