One of my all time favorites.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This was made in 1974 before the end of the Vietnam War and one can feel the tensions of that era in this documentary. There are many interviews with people – both for and against the war. What is special in this film is what comes from Vietnam itself – both the war footage and the interviews conducted there – most of them are very poignant and heart-rending. This is not an easy film to watch.Some of the Americans interviewed come off as veritable idiots. Despite the hard-ships that George Coker endured he is nothing more than a super-patriot. Westmoreland is simply callous – to think that this man was in charge of U.S. forces is frightening. Daniel Ellsberg, Clark Clifford and others are most forthright.But there are some simplistic aspects to this documentary. To intersperse scenes of an American football game with the Vietnam War footage is very questionable. All cultures worship sport and to idly suggest that there is a connection between sport and war is a rather odd and detracts from the seriousness of the documentary. There are other interludes like this where clips are shown from older movies.While it is true that American involvement began with the French in the 1950's - it was the Kennedy administration and particularly the Johnson administration where the real troop escalations began. Actually Eisenhower was very good at keeping the U.S. out of foreign entanglements in terms of sending American soldiers.But watch this really for the Vietnamese aspect – it is very charged.

I first knew about this Oscar-winning documentary when Rex Reed and Bill Harris mentioned it on their "At the Movies" program in the late '80s when they discussed Vietnam War films in the wake of the success of Platoon. I also later read about the controversial comments producer Bert Schneider read from the Viet Cong when he accepted the Academy Award that got Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra to disavow those remarks as Oscar approved. Having watched it now, director Peter Davis does a remarkable job of trying to find a balance with the various viewpoints of Americans-conservative and liberal-and that of the Asian country-persons whose loss of homes and family are the most heartbreaking scenes on film. But he also exposes how the propaganda of World War II movies may have contributed to such ignorant comments like those of former prisoner-of-war Lt. George Coker-"If it wasn't for the people, it would be very pretty. The people over there are very backward and very primitive and they just make a mess out of everything." Or this from Gen. William Westmoreland-"The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is cheap in the Orient." One wonders if they ever regretted those remarks. Many other painfully touching moments occur that I won't mention here. With all that said, I highly recommend Hearts and Minds.

Many have considered this film to be biased, and rightly so. It is no accident that the Vietnamese are sympathized considerably more than are the American soldiers and their leaders. In a time when many pro-war Americans felt that our position as a world power granted us the right to intervene and make decisions for other groups of people, Peter Davis' documentary was an eye opener for those willing to embrace its strong and poignant criticisms. Part of what Davis attempts to do is to show us the Vietnamese, not as a baser and apathetic people, but as real human beings with intelligence, history, and culture that were being trampled upon and overlooked in the face of a debilitating fear of spreading Communism. To carefully watch this film is to experience a side of war that has all too often been disregarded in American history: the view from the other side. If you would like to read more about my interpretation of this film and see a variety of other sources and helpful materials to better understand Hearts and documentary film in general, click on this link to my viewing guide for the film: http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/ documentary/comm3325.viewing.guide.charles.tallent.pdf

This movie points out what is now commonly known. That Viet Nam was a mistake. We never should have been there. Too many people, Americans included, suffered for reasons not clear. This movie gave us the Viet Namese point of view as well. It was very difficult to watch the funeral of the young soldier as his very young son stands there holding his father's picture. The little boy was so overcome with grief that he could barely stand. And an older woman (the soldier's mother?) tried to jump into the grave just before they filled it. Heartrending. The interviews with the injured soldiers was also hard to watch. They knew what was happening but their story was getting covered up at the time. They gave warning that no one heeded. A very important document. Should be required viewing.