“HEARTS AND MINDS” (1974; directed by Peter Davis)

(The Criterion Collection)

‘LEST WE FORGET

By Raymond Benson

The Academy Award for Best Documentary of 1974 went to the controversial and incendiary Hearts and Minds, the first big movie about the Vietnam War that attempted to prove to the world that America made a huge mistake. A lot of people didn’t like that being said.

Produced by Bert Schneider (of BBS Productions fame—Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, many others) and director Peter Davis, the documentary is most definitely one-sided in its arguments. The entire film is shaped and edited to present the most anti-war statement possible, as well as put a bad light on the men in power that made the decisions to go to war in the first place.

You can imagine that in 1974 this was not an easy pill to swallow. Never mind that the picture is brilliantly made—the footage is unbelievably powerful and sometimes very difficult to watch. Remember those photos of the little Vietnamese girl running naked down the road, a victim of a Napalm attack? Well, in the movie, you see film footage in color of that very scene as it happened. The same is true of the famous photo depicting the execution by gunshot of a Vietcong prisoner in the street by a Saigon police chief. In Hearts and Minds, we don’t see the still photo, we see the actual killing, again in color. These are among the many horrific imagery contained in the picture, much of it stock footage. However, most of the running time is taken up by interviews with guys like General William Westmoreland, Clark Clifford (Secretary of Defense 1968-1969), Walt Rostow (aide to Kennedy and Johnson), Daniel Elsberg (former aide to Defense Department), and many other talking heads. Most of them come off as windbags spouting stuff we now know is simply not true (General Westmoreland: “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner.”).

The film is obviously divisive as to which side of the aisle you reside—liberal or conservative. I’m sure even today there are plenty of conservatives who still believe we were right to go to Vietnam. While this column is meant to be a review of the documentary, I think I can safely say that history has proven that the liberals were right all along. Looking back at this picture now, it simply reconfirms what we should have learned from the mistakes made.

The Criterion Collection has re-issued Hearts and Minds in a dual format—Blu-ray and DVD (three disCs)—in a high-definition digital restoration supervised by director Davis and cinematographer Richard Pearce. The audio commentary is by Davis. Added to this new release are over two hours of unused footage, including interviews of people not seen in the film (e.g. David Brinkley). Overkill? Perhaps, but for war history buffs who want to dig into the depths of this admittedly biased but fascinating condemnation of a black mark in our time, then don’t miss Hearts and Minds.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON