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HEARTS & MINDS
Review by Michael Jacobson
Director:
Peter Davis
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Studio: Criterion
Features: Director's Commentary
Length: 112 Minutes
Release Date: June 25, 2002
“I
want to give you my daughter's beautiful shirt. Take it back to America.
Tell them what has happened here. She
was only a child. She'll never
wear the shirt again.”
Hearts
& Minds, the
first truly unflinching look at America's involvement in Vietnam, is as
devastating a filmgoing experience as I can remember, or care to repeat.
Director Peter Davis has assembled an astonishing collection of footage
ranging from the politicians behind the war to the vets who fought in it, from
the everyday person on the street and what they did or didn't think about the
war, to the countless innocents who were victimized by it.
His
juxtaposition of images bring out an almost unbearable power from the
material…for example, showing President Nixon's congratulatory dinner for
the men who flew the massive B 52 Christmas bombing mission over Vietnam, then
showing the horrible results of that bombing.
The man quoted above, lost his daughter and others in the attack.
His was not a military target…it was merely a pig farm.
Many
Vietnamese are buried as we watch children mourn for parents and vice
versa…one unforgettable shot shows an inconsolable civilian trying to climb
into the grave with the coffin while the soldiers tried to stop her…an
astounding reminder that the victims of war aren't limited to those who were
killed or physically scarred by it.
And
what of the Americans who did the fighting?
Their personalities range, as might be expected.
One man proclaims to have enjoyed his experience in Vietnam; he is
clearly in the minority. Other veterans reflect upon their actions with sobriety and
solemnity. There was an illusion of
sterility about what they did. In
most cases, they never even heard the explosions from the bombs they released,
let alone get a good look at the devastation caused by them.
If they returned to base and were told their targets were completely
annihilated, they felt good…for the moment.
Cruel reality would dawn on them much later.
To
call Hearts & Minds controversial for a 1974 release is an
understatement…here was a film unleashed upon a nation that by and large was
not ready to face the reality of its actions.
It was a movie that forced us to reconcile with the fact that war is
never as surgically precise as we like to think…as much as we pretend that
only enemy soldiers die and military targets destroyed, the fact is that bombs,
bullets and fire spreading chemicals know no such lines of discrimination.
“Many
bombs, many coffins,” one Vietnamese wood worker ponders…a concise statement
about the realities of war. Even
more potent is his next statement: “These
are for the children.” America
lost something more than just a military excursion in Vietnam…a part of her
soul was lost, as well. A moral
center shifted that arguably has never found itself in place again.
Hearts
& Minds is,
at its most contemplative, a search for America's lost soul at a time when it
wasn't ready to be found. Did we
learn anything from our experience in Vietnam, the filmmakers ponder?
Answers a vet: “I think we're trying NOT to.”
And while these simple truths are being spoken, Peter Davis has the
courage to keep his cameras on his subject for uncomfortably long times as they
reflect on those lessons. In other
words, the war Davis brings to us is not one of simple and convenient sound
bites, but one that forces us to think about both words and actions.
Maybe
no words are as telling in the film as those of General Westmoreland, who, after
Davis has shown us scene after scene of the most heartbreaking mourning
imaginable, coldly comments that the typical “Oriental” places no real value
on life. I can only hope the
General someday got to watch Hearts & Minds, hear his own words in
context, and find himself lying awake at nights unable to escape their echo.
Video
***
For
a more than quarter-century old film, this print and transfer both hold up
considerably well. It's not
perfect, nor can we expect it to be given the hodgepodge nature of footage
assembling the movie, but for the most part, colors render extremely well and
naturally, images are well-defined, and scratches, spots and other aging
artifacts are minimal and acceptable. Another
good effort from Criterion.
Audio
**
As
with most mono tracks, there is very little to either praise or condemn here.
Dialogue is clean and clear, dynamic range is fair to minimal…for a
documentary, it's a perfectly serviceable if unspectacular offering.
Features
**
The
only feature is a very good one…Peter Davis offers an intelligent, well-spoken
and informative commentary track for the film, and this is the kind of film
where you'll really appreciate hearing the director's thoughts.
Also, the included booklet contains a number of interesting essays, both
on the movie and on the war itself.
Summary: