The Killing Fields (1984)

Haing S. Ngor: Dith Pran

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [last lines - at their reunion, with warm smiles] 

  Sydney Schanberg : You forgive me?

  Dith Pran : Nothing to forgive, Sydney. Nothing.

• Dith Pran : [in his journal while imprisoned]  The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love. And those that confess to the Angka are punished, and no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive.

• [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.

• Dith Pran : [voiceover in Khmer Rouge reeducation camp]  They tell us that God is dead. And now the Party, they call the Angka, will provide everything for us. He says, Angka has identified and proclaims that the existence of a bad new disease, a memory sickness like those that think too much about life in pre-revolutionary Cambodia. He says, we are surrounded by enemies. The enemy is inside us. No one can be trusted.

  [young boy Xs out parents in stick figure family on blackboard] 

  Dith Pran : We must be like the ox and have no thought, except for the Party. No laugh, but for the Uncle. People starve, but we must not grow food. We must honor the comrade children, whose minds are not corrupted by the past.

• [Dith Pran is forced to leave the French Embassy] 

  Morgan : For chrissakes, Sydney, why didn't you get him out then you had the chance? You had no right to keep him here! Funny sense of priorities.

  Dith Pran : I'm a reporter too, Morgan! I know his heart. I love him like my brother, and I'd do anything for him! Anything!

• Dith Pran : [after requesting from the Cambodian Army guard to allow Sydney to use the restroom]  He said there's no piss, Sydney.

  Sydney Schanberg : [disgusted]  What do you mean, "no piss"?

  Dith Pran : It means there's NO PISS, Sydney.

• Sydney Schanberg : I got a story to get to New York!

  Dith Pran : [worried]  Don't leave me!

  Sydney Schanberg : I won't leave you.

• Dith Pran : Rockoff, help me!

• Dith Pran : [voiceover in Khmer Rouge reeducation camp]  Sydney, Angka says that those who were guilty of soft living in the years of the great struggle and did not care for the sufferings of the peasant, must confess. Because, now is the year zero and everything is to start anew.

• Dith Pran : [during the fall of Phnom Penh]  Sidney! No more fighting! No more war!

• Dith Pran : Telex for you.

  Sydney Schanberg : You've been to the telex?

  Dith Pran : Yes.

  Sydney Schanberg : We made the front page.

  Dith Pran : Sure.

  Sydney Schanberg : We must be doing something right.

• Dith Pran : Tell my wife I love her and look after all my children. She doesn't speak any English, Sydney. Please, I don't want anyone to be bad to my wife.

• 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.

• Dith Pran : Ankertill Brewer. Ankertill Brewer. Ankertill Brewer.

• Dith Pran : [voiceover in Khmer Rouge reeducation camp]  I'm full of fear, Sydney. I must show no understanding. Not of French or English. I must have no past, Sydney. This is the year zero and nothing has gone before.