Retrospective: Hearts and Minds (1974)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                        HEARTS AND MINDS
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: This is a film that is more than an evening's
     entertainment.  It qualifies as a genuine historical
     document.  Famous people have been inspired by it.
     Famous people have condemned it.  But nobody doubts
     that it is an effective piece of filmmaking.  Rating:
     high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10

This film has been re-released February 13, 2009.

A military is a machine.  In wartime it is set in motion against an
enemy.  If it is functioning as intended the people who are doing
the fighting are not making the moral decisions.  They are
following their procedures, collecting intelligence in a manner
they have been told to follow, and they are killing in the manner
they have been trained and ordered to follow.  Commanders and non-
military personnel far from the fighting generally make the major
moral decisions.

HEARTS AND MINDS is a powerful documentary that was made by Peter
Davis in 1974 to examine the Vietnam War in its last days.   It is
a potent film with many images that stick in the mind; some the
viewer might prefer to forget.  The film is being revived and re-
released thirty-five years after it was made.  The idea is that the
same standards the film uses to evaluate the Vietnam War can be
applied to wars in the Middle East.  It would be foolish to say
that the current war in Iraq is a repeat of the Vietnam War in a
new setting.  But certainly there are similarities in the two wars
as striking that are as the differences.

It is probably true that every war the United States has ever
fought has had fighting men who simply were not happy with what was
going on.  But the Vietnam War was something new for the United
States.  What made this war different from previous wars was
advances in technology.  In World War II soldiers groused in their
foxholes, but almost none could send their complaints home to a
wide audience.  Technology was just not in a state that made it
easy for the fighting man to express himself.  The loudest voices
commenting on the US participation in World War II were the US
Government and Hollywood.  And both had almost identical messages
that this war was going to be the last war and the one that would
set the world straight.  The message was that the fighting men were
doing the right thing to fight that war.  And frankly I myself do
not doubt that that message was substantially true.

By the time that the Vietnam War came along, the individual
soldier's opinion was much more important.  Any soldier might find
his words on the 6:00 news being broadcast across the nation.  The
war was poorly run and probably with assumption and principles that
were faulty.  It is a little shocking to see Gen. William
Westmoreland, one of the moral decision-makers of the war saying,
"The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a
Westerner.  Life is plentiful.  Life is cheap in the Orient."  But
the opinions of the front line soldiers and the men who were
actually fighting the war became important as they never had been
in any previous war.

HEARTS AND MINDS examines the opinions of the people involved in
the Vietnam War.  As a bit of a polemic it concentrates mostly on
people who were opposed to the American policy.  Certainly the
people against the war are shown in a much more favorable light
than those who supported it.  At the time of the original release
of HEARTS AND MINDS in 1974 it was very strong stuff.  There were
few other documentaries that presented the contrarian view.  This
was then a unique and powerful film.  Releasing it today, when the
liberal documentary is in what will probably be considered its
Golden Age, cannot help but deflate the film's impact.  There were
many effective documentaries made in the last two or three years.
But director Peter Davis's hard-hitting style is still effective.
This remains one of the best documentaries about the liberal
reaction to the Vietnam War.  The similarities of current conflicts
to the Vietnam War will still be striking.  But it cannot hope to
have the strength and the individuality that it had 35 years ago.
Contrasts between the Southeast Asia war and the Middle East wars
cut against the film.  But the classic films never really lose
their power for the people who saw them in their first run or who
remember the historical context of that time.

Davis start with selections from World War II films showing how
public opinion was orchestrated, thought perhaps no more than other
countries other countries manipulated their own people.  The United
States left that victory with a belief they could be a force that
would control the future... for the good motives, of course.  Davis
takes us to a short history of Vietnam under the French after WWII
and how when they gave up the United States took their place.
Davis then interviews allies, soldiers, commanders, Viet Cong, and
civilians caught in the middle.  A bomber pilot tells how he just
gets the plane to near where the bombing is to take place and then
turn it over to the computer to actually drop the bombs.  The film
goes on for almost two hours showing many aspects of the war, but
few really favorable to US side.

HEARTS AND MINDS won the Academy Award for Best Documentary of
1974.  A co-producer, Bert Schneider, accepted the award and read a
telegram saying "Greetings of Friendship to all American People."
It was from the Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace Accords.
Later in the awards ceremony Frank Sinatra presented a disclaimer
he had co-authored with Bob Hope saying "We are not responsible for
any political references made on the program, and we are sorry that
they had to take place this evening."  Michael Moore calls the film
the one movie that inspired him to become a filmmaker and calls it
the best documentary he has ever seen.

Even after three and a half decades this film still will be
controversial and still has a real impact.  I rate HEARTS AND MINDS
a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0071604/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hearts_and_minds/>


					Mark R. Leeper
					mleeper at optonline.net
					Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper