Hearts and Minds (film)

:"This article refers to the 1974 movie; for other uses see Hearts and Minds (disambiguation)"Infobox Film
name = Hearts and Minds
imdb_id = 0071604


director = Peter Davis
producer = Bert Schneider,
Peter Davis
distributor = Rialto Pictures
released = 1974
runtime = 112 min.
language = English
amg_id = 1:21924
budget = $1,000,000

Hearts and Minds is an Academy Award winning documentary about the Vietnam War directed by Peter Davis. The film's title is based on a quote from President Lyndon B. Johnson: "the ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there". The movie was chosen as Best Feature Documentary at the 47th Academy Awards presented in 1975.

The film premiered at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Commercial distribution was delayed in the United States due to legal issues, including a temporary restraining order obtained by one of the interviewees, former National Security Advisor Walt Rostow who had claimed through his attorney that the film was "somewhat misleading" and "not representative" and that he had not been given the opportunity to approve the results of his interview.Dugas, David via United Press International. [http://access.newspaperarchive.com/Viewer.aspx?
] , "Pacific Stars and Stripes" via Newspaper Archive, February 25, 1975. Accessed August 15, 2008.] After Columbia Pictures refused to distribute the picture, Bert Schneider and Henry Jaglom purchased back the rights and released the film in March 1975 through Warner Bros. A planned December 18, 1974 opening in Los Angeles, California was canceled after the production company had been unable to pay the $1 million needed to buy the rights from Columbia Pictures. The film was ultimately played in Los Angeles for the one week it needed to be eligible for consideration in the 1974 Academy Awards. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30B17F835551A7493CBA81789D95F408785F9 "Documentary on Vietnam Fails to Open; 'Somewhat Misleading"] , "The New York Times", December 19, 1974. Accessed August 11, 2008.]

During his acceptance of the Academy Award ceremonies on April 8, 1975, co-producer Bert Schneider said, "It's ironic that we're here at a time just before Vietnam is about to be liberated" and then read a telegram containing "Greetings of Friendship to all American People" from the Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace Accords. [Robinson, George. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507EEDE1738F937A35750C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Sometimes A Thank You Isn't Enough"] , "The New York Times", March 4, 2001. Accessed May 29, 2008.] Frank Sinatra responded later by reading a letter from Bob Hope, another presenter on the show, "The academy is saying, 'We are not responsible for any political references made on the program, and we are sorry they had to take place this evening.'" [Efron, Eric. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE7DC1439F933A05750C0A9659C8B63 " The World: Acting Out; At the Oscars, a Cause and Effect"] , "The New York Times", March 30, 2003. Accessed May 29, 2008.]

World Movies, the Australian subscription TV channel, included "Hearts and Minds" in its 2007 series of "25 Docs You Must See Before You Die". [citeweb |url=http://www.worldmovies.net/25docs/ |title=25 Docs You Must See Before You Die |publisher=World Movies |accessedate=January 27, 2008]

Featured individuals

A scene described as one the film's "most shocking and controversial sequences" shows the funeral of an ARVN soldier and his grieving family, as a sobbing woman is restrained from climbing into the grave after the coffin. [Dittmar, Linda; and Michaud, Gene. [http://books.google.com/books?id=HrYrtkMU_t4C&pg=PA273&lpg=PA273&dq=westmoreland+%22life+is+cheap%22+%22hearts+and+minds%22&source=web&ots=B4O6O8knvX&sig=Xm_H2d3k7muE1mqQMgPNzc53x7w&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result "From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film"] , Rutgers University Press, 1990via Google Books, p. 273. ISBN 0813515874.] The funeral scene is juxtaposed with an interview with General William Westmoreland — commander of American military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak from 1964 to 1968 and United States Army Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1972 — telling a stunned Davis 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." After an initial take, Westmoreland indicated that he had expressed himself inaccurately. After a second take ran out of film, the section was reshot for a third time, and it was the third take that was included in the film. [citeweb |author=Jackson, Derrick Z. |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/21/opinion/edjackson.php |title=Derrick Z. Jackson: The Westmoreland mind-set" |publisher="International Herald Tribune" |date=July 22, 2005. |accessedate=January 26, 2008]

The film also includes clips of George Thomas Coker, a United States Navy aviator held by the North Vietnamese as a prisoner of war for 6½ years, including more than two years spent in solitary confinement. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/honor/filmmore/pt.html "Return With Honor" Transcript] , PBS. Accessed August 11, 2008.] One of the film's earliest scenes details a homecoming parade in Coker's honor in his hometown of Linden, New Jersey, where he tells the assembled crowd on the steps of city hall that if the need arose, that they must be ready to send him back to war.citeweb |last =Anderegg |first = Michael A. |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kGyDjkIbifEC&pg=PA284&lpg=PA284&dq=coker+%22hearts+and+minds%22+linden&source=web&ots=qcA6dG3Avd&sig=s5F94oQhxFFURk8AEpWvN5b130E |title=Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television |publisher=Temple University Press. |accessdate=2008-01-10] Answering a student's question about Vietnam at a school assembly, Coker responds that "If it wasn't for the people, it was very pretty."cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/01/041101crci_cinema?currentPage=2|title=Aftermaths: Enduring Love, Hearts and Minds|last=Lane|first=Anthony|date=2004-11-01|publisher=The New Yorker|accessdate=2008-07-29] [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Terror and trauma. |url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1644711,00.html |publisher=The Guardian |date=November 18, 2005 |accessdate=2008-01-27 ] In a 2004 article on the film, Desson Thomson of "The Washington Post" comments on the inclusion of Coker in the film, noting that "When he does use people from the pro-war side, Davis chooses carefully."Cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51347-2004Oct21|title='Hearts And Minds' Recaptured |accessdate=2007-12-23|publisher=The Washington Post|year=2004|author=Desson Thomson] "Time" magazine's Stefan Kanfer noted the lack of balance in Coker's portrayal, "An ex-P.O.W.'s return to New Jersey is played against a background of red-white-and-blue-blooded patriots and wide-eyed schoolchildren. The camera, which amply records the agonies of South Vietnamese political prisoners, seems uninterested in the American lieutenant's experience of humiliation and torture."Kanfer, Stefan. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912958,00.html "War-Torn'] , "Time (magazine)",March 17, 1975. Accessed August 11, 2008.]

The film also features Vietnam war veteran and anti-war activist Bobby Muller, who later founded the Vietnam Veterans of America. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32492-2004Oct14 "Scores of Reasons to See These Silent Films"] , "The Washington Post", October 15, 2004. Accessed August 6, 2008.]

Daniel Ellsberg, who had released the "Pentagon Papers" in 1971, discusses his initial gung-ho attitude toward the war in Vietnam.Canby, Vincent. [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C01E0DE103AE03BBC4C51DFB566838E669EDE "'Hearts and Minds,' a Film Study of Power"] , "The New York Times", March 24, 1975. Accessed August 6, 2008.]

The film includes images of Phan Thị Kim Phúc in sections of a film shot of the aftermath of a napalm attack which shows Phúc at about age nine running naked on the street after being severely burned on her back.

Critical reception

"Hearts and Minds" has attracted extensive critical attention, almost all of it either glowingly positive or damningly negative, but rarely anything in between, with reviewers tending to treat it either as a masterpiece in political documentary film making or as a hatchet job anti-Vietnam War propaganda film, one that has received "passionately opposing views".

Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" called it an "epic documentary ... [that] recalls this nation's agonizing involvement in Vietnam, something you may think you know all about, including the ending. But you don't." Canby included the film among his ten best of 1975, calling it a "fine, complex, admittedly biased meditation upon American power" and a movie "that will reveal itself as one of the most all-emcompassing records of the American civilization ever put into one film." [Canby, Vincent. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10712F63D5916768FDDA10A94DA415B858BF1D3&scp=1&sq=ten%20best%20films%201975&st=cse "FILM VIEW; The Ten Best Films of 1975"] , "The New York Times", December 28, 1975. Accessed August 14, 2008.] Desson Thomson of "The Washington Post" described it as "one of the best documentaries ever made, a superb film about the thoughts and feelings of the era, the whole festering, spirited animus of it." Rex Reed called it that year's "best film at the Cannes Film Festival" and stated that " [t] his is the only film I have ever seen that sweeps away the gauze surroounding Vietnam and tells the truth." [Reed, Rex. [http://access.newspaperarchive.com/Viewer.aspx?
] , "Independent Press-Telegram", via Newspaper Archive, August 18, 1974. Accessed August 15, 2008.]

Other reviewers have criticized the movie for its biased presentation. Roger Ebert for the "Chicago Sun Times" wrote: "Here is a documentary about Vietnam that doesn't really level with us ... If we know something about how footage is obtained and how editing can make points, it sometimes looks like propaganda ... And yet, in scene after scene, the raw material itself is so devastating that it brushes the tricks aside." [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Hearts and Minds |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19740101/REVIEWS/401010317/1023 |quote= |work=Chicago Sun Times |date=January 1, 1974 |accessdate=2008-08-11] Walter Goodman of "The New York Times" in an article titled "False Art of the Propaganda Film", pointed out Davis' technique of showing only one side of the interview, pointing out that Walt Rostow's response may have been in response to "some provocation, a gesture, a facial expression, a turn of phrase" from his interrogator. [Goodman, Walter. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F1EF635581A738DDDAA0A94DB405B858BF1D3&scp=4&sq=%22walt%20rostow%22%20%22hearts%20and%20minds%22&st=cse "The False Art of the Propaganda Film"] , "The New York Times", March 23, 1975. Accessed August 14, 2008.] David Dugas of United Press International, in a 1975 review printed in "Pacific Stars and Stripes", saw that "Davis' approach clearly is one-sided and is not likely to impress Vietnam hawks. But his film is brilliantly assembled, biting and informative."

Colin Jacobson wrote in his review of the movie for the DVD Movie Guide: "Probably the biggest criticism one can level at [Hearts and Minds] stems from its editorial bent. Without question, it takes the anti-war side of things, and one could argue it goes for a pro-Vietnamese bent as well....In the end, Hearts and Minds remains a flawed film that simply seems too one-sided for its own good."cite web|url=http://www.dvdmg.com/heartsandminds.shtml|title=Hearts and Minds: Criterion (1974)|last=Jacobson|first=Colin|date=1974|publisher=DVD Movie Guide|accessdate=2008-06-24] In his review, David Ng of the online "
citeweb |author=Ng, David. |url=http://www.imagesjournal.com/2002/reviews/heartsminds/ |title="
2002. |accessdate=2007-12-22] M. Joseph Sobran, Jr. of the conservative magazine "National Review", wrote: "... blatant piece of propaganda ... disingenuously one-sided ..." and goes on to show the cinematic techniques used by the producers to achieve this effect.cite journal|last=Sobran Jr.|first=M. J. |authorlink=Joseph Sobran |date=1975-06-06|title=Heartless and Mindless|journal=National Review |publisher=via EBSCO|volume=27|issue=21|pages=621|issn=0028-0038|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mth&AN=6046063&site=ehost-live|accessdate=2008-06-24] Stefan Kanfer of "Time" magazine notes that "Throughout, Hearts and Minds displays more than enough heart. It is mind that is missing. Perhaps the deepest flaw lies in the method: the Viet Nam War is too convoluted, too devious to be examined in a style of compilation without comment."

Michael Moore has cited "Hearts and Minds" as the one movie that inspired him to become a film maker, calling it "not only the best documentary I have ever seen, it may be the best movie ever".Schwartz, Larry. [http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/inside-the-body-of-a-war-zone/2007/09/12/1189276775955.html "Inside the body of a war zone"] , "The Age", September 13, 2007. Accessed August 11, 2008.] [Kennedy, Lisa. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DP&p_theme=dp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10649BCEDBE15C03&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "``Hearts and Minds" run has new appeal"] , "Denver Post", November 9, 2004. Accessed August 11, 2008.] Many of the cinematic techniques used in "Hearts and Minds" are similar to Moore's 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11".cite journal|last=Wilder|first=Carol|date=2005|title=Separated at Birth: Argument by Irony in Hearts and Minds and Fahrenheit 9/11|journal=Atlantic Journal of Communication|publisher=The New School|issue=Summer 2005|url=http://homepage.newschool.edu/~wilder/ArgumentbyIrony.html|quote=What can the striking similarities and differences of these pictures tell us about the media environments of their respective times? What do they reveal about the architecture of cinematic argument? About the eternal verities of war rhetoric?| accessdate=2008-06-25]

ee also

*Hearts and Minds (Vietnam)

References

External links

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###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Academy Award for Documentary Feature
years=1974
before="The Great American Cowboy"
after="The Man Who Skied Down Everest"