Rating: 
Summary: Astounding and Prophetic visual record
Review: The Vietnam War defines who we are as a people more than anything in our recent history. In the film a Captain who flew close to 100 missions is asked if we can "learn from this experience." He answers, "I think we are trying not to learn from this experience." How did he know?
Rating:
Summary: Astounding and Prophetic visual record
Review: The Vietnam War defines who we are as a people more than anything in our recent history. In the film a Captain who flew close to 100 missions is asked if we can "learn from this experience." He answers, "I think we are trying not to learn from this experience." How did he know?
Rating: 
Summary: Vietnam: The Ultimate Moral Dilemma
Review: The Vietnam War still rankles a significant portion of the American population. Who can forget the endless images of violent protests, the political wrangling, and the disturbing footage from the war broadcast on the nightly news during the 1960s and 1970s, recycled and endlessly replayed today in television documentaries? There are so many questions surrounding America's involvement with this little Asian country that they are unlikely to find resolution within our lifetime. Who was right about this war? Was it the young people who fled to Canada in order to avoid the draft, or was it the policymakers in Washington who attempted to fight a war from a conference table in the Pentagon? The answers usually depend on one's political leanings: liberals and closet leftists still gloat over their successful campaign against our military structure while conservatives lament the harm done to our armed forces by this conflict. I think we all must acknowledge that the echoes of Vietnam still arise today every time our country conducts war operations overseas. "Hearts and Minds," a documentary about the war made by Peter Davis in 1974, before the fall of South Vietnam, takes a decidedly liberal perspective in discussing the effects of this war on both the Vietnamese and American people.The title of this documentary refers to one of several policies Washington developed to help win the war. Power elites thought that by infusing the populace of South Vietnam with American ideals, by winning over their "hearts" and their "minds" to the American ideology, support for the pro-Communist Vietcong insurgents would evaporate. This policy failed, along with every other American strategy promising victory, because the issue between North and South Vietnam was one of nationalism rather than communism versus capitalism. Quickly forgetting every lesson about history they should have learned at Yale and Harvard, American movers and shakers failed to see our presence in this country through the eyes of the native population. To the Vietnamese, the United States was the latest foreign intruder in a long line of occupiers. The Vietnamese wanted an independent, unified country and could care less what ideology helped achieve that aim. Our government never saw the war solely as a nationalist issue, instead focusing myopically on the containment of communism. America could have won the Vietnam War, though, if the people in charge of this campaign recognized that fighting a war with self-imposed rules is a sure recipe for disaster. Davis's documentary doesn't pay exclusive attention to the big picture aspects of the war, but mainly focuses on individual responses to the conflict from both Americans and Vietnamese. "Hearts and Minds" hammers home again and again that American aggressiveness and racism fueled the war effort. The director seems to think that football, with its barely controlled "barbarity" and propagandistic messages about winning, reveals the ideals underpinning the American war effort. The documentary sometimes takes a "60 Minutes" type interview style with figures like policy advisor Walt Rostow, a man who supported whole-heartedly our attempts to defeat the communist insurgents in South Vietnam. Rostow, an extremely intelligent individual who never found a job in academia because of his positions on Vietnam and Communism, nearly blows a gasket while discussing the war with Davis. Why? Because Davis refuses to maintain a balanced perspective. Why not just tape Rostow's position and then follow it up with a contradictory opinion from some other pundit? Well, Davis does present both sides of the coin in "Hearts and Minds," but his ideological bias regarding the war is never in doubt. Racism plays a huge role in Davis's documentary. We see General William Westmoreland, who served as head of the war effort in Vietnam for several years, claiming that Asians do not place the same value on life that we do. Another scene shows two American soldiers partying with two Vietnamese girls and making comments that would surely anger some people today. No one can watch this documentary and feel good about these charged statements, but I think Davis misses a key point concerning why Westmoreland said what he did, a point that extends beyond the Westmoreland interview to hang over the whole documentary like a black cloud. We all know the Vietnamese routinely used children as suicide bombers to target American soldiers, which I think explains what Westmoreland was trying to say. Davis conveniently fails to mention this fact, along with disturbing truths about NLF atrocities committed against civilians. Moreover, Davis, an obvious liberal, fails to mention that our involvement in Vietnam was a war planned and escalated by three liberal presidents: Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. "Hearts and Minds" does neatly illuminate one truth that all should take note of: war is an irrational, chaotic affair that we can rarely explain using rational, "civilized" arguments. War is emotional turmoil, the widespread use of both controlled and uncontrolled violence involving the debasement and dehumanization of all involved. Branding America's war against the Vietnamese communists as "racist" does nothing to resolve the real issues of that conflict. In fact, resolving the issues surrounding the war simply will not occur during our lifetimes, if ever. Despite some of my comments about Davis's biases in this review, I do think the documentary works on several levels. Seeing the devastation the war brought to poor Vietnamese civilians is absolutely heartrending, as is the sight of a boy weeping over his father's grave. Witnessing the psychological and physical devastation of our own soldiers is equally saddening. But the war was about much, much more than Davis presented here. In that respect, "Hearts and Minds" is an occasionally admirable if flawed documentary.
Rating:
Summary: An Essential Historical Document
Review: These days, much is made of media outlets who are accused of focusing only on the violence and downsides of armed conflict. In many ways, this movie pioneered that genre. For all the people wrapped up in the contraversey of Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11, this movie should prove a usefull historical example. This movie, as contreversial as it once was, with time has emerged as a greater and greater historical document. Fewer people are politicaly invested in propping up myths about the Vietnam War, and fewer people feel politicaly threatened by admitting wrong-doings. Case in point, Robert McNemaira has honestly appologized for his failings, but only years after the fact. With the distance of time, we can grow more and more objective. People now feel pressured to defend things which are obviously wrong, because they feel that if they don't they jeapordize their President. The lies and rationalizations can only protect a person so much. Eventualy, the do more harm than good. What is more, this movie is an essential document in the portrayal of war. It is a key counterpoint to the necessarily rosy depictions of combat that are projected by those who have a vested interest in seeing the war justified. The truth is that war is never justified, as I've said before, we can never pat ourselves on the back for killing children and bombing innocent civilians. Anyone who thinks war is cool or fun should see this movie. The footage is real, and the violence is horrific. It is important that people realize that war isn't as fun as it may look in the action movies and on conservative cable news chanels (who set footage of bombings to classical music!) I have always believed that the truth can hurt no one, at least more than it has already. Those who wish to perpetuate fantasies about the romance of combat or the chivalry of Cold War politcial agendas will only cause more damage, more harm to the people who those mentalities ultimately put in harms way, and even to themselves, as it will hurt all the more when these fantasies inevitably fall apart. To understand war, civilization, and our own savage society, this is an unflinching look that anyone should see.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: This is an amazing video. I just rented it from NetFlix, and now I have to buy it. It contains so much footage I never thought existed. You've probably seen the famous photographs like the officer holding a gun up to a young man's head to execute him, or the poor little girl running naked and burned down the road from her napalmed village. Well, the actual video clips are here. Very disturbing, yes, but it a blessing to have such footage in this age of embedded "journalists", and our corporate news that doesn't want us to see what war is really like. Well here it is, it all it's gory. This is a truly important film Another greatness of the video is the inclusion of many clips of soldiers and politicians at the time, allowed to talk candidly and freely with no commentary, for none is needed. Like the Lt. who came back from being a prisoner addressing a room of school children, one of which asks him what Vietnam looked like. His response was that "it was very pretty, except for the people. The people over there are very backward and primitive, and just make a mess out of everything." Or the General who solemnly states "the Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as a Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap, to the Oriental." You don't even have to comment on these guys, just let them talk ... they show their own true colors. Get this video and see if that's your take on it. And maybe it will seem eerily familiar to you, like you've maybe seen and heard similar sentiments from a more recent administration.
Buy it, watch it, lend it to friends and family. It's an eye opener. This is the first review I would give 6 stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Critical, relevant and essential viewing
Review: This is by far the most affecting film about war I have ever seen. I have read extensively about Vietnam, and although I am too young to remember the state of the country while it was immersed in the conflict, I have always been drawn to its stories and lessons. The narrative voice of this documentary is absorbing, yet not dogmatic. I don't want to over-intellectualize this film and run the risk of taking away any of its power to affect me. Simply put, I feel every American should view it. The lessons it exposes are completely relevant to what this country is supposed to be about, and what it actually is. I'm a ninth-grade American History teacher, and I lament the fact that I would be risking my job by showing this- especially given the events of 9-11-01 (and since) which have unfortunately had the effect of disenfranchising honest inquiry into the methods and motivations of our political leaders. Please do whatever you can to get your hands on it and your mind around it.
Rating:
Summary: A movie of modern history that made modern history
Review: This is, without doubt, one of the best, most memorable movies I have ever seen. It has stuck with me since I first saw it as part of a high school film-making course in in Ottawa, Canada in 1975. It was the first, last and only time I ever saw it and I remember it all vividly 25 years later. At the time it exposed me to the absolute evils and sickening realities of a modern war for really the first time. It's lack of narrative adds a peculiar realism that I have never seen repeated in a documentary or fiction work. So controversial was the picture that at the 1974 Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences convinced the late Frank Sinatra to go on stage after it won best documentary to tell the audience the movie's award victory did not mean the Academy supported the movie's avowed anti-Vietnam War tone and tenor. The move by the Academy was unprecedented -- and has never been repeated. This movie must be re-issued. It is an outstanding testiment to the power of film.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly controversal, now more than ever.
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
This film could be considered the Vietnam War equivalant of Fahrenheit 911. It has many interviews, actuality and newsreel footage, and as some critics claim, staged scenes.
There are even some scenes which I was surprised to see. There is footage of a US soldier setting fire to Vietnamese homes with a Zippo lighter, and a scene of a "Vietnam vets against the war" member throwing his medals over a fence at the Capitol. I did not see any resemblance to Sen. John Kerry, so this makes it clear that he was not the only one who did this.
It is a clearly anti-war film but some films are anti-war for the wrong reasons. The film also gives information about the events leading up to the war and the lives it affected.
As a Christian, I am by nature a pacifist. But can war be justified in extreme circumstances? This film gives one possible answer from a secular perspective.
The film still generates controversy today and has been called both a masterpiece and anti-American. I can see some of both myself.
There is a scene where a soldier compares the North Vietnamese to savages while another scene shows American soldiers in a Vietnamese brothel treating the prostitutes like dirt. Other scenes show the bombed out homes of civillians.
It clearly is an anti war film goes a long way to show drawbacks.
The Criterion DVD has audio commentary by director Peter Davis and also has several essays in the liner notes.
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