The Killing Fields (1984)

John Malkovich: Al Rockoff

Photos 

Quotes 

• [listening to BBC reporter Hugh Elder's broadcast on the radio] 

  Jon Swain : Where do they get this crap?

  Al Rockoff : That guy across the gate there. The little guy. Could we all not look at once, please? I have it on reliable sources that that's none other than Hugh Elder.

  Jon Swain : You're kidding...

  Al Rockoff : He's disguised, but I got a little suspicious about it, you know what I mean?

  Dith Pran : How does he get his copy out?

  Al Rockoff : How does he get his copy out? Specially trained hens. Yeah, the BBC has commissioned them to walk past the Khmer Rouge like they're regular fowl, and then they've been crossing the border into Thailand every day and every night.

• Al Rockoff : It bothers me that you let Pran stay in Cambodia because you wanted to win that fucking award and you knew you needed him!

  Sydney Schanberg : [Shocked]  I had no idea that...

  Al Rockoff : The fuck you didn't! The fuck you didn't!

• Al Rockoff : I can't eat eggs, someone told me they shrink with fright when you cook them.

• Al Rockoff : I don't like the look of this! I was in Keng Kang this morning, practically got my ass shot off! I just don't think these guys are for real!

• Al Rockoff : Pran's not gonna last five minutes out there! The Khmer Rouge have killed every fuckin' journalist they've ever caught! Now does Syd know how serious this is!

  Jon Swain : [Panicking]  Of COURSE he bloody knows!

• Al Rockoff : Anything I eat's gotta be absolutely dead. That is why I can never eat an oyster. I read somewhere that they put that lemon juice on them just to stun them. What's the difference?

• Al Rockoff : I'm not feeling good.

  Sydney Schanberg : I don't want to yell. I want to be in a good mood. The plane was 3 hours late, no car. I had to take a taxi here. All I want to do is work. I got you.

  [picks up the phone to make a call] 

  Sydney Schanberg : Deux cent quatre.

  [to Rockoff] 

  Sydney Schanberg : What the fuck is that? On your head?

  Al Rockoff : It's a sanitary napkin. I had it soaked in ice.

• Al Rockoff : [Pran pleading with Khmer Rouge soldiers outside of an armed vehicle where Sydney and Rockoff, taken prisoner, are sitting]  Why doesn't he get his ass in here?

  Cambodian Prisoner : He's trying! He's trying to get in! They won't let him in.

• Al Rockoff : [taking Pran's passport photo]  Don't smile.

  [Pran laughs] 

  Sydney Schanberg : You're smiling.

  Al Rockoff : Very serious. You are smiling. Stop, please.

  Sydney Schanberg : Very serious.

  Al Rockoff : Very serious. Very American.

  Dith Pran : Yes.

• Al Rockoff : [to Sydney]  Congratulations on your award, it was well-deserved. Very impressive. I was hoping you'd burst into song.