S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)Rithy Panh's award-winning documentary, endorsed by Human Rights Watch, will be painful for any compassionate human being to watch. The documentary brings together two surviving prisoners and a group of former Khmer Rouge cadre, interrogators, executioners, guards, record keepers, and the photographer who staffed the infamous S-21 prison where over 16,000 Cambodians were tortured, interrogated, and trucked off to be killed and cast into mass graves.
The scenes were filmed inside the still standing prison and at the Choeung Ek killing field. The Khmer language dialogue is crisply and accurately subtitled in English.
The executioner sits in his home enduring the lecture by his mother, who bemoans the fate of her son, turned into a killer by the Khmer Rouge. She raised him to know better. His father urges him to speak the truth and take responsibility for those he killed.
Former prisoner Chum Mey collapses in tears in front of the prison, unable to speak, as painful a scene as I have ever watched on film.
Interrogators sit holding photos and confessions of their victims and discuss specific cases -- beatings, torture, forcing female prisoners to strip off their clothes, unspeakable sexual violations. Former guards re-enact their prison routines on site, escorting incoming prisoners, monitoring the cells, taking prisoners to interrogation, taking them to the trucks headed to the killing field. Executioner and driver re-enact the execution and burial routine. The former prison staff re-enact political indoctrination and training meetings they attended in the prison, using genuine archival photos and documents preserved by the superb NGO, the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which is led by Cambodian-American director Mr Youk Chhang. The interrogators admit "embellishing" the interrogation reports. The prisoners admit "implicating" everyone they knew because that was what the interrogators wanted.
Surviving prisoner Vann Nath sits with the shamed former Khmer Rouge staff to try to fathom what was in their minds when they carried out the atrocities. "There are no more ideals, no more human conscience. We become dust in the wind." One of the final scenes is of dust blowing inside the upper floor of the prison during a thunderstorm.
It is in vogue this very week for some of our leaders to publicly challenge Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, calling them haters of America with ridiculous charges not to taken seriously. God knows the work of these two organizations is intended in part to insure that we never have to sit in shame in front of any human who suffered abuse at our hands or in our name. Documenting human rights violations around the world helps us to keep constantly alive in our minds the stark differences between "freedom-lovers" and "evil-doers." We must operate with the utmost transparency and openness with daily international inspections and demand the same from all of our momentary allies of convenience around the world.
Every American interrogator, intelligence officer, and prison guard and military officer should watch and learn and pride himself in knowing that he is in no way like the interrogator in the film who says, "I was arrogant. I had power over the enemy. I saw him as an animal."


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{Winner! International Human Rights Award, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2004}{Winner! François Chalais Award, Cannes Film Festival 2003}{Winner! Gold Plaque, Best Documentary, Chicago International Film Festival 2003}{Winner! Best Documentary, European Film Awards 2003}In 1975-79, almost two million Cambodians lost their lives to murder and famine when the Khmer Rouge forced the urban population into the countryside to fulfill their ideal of an agrarian utopia. The notorious detention center code-named 'S21' was the schoolhouse-turned prison where 17,000 men, women and children were tortured, interrogated and executed, their "crimes" meticulously documented to justify their execution. In this award-winning documentary and astonishing historical document, Rithy Panh and his team undertook a three year investigation involving not only the survivors, but also their former torturers. They persuaded both groups to return to the actual site of what was formerly S21, now converted into a Genocide Museum, to face their past. One survivor, Vann Nath confronts his captors, some of whom were as young as 12 years old when they committed their atrocities.Human Rights Watch, widely regarded as one of the most influential and important human rights organizations in the world, and First Run Features, which for 25 years has distributed films that confront human rights issues, formed a collaboration to bring awareness to films that shed light on human rights abuses throughout the world. S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is the first title in the HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SELECTS DVD series.

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The Killing Fields (1984) Review

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(More customer reviews)I saw this 1984 film when it first came out, but after reading
"River of Time" by the British journalist, Jon Swain, I knew
I had to see it again. This time, it had an even stronger impact on
me. The screenplay is based on the true story written by Sydney
Schanberg, a New York Times reporter in Cambodia who had to leave his
Cambodian friend and colleague Dith Pran behind when the Khmur Rogue
took over the country in 1975. Dith Pran is forced into a worker's
camp, where he endures unspeakable agonies until he finally
escapes.
The movie won three well-deserved academy awards. One was
best for cinematography. I can understand why. Even though the movie
was shot in Thailand, the feeling of Indo-China and the area along the
Mekong display its great beauty as well as the countryside. Jon Swain
describes this in his book, but there is nothing like seeing it on the
screen. And then there are the killing fields themselves, with bones
and rotting corpses that Dith Pran discovers. Anyone who has ever
seen this film will never forget this scene.
The second award was
for film editing. That was a job of real artistry. It is always a
choice of what tiny segments of a scene to emphasize and the editors
got it exactly right. There was the terrified child holding her hands
over her ears to shut out the bombing sounds. There was the tiny
vegetable that Dith Pran plucks off a plant with relish when he is in
the prison camp. There is the wash of blood on the floor in the
hospital where people were dying.
Dr. Hang S. Ngor won an Oscar for
his role of Dith Pran, one of the few non-professional actors to ever
win an Oscar. He was especially suited to the part because he,
himself, had endured 4 years of torture and imprisonment in a
Cambodian work camp. He had to hide his identity of physician and
watch his young wife die in childbirth while there. No wonder he was
able to play the part so well. I understand he was murdered in his
garage in his home in Los Angeles in 1996 during a robbery in which he
tried to protect a memento from his wife.
The entire cast was
wonderful, each acting performance outstanding. Sam Waterson played
Sydney Schanberg with passion and realism. John Malkovich played his
photographer sidekick. And Julian Sands had a small role as
journalist Jon Swain who was one of the three westerners saved from
execution by the intervention of Dith Pran and whose tried
unsuccessfully to forge a passport to help Dith Pran escape.
Even
though the movie was 141 minutes long, I was totally absorbed with the
same kind of horrific fascination I felt while reading Jon Swain's
book. It's hard to believe that such horrors go on in the world while
we sit here in our comfortable lives. This movie shocks us into
reality. And makes us appreciate our blessings. It also reminded me
of the role of the journalist to go out on the front lines and risk
their lives for their stories. They are to be applauded as being the
witnesses to their times.
Highly recommended. But don't expect a
good night's sleep afterwards.


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Waterston stars as New York Times reporter Schanberg, a journalist who covered the war in Cambodia. Ngor stars asDith, the translator and aide, who is exiled to Cambodian labor camps where millions of others have died.Genre: Feature Film-DramaRating: RRelease Date: 13-MAR-2001Media Type: DVD

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