http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=11638
by Phil Hall
(2009-03-20)
2009, Un-rated, 112 minutes, Rainbow Releasing
http://www.rainbowreleasing.com/
"Hearts and Minds," Peter Davis' 1974 Academy Award-winning
documentary on the Vietnam War, is returning to theatrical release in
a digitally restored and remastered edition. If you never saw this
film, please try to locate a theater where it is playing. Quite
simply, this is one of the greatest non-fiction films ever made.
"Hearts and Minds" is a cold shock to the system a detailed
dissection of how the U.S. government, over the course of five very
different administrations, repeatedly lied to Americans and put U.S.
troops in harm's way to fight a war that had no moral or political
purpose whatsoever. The film also provides evidence of the
often-shocking ignorance that many Americans had in regard to the
reasons for being involved in Vietnam including frank admissions by
some soldiers on the battlefield that they had no idea who the enemy
was or why the war was raging.
One has to be clear that this is not a 100% objective film abuses
by the North Vietnamese are not documented, and the captivity faced
by a U.S. P.O.W. who is profiled in the film is not explored. But
that lapse does not excuse the blatant falsehoods and shameless
arrogance that went into the U.S. planning of the war, nor does it
condone clearly documented problems that arose in the execution of
those strategies.
"Hearts and Minds" is an ironic title, given that so few Americans
associated with the war seemed to display anything resembling
compassion or intelligence. The most shocking moment is the
unapologetic statement by Gen. William Westmoreland that "The
Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner.
Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient." This follows a
highly emotional scene where the family of a slain Vietnamese soldier
tearfully mourns over his coffin.
There are other interview in which U.S. Air Force pilots casually
acknowledge they never thought twice about the people in the
Vietnamese villages they were bombing. Davis goes to those villages
and finds people whose loved ones were killed and whose homes were
destroyed. Footage of Vietnamese women traveling down roads carrying
children with skin burned off by napalm bombing provides evidence of
the devastation brought on civilians. (Included here is the full
footage of the iconic photograph of nine-year-old Phan Thi: Kim Phúc
running naked after being burned in a Vietnam Air Force napalm attack).
From an intellectual standpoint, "Hearts and Minds" is a harsh slap
at how some Americans considered the war. Average Americans are
interviewed, but cannot identify the reasons for the conflict one
trucker actually states the U.S. is backing North Vietnam. George
Coker, the aforementioned P.O.W., actually tells a school audience
that the U.S. won the war! Coker also comments on Vietnam with this
deathless comment: "If it weren't for the people, it would be a
beautiful country." Comments by President Nixon and Bob Hope at a
White House dinner honoring returned P.O.W.s are amazing in their
tactless crassness.
The film also tracks down several veterans some are physically
disabled who speak bitterly of realizing too late about the
implications of what they did in Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg, the
military analyst who was responsible for making "The Pentagon Papers"
public, Sen. J. William Fulbright and former Defense Secretary Clark
Clifford speak at length at how they slowly came to realize the lies,
deceptions and twisted logic that pushed the war along. Army deserter
Edward Sowders is also here, and his taboo presence offers a
disturbing view into the underground movement of AWOL military
personnel who rebelled against the system.
It is difficult not to watch "Hearts and Minds" without drawing
parallels between Vietnam and the current wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. It would be curious to see how contemporary American
moviegoers view a film that is clearly not gung-ho in its
appreciation of military might. The film was polarizing in its day,
and I assume it will be equally divisive now.
Whether it is viewed as a time capsule from a distant and troubled
past or as a preview of things to come, "Hearts and Minds" represents
a troubling journey into a nightmare of America's own creation. It is
impossible to walk away from the film without being devastated.
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