Hearts And Minds

Year: 1974

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Davis

Review

it’s pretty obvious that this is going to be a good film. it’s a documentary made in 1974 about the vietnam war, it’s an academy award winner and it’s a criterion dvd so you know you’re in for a treat. most of us have seen and heard a lot of the things that this documentary contains so the question might be “what sets this one apart?” i think there are a couple answers to that question. the first being the context in which the film was made. it was released in 1974 – just after our involvement ended – and as a result doesn’t have the luxury of critical distance that something like “fog of war” does. this being said, the film does a rather good job of demonstrating our mistakes and the impact that the war had on the country. the other thing that sets this apart from the usual history channel/pbs documentary (not that there’s anything wrong with them) is its editing. crosss-cutting, juxtaposition, and voice-overs are friends of a good documentary filmmaker. that being said, the editing in this film was maybe a little too direct; a little more subtlety would have gone a long way. that, though, is really a minor quibble amongst the plethora of good things the film did. if you’re one of the morons who thinks vietnam was great then you should watch this film. if you’re one of the normal people out there looking for a definitive early work on the vietnam war then you need not look any further.