Hearts and Minds (film)

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This article refers to the 1974 movie; for other uses see Hearts and Minds (disambiguation)
Hearts and Minds
Directed by Peter Davis
Produced by Bert Schneider,
Peter Davis
Distributed by Rialto Pictures
Release date(s) 1974
Running time 112 min.
Language English
Budget $1,000,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Hearts and Minds is an Academy Award winning documentary about the Vietnam War directed by Peter Davis.

The film premiered at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival and won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Commercial distribution was delayed in the United States due to threats and lawsuits, including a restraining order obtained by one of the interviewees, former National Security Advisor Walt Rostow. 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. Pictures.

During his acceptance of the Oscar award, 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.[1] Frank Sinatra retaliated 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.'"[2]

World Movies, the Australian subscription TV channel, included Hearts and Minds in its 2007 series of 25 Docs You Must See Before You Die.[3]

Contents

[edit] Featured individuals

General William Westmoreland, who commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak from 1964 to 1968 and was United States Army Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1972, was interviewed in the film, 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.[4][5]

The film includes clips of George Thomas Coker, a United States Navy aviator held by the North Vietnamese as a prisoner of war for 6½ years. 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."[5] 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.[6] Answering a student's question about Vietnam at a school assembly, Coker responds that "If it weren't for the people, it would be a beautiful country."[7][8]

The film also features Vietnam war veteran and anti-war activist Bobby Muller.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Robinson, George. OSCAR FILMS/THE SHOW; Sometimes A Thank You Isn't Enough", The New York Times, March 4, 2001. Accessed May 29, 2008.
  2. ^ Efron, Eric. " The World: Acting Out; At the Oscars, a Cause and Effect", The New York Times, March 30, 2003. Accessed May 29, 2008.
  3. ^ 25 Docs You Must See Before You Die, World Movies. Accessed January 27, 2008.
  4. ^ Jackson, Derrick Z. "Derrick Z. Jackson: The Westmoreland mind-set", International Herald Tribune, July 22, 2005. Accessed January 26, 2008.
  5. ^ a b Desson Thomson (2004). 'Hearts And Minds' Recaptured. The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-12-23. “When he does use people from the pro-war side, Davis chooses carefully. Lt. George Coker, a former POW who returns to his home town of Linden, N.J., is shown making patriotic speeches around the country. But in a class of schoolchildren, while nuns hover in the background, he has this to say in response to a child's question about the Vietnamese countryside: "If it wasn't for the people, it would be very pretty."”
  6. ^ Anderegg, Michael A. "Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television", via Google Books, Temple University Press. Accessed January 10, 2008.
  7. ^ Ng, David. "Hearts & Minds - DVD Review", Images: a journal of film and popular culture, 2002. Accessed December 22, 2007. "When asked by a student what Vietnam was like, he replies in perfect deadpan: 'If it weren't for the people, it would be a beautiful country.'"
  8. ^ "Terror and trauma.", The Guardian, November 18, 2005. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. "As well as traumatised veterans, he finds draft-card burners, hundreds on peace marches and a returned navy veteran who, when asked by a child what Vietnam looks like, replies: "If it wasn't for the people, it [would be] very pretty."" 

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Great American Cowboy		 Academy Award for Documentary Feature
1974		 Succeeded by
The Man Who Skied Down Everest
Languages