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From: ted@usceast.UUCP (Ted Nolan)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: KILLING FIELDS 
Message-ID: <2179@usceast.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 9-Mar-85 01:51:07 EST
Article-I.D.: usceast.2179
Posted: Sat Mar  9 01:51:07 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Mar-85 04:49:46 EST
References: <494@ahutb.UUCP>
Reply-To: ted@usceast.UUCP (System Programmer)
Organization: Csci Dept, U of S. Carolina, Columbia
Lines: 41
Summary: Too long,annoying character

I saw _The Killing Fields_ last weekend and was not much impressed.
I understand that war is very confusing to the people involved, not
at all as clear cut as a general's map, but confusing the audience is
not the way to make this point.  There were several points in the movie
where I had very little idea what was going on, mostly, but not entirely
because of the language barrier;  in my view, with few exceptions,
while characters may get caught in the flow of events, the audience needs
more data to appreciate what is happening to them.

The movie was too long.  I remember thinking at the end that there must
have been 30 minutes of unnecessary footage.  There were several New York
scenes I would have cut entirely and the whole French Embassy stay 
could have been shortened easily.  

The focus of the film was wrong; it should have been Pran's story, starting
probably at the point where he puts his family on the evacuation flight.
As it stands, entirely too much attention is paid to the Sidney whatshisname
character.

Pran is an irritating character, it is hard to feel too deeply for him.
We never really know his motivations, all we have are his mannerisms
which consist mainly of unceasing groveling to Sidney and a constant
beseeching patter to various captors delivered while praying(? or whatever
that hands-clasped gesture means).  In particular, it is hard to
sympathize much with his devotion to Sidney, who seems to little deserve it.
The M*A*S*H 'letters to home' like narration of his captivity helps little
either.  I realized that my enjoyment of the movie was rapidly slacking,
when several times I just wished he would shut up.

I'm glad the real Pran made it out of Cambodia, but the movie should
be deported :-)

			Ted  Nolan	..usceast!ted
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