hearts and minds

Hearts and Minds wasn't exactly what I had expected. I was expecting something more bloody and disturbing. I really liked the fact that there was no narrator during the documentary. In the commentary by Peter Davis he said that the lack of a narrator removes the curtain between the person watching the film and the actual film, allowing them to develop their own thoughts.

I felt that this was the first thing we've seen that I actually felt like I connected with. Peter Davis uses a lot of interviews with Vietnamese citizens, something we have not seen in other films. We are able to see a side that wasn't too common in other films. I especially enjoyed the opening scene and the Vietnamese music. We also see a lot of the Vietnamese culture which I thought was pretty cool. I read somewhere online that the man working on the coffins was in more danger than Davis and those interviewing him. The interview took place in the basement of a hospital. If the man had been caught by a Vietnamese official he could have been imprisoned just for speaking to Davis and participating in the interview. I found that really interesting that the man seem to not care about that at all. His interview contributed a lot to the documentary.

There are many scenes that remain stuck in my head including the interview of the two old sister speaking of losing their sister and home. It was even more emotional hearing it in Vietnamese than in English. The scene of the young boy crying over the loss of his father still flashes back in my head. To be so young and lose a parent during a war that you don't understand is something I couldn't even imagine. Victory, LBJ said, "will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there." That was something I found myself thinking about after the documentary was over.

I went to Blockbusters and Hollywood Video looking for the documentary to watch again to write my RA but couldn't find it at neither of the locations I went to. I did find the whole movie online so if anyone is interested, here it is:


you don't have to download it and it plays right in your window.