Roland Joffe is not a director who's been beloved by critics over the years, but most seem to agree that his magnum opus is the Oscar-winning The Killing Fields. Sam Waterston plays an American journalist in war-torn Cambodia in the aftermath of the Vietnam war, when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge went on a run of violence---especially against their fellow Cambodians---that was chilling. Haing S. Ngor won the Supporting Actor Oscar as Waterston's interpreter and compatriot who goes through horrors...and manages to make it out alive in this real-life tale of fear, friendship and politics. The Killing Fields is a terrific achievement. It just has to deal with the fact that other films have done similar things in the 40 years since this came out. But don't leave a man behind in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. Just dial up our 610th episode, which happens to be a Ryan solo show.

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