Hearts and Minds

Hearts and Minds is a sobering look into the effects of the Vietnam War, both in the United States and in Vietnam. There is no Morgan Freeman to narrate the message about the horrors of war in a Discovery Channel-esque fashion, but rather Davis lets the images and people speak for themselves. In foregoing a strict formal documentary commentating merely on “when and where” of the events of the Vietnam, Davis is asking us, the viewers, to attempt to find our own significance in the things we are being shown.

One technique that Davis uses throughout the documentary is the juxtaposition of interviews and events in the US with the same things in Vietnam. A solid contrast is drawn between the Vietnamese people and the American soldiers. On one side a Vietnamese man speaks of the sorrows of the loss of life in Vietnam as he hammers away constructing children’s coffins. On the other side a former soldier in uniform calmly explains how his bombing missions were “professional” and was necessary job.

When placed next to each other in this manner, its hard not to sympathize with the Vietnamese people. The inclusion of clips of violence and death, raise the questions “why are we doing this” in our minds and blurs the demarcation between “good” and “bad” in the Vietnam War. Were we right to be there? Did the inconclusive end really justify the horrible means? Do we really have an authority over the way a people should live their lives? These are all questions that Davis encourages us to ponder over, using not only our minds, but our hearts.