Introduction

Beyond the Killing Fields by 1976 International Reporting Pulitzer Prize winning Sydney Schanberg is an anthology of his war writings and reportings through the years as published by The New York Times, Newsday, the Village Voice and many other magazines. Within his book Beyond the Killing Fields is Schanberg's book The Death and Life of Dith Pran, which is what the 1984 British Drama film The Killing Fields is entirely based on. The Death and Life of Dith Pran was published by the New York Times on Jan 20, 1980.  These original writings are what we used throughout this blog to compare to the film and the accuracy and inaccuracy thereof. 

Beyond the Killing Fields is a timeless book comprising of Schanberg's war writings and is praised by many for it's articulative, moving writing centered around the unlikely friendship of Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran. Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Russell Baker said about Schanberg's book, "caught up in a war in which the vile and inhuman have become commonplace, two men are reborn by discovering the depths of their own humanity. In the end, they have won a personal victory over war itself." Schanberg having reported the genocide in Cambodia is vital knowledge that should be made known to the world. Still today there is a large amount of unawareness in the United States about everything that happened in Cambodia. The Yale Globalist's article "In Search of Lost History" demonstrates the strong lack of Cambodian Genocide education in the US. We hope that after you examine this blog and the extensive research we have conducted, you will have a better idea of everything that occurred during the years 1975-1979 in Cambodia
For more reviews on The Death and Life of Dith Pran, click here and here. 

Brief Synopsis of movie:
The movie, The Killing Fields, is based off of Sydney Schanberg's book The Death and Life of Dith Pran (In which Beyond the Killing Fields comprises) in which tells of terror that the Cambodian citizens suffered through during Pol Pot’s reign with the Khmer Rouge. In the movie American journalist Sydney Schanberg and Cambodian journalist Dith Pran are covering the war for The New York Times. Schanberg is an ambitious American journalist always chasing the story. Dith Pran is a Cambodian journalist who helps Schanberg translate and write for The Times. The movie starts out with Pran and Schanberg investigating a story in Neuk Luong, but the plot thickens when the Khmer Rouge take over. Citizens are stripped of their rights and forced into labor camps and the Khmer government seeks to change the culture from the inside out.

Trailer of the Killing Fields