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Sam Waterston and Haing S. Ngor in The Killing Fields

The Most Compelling Real Life Stories Brought To Film

The Oscars and the hubbub of awards season now settling into memory and looking back on 2012, it was a very good year for glorious portraits of actual individuals in action. As we celebrate the success of Best Picture Argo (such an understatement!) and fellow nominees Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty, it seems a perfect time to take a look back at some of the other most compelling real life stories brought to film.
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The Killing Fields

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Director: Roland Joffé

Sam Waterston and Haing S. Ngor in The Killing Fields

In 1975, tyrant Pol Pot took over Cambodia and “cleansed” his country of over two million people during the “Year Zero” campaign carried out by his forces, the Khmer Rouge. Covering the proceedings were New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg and his Cambodian photographer, Dith Pran. They stayed behind when Phnom Penh fell, Pran was seized, and Sydney made it his life’s mission to save him.

If you see only one title on this illustrious list, make it this one. As things progress, one feels the pressure constricting one’s innards, the tingling across the scalp, the almost numbing effect of the score and helicopters at one notable event, and the truly stunning power of their last two lines. I haven’t seen it since the theatrical run, and still I’ve put hand to forehead at least five times while writing this piece.

Chilling it was during Argo to hear one American reflect upon the characteristic that brought him to being in that paralyzingly frightening predicament ~ it bore a precise and unnerving echo to a conversation between two individuals here; the observation stops one in one’s tracks, and very nearly undoes Sydney. Word to the wise, that is all…

Harrowing and triumphant, The Killing Fields is where Sam Waterston earned my permanent unconditional affection, and while you’re watching, bear in mind that Haing S. Ngor, who portrayed Pran, himself was seized by the Khmer Rouge during Year Zero. Mercy…

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