Dith Pran + Haing S. Ngor

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Dith Pran, the real-life Cambodian-born photographer whose story of capture, enslavement and eventual escape from the hands of the psychopathic Khmer Rouge was dramatized in Roland Joffe's The Killing Fields, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer.

Dith Pran (l.), Haing S. Ngor (r.)

I never met him, but I interviewed Haing S. Ngor, who not only played Dith in the film but knew him as a close friend, for an Us magazine piece in '84.

A lovely hard-core guy who wore his memories and emotions on his sleeve, Ngor had gone through the same kind of Khymer Rouge horrors as Dith, and later wrote a book about this called "Haing Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey." It was ironic as well as extremely tragic that Ngor survived his ghastly Cambodian ordeal only to be killed by Los Angeles gang-bangers during a robbery assault in 1996. Dith said upon his death, "He is like a twin with me...He is like a co-messenger and right now I am alone."

Now with the 65 year-old Dith gone, it's as if some kind of circle has been sealed with twin souls laid to rest, paired for eternity.

comment #1

Edward Havens says ...

[Grammatical/architectural correction noted and adhered to -- thanks.]

comment #2

CinemaPhreek says ...

A friend of mine was working on a documentary about the "Mushroom War" that was going on in the California Federal forests between locals and the Cambodians over the very lucative wild 'shrooms that the Japanese were buying up at the time (mid-90's). Ngor was to be the narrator and his murder so knocked my friend off his feet that he not only abandoned the film, he quit the business altogether.

It did feel like circle was sadly completed with Pran's death.

comment #3

Howlingman says ...

Ngor's death was a fucking tragedy. To go through sheer hell on earth, only to be wasted by a bunch of low-life gang bangers (like there's any other kind) really diminishes one's positive outlook for humanity.

The reason Ngor was murdered? The scum mugging him wanted his locket. The locket carried a photo of his wife who was murdered by the Khmer Rouge. He refused.

comment #4

Edward Havens says ...

When we face death, the Dharma asks us to turn our calm focus on the good deeds of the deceased. It also asks us to meditate on the impermanence of our own lives. Dith Pran's good deed was to survive to tell his story, and to remind us how one life can make a difference.

comment #5

T. Holly says ...

I remember Jonathan Demme/Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia even more; loved that movie, sad what happened to Gray too.

comment #6

CinemaPhreek says ...

"When we face death, the Dharma asks us to turn our calm focus on the good deeds of the deceased. It also asks us to meditate on the impermanence of our own lives. Dith Pran's good deed was to survive to tell his story, and to remind us how one life can make a difference."

Channeling Wells here: I hate to piss on anyone's cornflakes with this, but I have to quibble with that last part. If there is a lesson to Pran's life, it is that in the face of overwhelming horror and loss, you must go on and reestablish your connection to the life-affirming parts of life and not get sucked into the darkness that underscores the finer things in it.

Life just IS - deal with it or it will consume you.

To me, Pran is the embodiment of so many souls in this world, pushed around by forces beyond their control. He is not in the larger scheme of things that heroic, simply a survivor (albeit one that dealt with far more than most of us in the Western world will ever see). His escape from the killing fields and alerting us to the horrors the Khmer Rouge was putting Cambodia through only increased our understanding, yet caused no response.

There was no resulting outcry that sent the US or the UN in a giant undertaking to save the people of Cambodia. Pol Pott was not driven from power until Vietnam began to systematically attach the Khmer in 1984.

Pran is ultimately a symbol of all those who must deal with the aftermath of the world's clashes, all those powerless folks who are affected both by the unintended consequences or our military actions and of our indifference to the plight of those we "pragmatically" choose to ignore.

comment #7

Jeffrey Kunze says ...

The Killing Fields - a great film that will last through the ages.

I was given this DVD along with The Year of Living Dangerous from a politically-active friend one Christmas and didn't watch them for about a year.

When I finally got around to watching them, Living Dangerous was good/very intense but Killing Fields knocked m flat out. I've tried to recommend this film, but it's not easy getting others to watch it, as though they know what they're in for is gonna be rough.

comment #8

Jeffrey Kunze says ...

Excuse me: The Year of Living DangerousLY (staring Oscar winner Mel Gibson and Oscar winner Linda Hunt).

And, yes T. Holly, Spalding Gray's death was tragic and arbitrary.

comment #9

Joshua Mooney says ...

I interviewed Dr. Haing S. Ngor too. I remember it well. A friendly, wise, sincere and compassionate man who'd been through things I couldn't/can't imagine. It was an hour well spent. When he was murdered, some time later, the obvious ironies presented themselves to me. I was enraged for however many minutes, and then I just went numb, or numbed myself. Dith Pran's death has me thinking about him again.

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