Hearts and Minds

1974 "The Forever War. Goes On"
8.2| 1h52m| R| en| More Info
Released: 20 December 1974 Released
Producted By: BBS Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

Genre

Documentary, War

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Director

Peter Davis

Production Companies

BBS Productions

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Hearts and Minds Audience Reviews

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
tjgoalie13 Hearts and Minds is a powerful documentary directed by Peter Davis, that exemplifies what a documentary can and should be. Rightfully so Hearts and Minds won the Oscar for Best Documentary, and remains a powerful, yet unsettling viewing experience. Hearts and Minds exemplifies a great documentary, because it tells an important and relevant real story, it remains as objective in it's presentation as possible, and it never holds back. All of this being said the film really features so much disturbing imagery, only so many people can willingly watch it, and more than likely many more will avoid it.The scope of the film is quite large, in terms of time, as it really covers about a ten to fifteen year period. The scope combined with the impact of the Vietnam War, make the story the documentary is telling all the more relevant, and important. When looking at real events in United States history that show an evolution, and are "film" worthy the Vietnam War is on the top of that list. Even more impressive is Davis method of telling his story, as there was probably a story to be told about the war exclusively, but Davis chose to show how the war affected the country. This made the scope larger, and the story even more relevant.Davis did a great job of showing the Country's borderline unflinching faith in its government, and that by the end of the war, the attitudes of almost everybody had changed, in some way. With so many different views, and such a complex issue, it would have been easy for Davis to focus on one side, but he went out of his way to show almost all viewpoints, and even portray them in a way where the audience can empathize with most of them. This makes his presentation all the more powerful, as the audience is almost forced to feel conflicted. Davis used this tactic to show the polarizing aspects of war, as well as "thinking revolution" that the country underwent with Vietnam.To fully understand the "Thinking Revolution" Davis had to show the atrocities of war, so that the audience, whenever they may watch it would fully understand why there was a thinking revolution. The film never really holds back, it shows every different viewpoint, as well as what happened in the war, however disturbing it may be. Throughout the film the audience is subjected to terrible imagery, that is even scarier because it's real, and uncensored. Watching this an audience member could finally realize how glorified films are, as none of them capture the nauseating imagery this film is full of. In the end the message seems anti-war, as it never presents that message, but it also bombards the audience with mostly negative imagery.In the end Hearts and Minds is a powerful, albeit disturbing experience, not meant for the weak-stomached or weak-willed. The film brilliantly shows an evolution of multiple societies, as well as the polarizing and negative aspects of the Vietnam War. The film should be commended for showing various different viewpoints and rarely treating any viewpoint with irreverence. Hearts and Minds, truly is a disturbing yet necessary experience.
geekerr The United States right wing still resonates with a blind sickening nationalism that denies honesty and decency.They are still lying as their President George Bush did to bomb innocent people in Iraq and use Mexican migrant workers to provide their food.The United States is rife with drug addiction , right wing nationalism which blinds people to the truth.The United States and the western world are presently destroying the entire planet by burning fossil fuels and don\t care about anyone other than their own selfish needs.The American mentality I allows presently the cold blood murder of its own citizenry . It has the highest rate of killing its own people with its love for guns and murder.
sol Hard hitting documentary directed by Peter Davis in how the US got itself involved in the War in Vietnam that ended up tearing the country apart. Made in 1974 before the Vetcong guerrillas and North Vietnamese Army overran the country the film shows the pitfalls that the US chose to overlook in getting itself stuck in the mud swamps and jungles that was the Vietnam War.There's really no one US President to blame for getting the country into that bloody mess of a war in that we see it was a team effort from Pres. Truman to Pres. Nixon and every other US Chief Executive, Eisenhower Kennedy & Johnson, in between. The French who were involved in the first Vietnam or Indochina War was soundly defeated by Ho Chi Minh's, known as "The Enlighten One", Viet Minh forces in the bloody and drawn out battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. That jungle battle ended the conflict that resulted in the loss, French and Vietnames military and civilians, of over 700,000 lives. During the almost 8 years of of fighting in Indochina War the US was far from neutral in supporting the French with almost 80% of the arms and money for the French to keep the war going.With the free and UN sponsored elections to unify both north and South Vietnam set to be held in 1956 and Ho Chi Minh being a sure shot of winning them the US under Pres. Eisenhower set up the puppet Diem to be South Vietnam's fist unelected president. This set the stage for the second Vietnam War that was to involved as much as 550,000 US troops and lasting 16 years from 1959 to 1975, the longest war in US history, ending up costing almost 60,000 American lives; Not to mention the some 3 million Vietnamese,from both North & South Vietnam, who perished in it.Among the many persons who were personally involved in the Vietnam war the one who made the biggest impact on me in the movie was former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford. Clifford in an interview admitted that those Generals and politicians conducting the war had no idea in not only how to win it but who they were fighting against. Everything that they did failed miserably and they ended up stuck in an unwindable war because in their mind by ending it, or withdrawing from the country, would lead to a "Domino Effect" where all of South-East Asia would end up falling into Communists hands. Which to them was worth the enormous loss of life, American & Vietnamese, that this bottomless quagmire of a war was was costing! As it turned out the "Domino Effect" turned out to be pure fiction with no other country in that part of the world turning Communist and Vietnam now a united country being one of the US', next to Communist China, biggest trading partners in Asia!What the film brings out best is how most of the American public finally realized that they've been had in going along with the bankrupt policies of their leaders who conned them, like in the faked and infamous Tonkin Gulf incident, into supporting the war. Taking to the street in massive anti-war demonstrations with hundreds of returning Vietnam war vet participating in them was what really brought the war to an end. But it took almost 6 years from 1966 to 1973 for it to happen! And it was during that time the majority of the almost 60,000 American and 3 million Vietnamese lives lost in the war were snuffed out.In the end the Vietnam War turned out to be a war that many from the Truman Eishenhower Kenndey Johnson & Nixon Administrations who whole hearted supported it at first would now, after all the facts are in about it, like to forget!
poohsoni This was one of the most bias documentary films I have ever seen.It was so one sided it couldn't truly be considered good on any level.Shame on anyone who sees this film as a "truth" of the times.The only reason to watch a film like this is for the technical aspects of it.There is nothing redeeming about this film.The director makes the entire Vietnam War seem as though no Americans were even hurt. That all the blood shed happened on one side and not to both sides.It was filmed too close to the epicenter of the action and it is therefore not a true sense of what the war was like.I hope someday people will be able to look at this and be able to take away the awards it received.