This is kind of a brutal movie. It takes place in Cambodia just before the U.S. pulls out. It's based on the memoirs of a journalist, Dith Pran. He'd been working with a New York Times reporter, Sydney Shanberg. Pran turned down the oppurtunity to leave Cambodia in order to cover the fall of Phonm Penh. He ended up forced into the French embassy. Despite the best efforts of the other reporters, he was put into a reeducation camp.
The movie details the destruction of Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge took over. Details vary but somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people were killed. They took the most educated and killed them. They took everyone with contacts with foreigners and killed them.
The movie's good but brutal. Sam Waterston plays Shanberg. It's strange to see him looking young and not prosecuting people. It also features John Malkovich as a photographer. Not exactly a happy movie but well deserving of the nomination.
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