MovieChat Forums > The Killing Fields (1985) Discussion > history is a lie

history is a lie

posted 11 years ago by cthulhulurks
13 replies | jump to latest

So I watched this one, a pretty good well shot and produced drama it is. All of it looks quite plausible and logical, but...

I know how many lies politicians and journalists have made up to date. Forgeries uncountable.

How can I know if any of this ever happened? How can I be sure the Khmer thing wasn't another manufactured scandal, when instead of reporting a known one thousand victims of the regime everything was blown out of proportion like it always is? The same applies to Nixon's involvement, it's so joyful to kick a dead lion, so maybe well there was no bombing, or holy cow knows what happened there in reality.

History is a lie, especially history in movies.

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[–] cthulhulurks 11 years ago

bump

my vote history:
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[–] Flanged 11 years ago

How do we know your vote history isn't a lie?

Maybe you really like Gigli more than The Big Lebowski.

Seriously, though, unless you are a professional historian who has unbridled access to primary documents (census records, if they exist, and death lists if those exist, Pentagon files and White House memos, etc., all of which can be faked) then you have no way of knowing for certain. You just have to read a wide selection of books on any given subject and then decide for yourself what version, or mixture of versions, you believe.

I doubt the Khmer Rouge kept the same level of documentation as the Nazis or Soviets, or indeed the Pentagon, but there's bound to be a decent amount about the bombing of Cambodia and Laos in the Nixon tapes which he admitted himself were real.

.

[–] cthulhulurks 11 years ago

A professional historian is a university professor funded by state and private that belong to the powers that be. Even opposing parties can rarely afford to shed the light on the wrongdoings of previous incumbents. The public is bound to either merrily believe all the lies it's fed or remain constantly discontent and suspicious never actually stopping doubting whatever they are told by the circus of mass media.

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[–] gillianzz-1 11 years ago

A professional historian is a university professor funded by state and private that belong to the powers that be

No historian who wants to be taken seriously in academic circles 'belongs' to anyone. A healthy dose of skepticism is important when negotiating the media, but you sound like a conspiracy theorist. Do you have a thing for Nixon?

[–] DreTam2000 8 years ago

However...

No historian who wants to be taken seriously in academic circles 'belongs' to anyone.

...what he wants and what he is are two different things.

I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way

[–] lucasbuvinic 9 years ago

Cool story, bro

[–] Augustangst 9 years ago

Well the KR kept pretty good records. If you visit S-21you can see them. You can also the remains of many of the victims. You can see where their skulls were bashed in as evidence of the method of death, wasn't natural causes. You can meet and chat with victims, this wasn't that long ago and many witnesses are still with us and several have written books including Haing S Ngor who played Dith Pran in the movie. Dith Pran devoted the rest of his life to telling the story of the killing fields. You can see the victims of landmines left behind by the Pol Pot regime. As killing fields are still being discovered you can read the Phnom Penh Post. This is hardly history, it is the present in Cambodia. It's a lovely country but the wounds have barely even begun to heal.

[–] fenderg 8 years ago

As someone who genuinely fainted on my visit to The Killing fields just outside Phnom Pehn. How can you be so ignorant about a very terrible time in history. So your saying the mounds of Skulls inside the monument are fake, the white specks of bone you can still see in the ground. What about the prison which still has the beds with the shackles on. Also have you not read the news in the last 5 years they sentenced 6 of the former Khemer Rough leaders to life in prison. Watch Enemies of the People and tell me that History was faked. Let me guess Adolf Hitler never murdered millions upon millions of Jewish people either, That Schindler's list is all faked too. Do you just dislike any film based on History. So I suppose you got an F on your history exam then? Or do you choose to just ignore it because you don't believe the numbers.

[–] mgsgamer2009 8 years ago

That's a lot of questions.

[–] Gmork76 8 years ago

Take your medz...

[–] VanillaLime 8 years ago

Don't tell me you're one of those crazy people who are into conspiracy theories. I literally just met someone who believed that the US government controls all the news outlets...right.

This was NOT a manufactured scandal. You tell my mom who has scars from the leeches she had to pry off in the rice fields, whose baby brother starved to death and older brother was executed, whose father was next on the killing list, but the Khmer Rouge decided to save a bullet and let him die from his illness--that this was some lie made up from politicians and journalists. This has effected millions of people.

[–] cthulhulurks 8 years ago

The government does control the outlets but they dont have to literally tell the staff what they can or cannot print or show. There is no conspiracy with a bunch of freaks wearing red hooded cloaks and masks, but there is a certain understanding and not so silent agreement which of course may even be broken from time to time but most certainly will be spin doctored somehow. people are weak and there are no heroes or supermen.

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[–] 8 years ago

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