Thursday, February 24, 2011

Response to the film, The Killing Fields

Watching The Killing Fields, I was struck me by the subtle references to America. Interwoven throughout the film, these references hint at the horrid consequences of the Western involvement in Cambodia. When Sydney and Pran investigate Neak Luong in 1973 after a B-52 accidentally dropped 20-plus bombs on the refugee packed city, the camera scans the scene of wounded refugees and soldiers as a soldier listens to “Band on the Run” by Paul McCartney on a radio. In the midst of all this destruction and suffering, Western pop culture reminds the viewer of just who is responsible for this mess. Another example is the Coca-Cola factory being used as a military base for wounded Cambodian soldiers; bloody soldiers are outstretched on and propped up against crates of Coke bottles. When the American embassy evacuates Cambodia, the helicopters fly into the smoke-filled sky as a soldier takes down the American flag. As the capital falls to the Khmer Rouge, a French man at the embassy utters wistfully, “Adieu l’ancienne regime”: goodbye to the West, goodbye to the old, beautiful, gentle Cambodia. Throughout the film, the West is associated with death and danger: after the insurgents take over, any Cambodian who knows English and French is at risk of execution. Pran is constantly tested to see if he will respond to French commands or English questions. The comrades ask the group in English that those who were once doctors, professors, and other middle-class professions to confess and be forgiven by “Ungar”. Those who confess are embraced in front of the group, but executed under the cover of darkness.
The effects that most resonated with me when viewing this film were sound effects. Sydney listens to heartbreaking opera music when he misses Pran and watches coverage of Cambodia on the TV after he returns to America. The music is dramatic when Pran must decide to stay in Cambodia or leave with his family, suspenseful when he is trying to escape the killing fields. Children constantly scream and cry when Sydney and Pran hunt down war stories but when the mass exodus begins and we see Pran in the killing fields, there is only silence. No screaming children, no crying victims. Pran remarks that the best way to survive is to stay silent. The only noise is from the insurgent leaders who use loudspeakers to propagate the new government and convince the Cambdians of memory disease and the death of God.

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