Ngor, Haing S

The Killing Fields

This harrowing but rewarding 1984 drama concerns the real-life relationship between New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg and his Cambodian assistant Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), the latter left at the mercy of the Khmer Rouge after Schanberg--who chose to stay after American evacuation but was booted out--failed to get him safe passage. Filmmaker Roland Joffé, previously a documentarist, made his feature debut with this account of Dith's rocky survival in the ensuing madness of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal campaign. The script spends some time with Schanberg's feelings of guilt after the fact, but most of the movie is a shattering re-creation of hell on Earth. The late Haing S. Ngor--a real-life doctor who had never acted before and who lived through the events depicted by Joffé--is outstanding, and he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Oscars also went to cinematographer Chris Menges and editor Jim Clark. --Tom Keogh

My Life

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (author of the fanciful Ghost) made his directorial debut with this more serious confrontation with the realities of death. Michael Keaton plays an advertising executive who learns he is dying even as his wife (Nicole Kidman) is pregnant. The film beautifully focuses on his anger over everything: the unfinished business of his life and the probability he'll never meet his child. The late Dr. Haing S. Ngor (The Killing Fields) is terrific as a doctor who helps Keaton's character to recognize the corrosiveness of his rage and to let go. The film is a heartbreaker but truly cathartic for anyone who has felt the blunt pain of losing someone close. Keaton is outstanding. --Tom Keogh

Heaven & Earth

Oliver Stone's powerful Vietnam saga of a man who fought a woman who endured...and a love enmeshed in a war's brutality.Running Time: 140 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569596498

Heaven & Earth - Oliver Stone Collection

"Tommy Lee Jones burns through the screen like white phosphorous" (Newhouse News Service) in Oliver Stone's powerful Vietnam saga of a man who fought, a woman who endured...and a love enmeshed in a war's brutality.

Eastern Condors

A hugely entertaining, Dirty Dozen-style combat film about a group of Asian American ex-con GIs, dropped into postpullout Vietnam to destroy a cache of weapons the Yanks forgetfully left behind. ("Why are foreigners so stupid?" wonders a puzzled Chinese officer.) Director-star Sammo Hung slimmed down to play the tough-as-nails platoon commander and turned in a world-class action-star performance, charismatic and tightly focused. As a director Hung displays great sweep and inventiveness in the staging of action; there are combinations of martial arts stunt work and camera angles here that are like nothing you've ever seen before. The fighters practically leap into your lap. The movie is basically crisp hard-boiled entertainment, but it also gets into the tensions between the various Asian nationalities involved in the mission--native Chinese, Chinese American, Vietnamese, Cambodian--and into everybody's mixed feelings about the U.S. --David Chute

Hit Me

The Killing Fields [Region 2]

This harrowing but rewarding 1984 drama concerns the real-life relationship between New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg and his Cambodian assistant Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), the latter left at the mercy of the Khmer Rouge after Schanberg--who chose to stay after American evacuation but was booted out--failed to get him safe passage. Filmmaker Roland Joffé, previously a documentarist, made his feature debut with this account of Dith's rocky survival in the ensuing madness of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal campaign. The script spends some time with Schanberg's feelings of guilt after the fact, but most of the movie is a shattering re-creation of hell on Earth. The late Haing S. Ngor--a real-life doctor who had never acted before and who lived through the events depicted by Joffé--is outstanding, and he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Oscars also went to cinematographer Chris Menges and editor Jim Clark. --Tom Keogh

My Life [Region 2]

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (author of the fanciful Ghost) made his directorial debut with this more serious confrontation with the realities of death. Michael Keaton plays an advertising executive who learns he is dying even as his wife (Nicole Kidman) is pregnant. The film beautifully focuses on his anger over everything: the unfinished business of his life and the probability he'll never meet his child. The late Dr. Haing S. Ngor (The Killing Fields) is terrific as a doctor who helps Keaton's character to recognize the corrosiveness of his rage and to let go. The film is a heartbreaker but truly cathartic for anyone who has felt the blunt pain of losing someone close. Keaton is outstanding. --Tom Keogh

Heaven & Earth [Region 2]

Eastern Condors

A hugely entertaining, Dirty Dozen-style combat film about a group of Asian American ex-con GIs, dropped into postpullout Vietnam to destroy a cache of weapons the Yanks forgetfully left behind. ("Why are foreigners so stupid?" wonders a puzzled Chinese officer.) Director-star Sammo Hung slimmed down to play the tough-as-nails platoon commander and turned in a world-class action-star performance, charismatic and tightly focused. As a director Hung displays great sweep and inventiveness in the staging of action; there are combinations of martial arts stunt work and camera angles here that are like nothing you've ever seen before. The fighters practically leap into your lap. The movie is basically crisp hard-boiled entertainment, but it also gets into the tensions between the various Asian nationalities involved in the mission--native Chinese, Chinese American, Vietnamese, Cambodian--and into everybody's mixed feelings about the U.S. --David Chute