Sydney Schanberg died in July 2016, aged 82.

Schanberg was an award winning New York Times columnist who covered the war in Cambodia in the 1970’s.

His experiences reporting in Cambodia was featured in a very well regarded film in the 1980’s. The film received three Academy awards and swept the British Academy awards as well as picking up other accolades.

Sam Waterson played Schanberg in The Killing Fields (1984, Britain).

Sydney in the film

In this true story, Waterson gives the performance of his life. It is an urgent performance full of energy, and occasional reflection.

In the film, Schanberg’s urgency is in needing to dig out the hard news of the war in Cambodia. His interpreter and representative Dith Pran is valuable in helping him get material for his stories.

There are the usual pitfalls in a war-torn country to getting what one needs.

But the biggest obstacle he faces, in The Killing Fields, is getting the salient story with Pran’s help or not. Schanberg discusses Pran leaving Cambodia. Schanberg is criticized for not letting Pran leave when he could have, while Schanberg goes home to get an award for his reporting of the war. However, Schanberg is given to reflecting on the consequences and face his own guilt and need for redemption.

The consequences of staying in Cambodia are shattering for Pran–he is forced into the Pol Pot regime–but this does not mean life has completely ended on a dour note.

The film

Haing S. Ngor who plays Dith Pran was actually a victim and survivor of the war himself. The non-actor gave an Oscar winning performance in his debut.

This drama is from a journalist’s point of view. We react, as Sydney does, to the shocking moments of violence and the horrors of war which are never condoned, but are rather given a treatment which makes us sympathize with the victims of war, including the children.

The Killing Fields is part thriller and part survival movie, too.

In terms of a survival movie, Dith Pran must escape and run to safety from the Pol Pot regime.

Warnings–offensive language and violence