- published: 06 Jun 2009
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The Killing Fields is a 1984 British drama film set in Democratic Kampuchea, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg. The film, which won eight BAFTA Awards and three Academy Awards, was directed by Roland Joffé and stars Sam Waterston as Schanberg, Haing S. Ngor as Pran, Julian Sands as Jon Swain, and John Malkovich as Al Rockoff. The adaptation for the screen was written by Bruce Robinson and the soundtrack by Mike Oldfield, orchestrated by David Bedford.
In the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh during May 1973, the Cambodian national army is fighting a civil war with the Khmer Rouge, a result of the Vietnam War overspilling that country’s borders. Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist and interpreter for The New York Times, awaits the arrival of reporter Sydney Schanberg at the city's airport but leaves suddenly. Schanberg takes a cab to his hotel where he meets up with Al Rockoff (John Malkovich). Pran meets Schanberg later and tells him that an incident has occurred in a town, Neak Leung; allegedly, an American B-52 has bombed the town.
They are soldiers too blind too see
Fighting for their own damnation
See the honour and pride in their chests
Targets feeding guns
ThereÆs too much hate to hear the warning
On killing fields where nobody wins
No denying they are the strongest
Blowing out their mother country
Independence - What is the value?
What has made them pay the price?
ItÆs much too late to hear the warning
On killing fields where nobody wins
All men of steel and hearts of ivory
See the comrades side by side
Under fire seems like eternity
A game, sinister
The souls are sold where is the ecstasy?
Where are the bold? Times change
Is there a need for all the wasted youth?
They call it war!
The souls are bold, a newfound ecstasy
The guns are sold, values change
The sirens howl a short infinity
The airforce whispers
The war was cold, now it has turned to flames
Nobody knows the reason why
Is there a need for all this wasted life
There must be more!!
They never wait to hear the warning
On killing fields where nobody wins
ThereÆs a fight on the hill
Even time is standing still
But they never will know the score
(War is just a game of tools
Still itÆs the same, still itÆs the same
War is made by leading fools