Hey all! I've started a new dedicated movie reaction channel, check it out if you want to see any of my movie reactions going forward: www.youtube.com/@mikewatchesstuff
The parade was welcoming the Khmer Rouge as the new government. They have no choice but to welcome them . Didn’t know they were ruthless. Google “fall of phnom Phenh 1975 “
I'd thoroughly recommend Haing Ngor's book about his personal experience of the era, and after. It's obviously not the same story as the film, but it's actually more graphic in its account of what happened there, and shows why he felt the film actually toned down the reality, as hard as they might be to believe.
Yes - I always thought they toned down the reality. I remember reading about the Khmer Rouge in the 1978/1979. I then visited Cambodia in 2012. Every major city has a stupa - a tall building like a column with windows- filled with skulls. Visiting some of the sites commemorating what happened is harrowing, but I think necessary for anyone who visits Cambodia.
Yes, Haing Ngor went through hell. He portrayed fellow survivor Dith Pran in the movie. The two admitted that the former's experience was far worse than the latter's. Haing's experience was horrifically nightmarish; he was tortured on three occasions and lost his wife during childbirth. During filming, Haing suggested that they should portray the Khmer Rouge soldiers using whips but the director, Roland Joffe, refused. He thought that "excessive" violence would put off the main stream audience.
Thank you! Agreed, I cried so much watching this the first I had not heard of the killing fields before. Now crying again about his death in 1996. Powerful film. So glad it was recognized in its time. Another great one by the same director in the 80s I believe…The Mission, staring Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, AND Liam Neeson if you haven’t seen it. Music score is pure brilliance too.
Haing S. Ngor had to hide the fact that he was a doctor while he was in captivity in Cambodia. Poor man was shot dead in a street robbery outside his home in Los Angeles in 1996. He is one of only two non-professional actors to ever receive an academy award.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver Haing Ngor was an outspoken critic of the Khmer Rouge throughout the 80s～ 90s. He tirelessly advocated to bring the Khmer Rouge top brass before an international tribunal. The movement only ceased to exist in 1999, when Ta Mok surrendered to government forces. Until then, they had the tacit support of China, the USA, ASEAN and Thailand. They continued to be recognized as the legitimate government in exile in the 1980s and, until the very end, enjoyed lucrative trading in timber and gemstones with corrupt Thai border officials. I wouldn't exactly call this "ignoring" the outside world.
@@Monatio79I would not call corrupt trade with Thai criminals the "outside world." That's as insular as it gets. Do you believe the agrarian, Year Zero, anti-human Khmer Rouge had a sophisticated network of agents and spies worldwide?
@@RideAcrossTheRiver They were "agrarian" and "Year Zero" up until 1979. After the Vietnamese invasion, the Khmer Rouge retreated to the Thai border areas. Who funded them? China and the west did. This would suggest that they had links with the outside world on a diplomatic level. Khmer Rouge leaders Son Sen and Khieu Samphan regularly engaged in peace talks in the early 90s, and Pol Pot himself made regular visits to Bangkok and China during this time. Why am I saying this? Because they were not as "isolated" as you'd think. After the Vietnamese invasion, Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary openly admitted in interviews that they were "abandoning the socialist revolution". At their core, the Khmer Rouge had always been radicals and hypocrites. They flew the flag of communism when it suited them, but then later decided to relabel themselves as "just nationalists" in order to gain international support. All this suggests that they had links to the outside world, meaning that it isn't a stretch to assume that they had spies and agents abroad.
Amazing movie. My ex fiance was from Cambodia. She was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and came over when she was little but hearing her mothers stories of that time is unbelievable
That "space music" is by Mike Oldfield, who made the score for the movie. Don't talk down about it. The Khmer Rouge were less than beasts, who deserved to go to whatever hell would have them.
A stunning follow up to KF is Swimming to Cambodia. It's a movie that's "just" a monologue by an minor actor from this film about his experience making this - from the director of Silence of the Lambs. Sounds dull, I know, but It's *AMAZING* !!!! Dig it, Mike. If not for the channel at least for yourself.
Tbc: It's the fella that explains the casualties...you included the clip in your reaction. *Warning* : He (Spalding Gray) is a whiney, privileged, NY liberal full of yoga and kale and peace-on-Earth from a White, "rich" perspective. *But* he _knows_ who he is, I argue. His monologue films (there are several, aside from Swimming) are pure, blue-flake, NPR aphrodisiac. But they're also illuminating, heartbroken, and beautiful.
I watched this movie 5 times. Probably one of the best movies ever made. Mr Shanburg passed away a couple of years ago amazing journalist. And boy what a story he had to tell.
There was the Cambodia Tribunal from 2013. It's fascinating to read Al Rockoff's testimony of what he saw in and around Phnom Penh and when he got out in 1975.
Hi Mike! I subscribed to your channel because you are clearly the most intelligent and introspective host of movie reactions on UA-cam. Loved this reaction video. If I may make a suggestion, if you are intrigued by this era and/or American-involved foreign intrigue stories that are true - three movies I would recommend for your reactions just in case you haven't seen them. * Best Picture nominee 'All the President's Men.' * Best Picture winner 'Argo' * More recently, 'The Post' with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.
z H, thank you for the kind comment, as well as for the great suggestions! I will add these to the small list of film requests for sure! I'm glad you enjoyed this reaction video! As I told someone else before, please don't build up your hopes about my level of introspection and intelligence, sometimes I like to dumb it down with a good ol' fashioned horror movie that requires no thought, lol. (Being a veteran, I also like war movies from any time in history)
I’m Cambodian and i’m telling you there were some real footages in that movie 70% of this film were real especially those skeletons, dead bodies and the scene where The Khmer rouge pushed people to the province side were real footages it’s not cgi it was all real
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge was so bad that even the Vietnam Communists went to war against them. Vietnam even went to war with China because China was worse. The history of Indo China is so interesting on so many fronts.
18:11 Doesn't it remind you of the descriptions of the pullout from Afghanistan....? Afghans, especially those who had worked for western NGOs, left behind and knowing they are doomed.
Watching the movie is not like lived and experienced in real life. I lived through it when I was just 6 years old! Fuck that regime and current one! Never ever want to talk about it! This movie is just one person telling his own story. There are millions more stories that never been told or shared!
Many of the places shown in the movie, the hospital, the shops, still exist today. It was crazy watching Calmette hospital in the movie after going there when my friend was sick. The US never took responsibility for how their actions led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and Kissinger denied committing war crimes until he finally died - evil people seem to live the longest, but that man could never wash himself clean of the blood he bathed in.
America didn't spread communism across Asia so blame Russia, China and Vietnam! Democrats were the ones who pulled out and refused to defend South Vietnam after the peace treaty. Blame the Leftist Marxists who were working with the Soviets, protesting America in Vietnam because they wanted communism to take over.
I think it's just you taking issue based on all the comments here? But if that is your opinion, then I guess planet earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do.
@@Karen-yr3fb Lennon confirmed that the similarities between his ideals set out in the song and Communism were indeed deliberate: “‘Imagine’, which says: ‘Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,’ is virtually the sugar-coated Communist Manifesto.
Killing Fields director decided to include the song "Imagine" because Pol Pot was, apparently, a Beatles enthusiast as well as a fan of French history and literature. So much for the Khmer Rouge's anti-bourgeois mantra.
@RideAcrossTheRiver Why are you gay? Nobody is scared of a song. (I take that back. You hippies are scared of a ton of music.) And Imagine is the western communist anthem. It preaches communism. Foool.
@RideAcrossTheRiver IT pushes a Godless, Leftist Marxist anthem of "No God, No religion, no nations, no private property" while Lennon was living in a multi-million dollar mansion and playing the song on a $10,000 piano. It's typical Leftist hypocrisy.
Hey all! I've started a new dedicated movie reaction channel, check it out if you want to see any of my movie reactions going forward: www.youtube.com/@mikewatchesstuff
The parade was welcoming the Khmer Rouge as the new government. They have no choice but to welcome them . Didn’t know they were ruthless. Google “fall of phnom Phenh 1975 “
Glad to see your videos. I was 10 when during that era 😢
The panic in his voice when he said "give me the kid, give me the kid!" Breaks my heart every time
I wish more reactors did this movie. It’s such a tragic end in real life for Mr. Ngor tho
Cambodia is wonderful country, I love Angkor Temple
I'd thoroughly recommend Haing Ngor's book about his personal experience of the era, and after. It's obviously not the same story as the film, but it's actually more graphic in its account of what happened there, and shows why he felt the film actually toned down the reality, as hard as they might be to believe.
Yes - I always thought they toned down the reality. I remember reading about the Khmer Rouge in the 1978/1979. I then visited Cambodia in 2012. Every major city has a stupa - a tall building like a column with windows- filled with skulls. Visiting some of the sites commemorating what happened is harrowing, but I think necessary for anyone who visits Cambodia.
Yes, Haing Ngor went through hell. He portrayed fellow survivor Dith Pran in the movie. The two admitted that the former's experience was far worse than the latter's. Haing's experience was horrifically nightmarish; he was tortured on three occasions and lost his wife during childbirth. During filming, Haing suggested that they should portray the Khmer Rouge soldiers using whips but the director, Roland Joffe, refused. He thought that "excessive" violence would put off the main stream audience.
Thank you! Agreed, I cried so much watching this the first I had not heard of the killing fields before. Now crying again about his death in 1996. Powerful film. So glad it was recognized in its time. Another great one by the same director in the 80s I believe…The Mission, staring Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, AND Liam Neeson if you haven’t seen it. Music score is pure brilliance too.
Haing S. Ngor had to hide the fact that he was a doctor while he was in captivity in Cambodia. Poor man was shot dead in a street robbery outside his home in Los Angeles in 1996. He is one of only two non-professional actors to ever receive an academy award.
To this day, people suspect that his murder was a Khmer Rouge ordered hit.
@@Monatio79Understandable, but the Khmer Rouge's view was to ignore the 'outside' world. Also, it no longer existed by 1996.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver Haing Ngor was an outspoken critic of the Khmer Rouge throughout the 80s～ 90s. He tirelessly advocated to bring the Khmer Rouge top brass before an international tribunal. The movement only ceased to exist in 1999, when Ta Mok surrendered to government forces. Until then, they had the tacit support of China, the USA, ASEAN and Thailand. They continued to be recognized as the legitimate government in exile in the 1980s and, until the very end, enjoyed lucrative trading in timber and gemstones with corrupt Thai border officials. I wouldn't exactly call this "ignoring" the outside world.
@@Monatio79I would not call corrupt trade with Thai criminals the "outside world." That's as insular as it gets. Do you believe the agrarian, Year Zero, anti-human Khmer Rouge had a sophisticated network of agents and spies worldwide?
@@RideAcrossTheRiver They were "agrarian" and "Year Zero" up until 1979. After the Vietnamese invasion, the Khmer Rouge retreated to the Thai border areas. Who funded them? China and the west did. This would suggest that they had links with the outside world on a diplomatic level. Khmer Rouge leaders Son Sen and Khieu Samphan regularly engaged in peace talks in the early 90s, and Pol Pot himself made regular visits to Bangkok and China during this time.
Why am I saying this? Because they were not as "isolated" as you'd think. After the Vietnamese invasion, Khmer Rouge foreign minister Ieng Sary openly admitted in interviews that they were "abandoning the socialist revolution". At their core, the Khmer Rouge had always been radicals and hypocrites. They flew the flag of communism when it suited them, but then later decided to relabel themselves as "just nationalists" in order to gain international support. All this suggests that they had links to the outside world, meaning that it isn't a stretch to assume that they had spies and agents abroad.
Amazing movie. My ex fiance was from Cambodia. She was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and came over when she was little but hearing her mothers stories of that time is unbelievable
That "space music" is by Mike Oldfield, who made the score for the movie.
Don't talk down about it.
The Khmer Rouge were less than beasts, who deserved to go to whatever hell would have them.
A stunning follow up to KF is Swimming to Cambodia. It's a movie that's "just" a monologue by an minor actor from this film about his experience making this - from the director of Silence of the Lambs. Sounds dull, I know, but It's *AMAZING* !!!! Dig it, Mike. If not for the channel at least for yourself.
Tbc: It's the fella that explains the casualties...you included the clip in your reaction. *Warning* : He (Spalding Gray) is a whiney, privileged, NY liberal full of yoga and kale and peace-on-Earth from a White, "rich" perspective. *But* he _knows_ who he is, I argue. His monologue films (there are several, aside from Swimming) are pure, blue-flake, NPR aphrodisiac. But they're also illuminating, heartbroken, and beautiful.
I watched this movie 5 times.
Probably one of the best movies ever made. Mr Shanburg passed away a couple of years ago amazing journalist. And boy what a story he had to tell.
I highly applaud you for doing this reaction. It cannot have been easy to watch or edit it for that matter!
Great review….enjoyed your comments and side notes along the way. This is the only reaction to this great movie I see on UA-cam.
There was the Cambodia Tribunal from 2013. It's fascinating to read Al Rockoff's testimony of what he saw in and around Phnom Penh and when he got out in 1975.
I remember that music scared me watch this part when I was like 9 10 years old. My parents went thru this and tells me all about it.
It was the real nightmare we were into it.
Subbed, youre the only one to react to this old but great movie! +1
While you are on this subject. I would recommend Hotel Rwanda
Also Astronomy Class (a band) have an album Mekong Delta Sunrise, that uses parts of the speech made by the journalist, it's a great album.
44:41 Those are Vietnamese aircraft not American
Glad i watched this. It was such a journey, unbelievable.
That's what the movie was about. Friendship. That is all I ever got from it, meaning it was the CENTRAL point of it. Everything else was secondary.
Late but a great movie not often reacted to.
For your information, there is no river between Thailand and Cambodia.
Hi Mike! I subscribed to your channel because you are clearly the most intelligent and introspective host of movie reactions on UA-cam. Loved this reaction video.
If I may make a suggestion, if you are intrigued by this era and/or American-involved foreign intrigue stories that are true - three movies I would recommend for your reactions just in case you haven't seen them.
* Best Picture nominee 'All the President's Men.'
* Best Picture winner 'Argo'
* More recently, 'The Post' with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.
z H, thank you for the kind comment, as well as for the great suggestions! I will add these to the small list of film requests for sure! I'm glad you enjoyed this reaction video! As I told someone else before, please don't build up your hopes about my level of introspection and intelligence, sometimes I like to dumb it down with a good ol' fashioned horror movie that requires no thought, lol. (Being a veteran, I also like war movies from any time in history)
I’m Cambodian and i’m telling you there were some real footages in that movie 70% of this film were real especially those skeletons, dead bodies and the scene where The Khmer rouge pushed people to the province side were real footages it’s not cgi it was all real
Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge was so bad that even the Vietnam Communists went to war against them. Vietnam even went to war with China because China was worse. The history of Indo China is so interesting on so many fronts.
The Khmer Rouge would eventually turn on each other. I saw it personally
Haing s ngor has a book called "survival in the killing fields"please please read...his story is more harrowing than the film......please read🙏🙏🙏🙏
18:11 Doesn't it remind you of the descriptions of the pullout from Afghanistan....? Afghans, especially those who had worked for western NGOs, left behind and knowing they are doomed.
Watching the movie is not like lived and experienced in real life. I lived through it when I was just 6 years old! Fuck that regime and current one! Never ever want to talk about it! This movie is just one person telling his own story. There are millions more stories that never been told or shared!
44:44 actually it’s the Vietnamese invading the country
Please react to “City of God.”
Nasty story.
Mercedes number one
Please, react to The mission (1986)
Many of the places shown in the movie, the hospital, the shops, still exist today. It was crazy watching Calmette hospital in the movie after going there when my friend was sick. The US never took responsibility for how their actions led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge and Kissinger denied committing war crimes until he finally died - evil people seem to live the longest, but that man could never wash himself clean of the blood he bathed in.
It was the Nixon administration that committed the crimes.
America didn't spread communism across Asia so blame Russia, China and Vietnam! Democrats were the ones who pulled out and refused to defend South Vietnam after the peace treaty. Blame the Leftist Marxists who were working with the Soviets, protesting America in Vietnam because they wanted communism to take over.
Holy s#@t this lost in space commentator keeps interrupting every 1/8th of a second.
I think it's just you taking issue based on all the comments here? But if that is your opinion, then I guess planet earth is blue, and there's nothing I can do.
Strange that the movie ends with a song that glorifies communism.
How's that?
@@Karen-yr3fb Lennon confirmed that the similarities between his ideals set out in the song and Communism were indeed deliberate: “‘Imagine’, which says: ‘Imagine that there was no more religion, no more country, no more politics,’ is virtually the sugar-coated Communist Manifesto.
Hey OP? Don't you know the the song imagine is the western communist anthem?
Killing Fields director decided to include the song "Imagine" because Pol Pot was, apparently, a Beatles enthusiast as well as a fan of French history and literature. So much for the Khmer Rouge's anti-bourgeois mantra.
"Imagine" has no politics to it. It just relates the fact that we all share this single planet. Why are you so frightened by a song?
@RideAcrossTheRiver Why are you gay? Nobody is scared of a song. (I take that back. You hippies are scared of a ton of music.)
And Imagine is the western communist anthem. It preaches communism. Foool.
@RideAcrossTheRiver IT pushes a Godless, Leftist Marxist anthem of "No God, No religion, no nations, no private property" while Lennon was living in a multi-million dollar mansion and playing the song on a $10,000 piano. It's typical Leftist hypocrisy.