Synopsis
Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.
Votre Filmothèque
Cast
- Clark CliffordSelf - Aide to President Truman 1946-50
- John Foster DullesSelf (archive footage)
- Georges BidaultSelf - French Foreign Minister in 1954
- Harry S. TrumanSelf (archive footage)
- Dwight D. EisenhowerSelf (archive footage)
- John F. KennedySelf (archive footage)
- Richard NixonSelf (archive footage)
- Lyndon B. JohnsonSelf (archive footage)
- George CokerSelf - Prisoner of War 1966-73
- Walt RostowSelf - Aide to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson
Recommandations
- 100
San Francisco Chronicle
The unnerving brilliance of the film owes to the director's skill at assembling information and allowing it to speak for itself. - 90
Chicago Reader
A masterful documentary, one of the most unsettling discussions of Vietnam and its aftermath ever to appear in any medium. - 80
TV Guide Magazine
A powerful piece of documentary filmmaking. - 80
Village Voice
Built to outrage, appall, and indict. - 80
Washington Post
Davis, who won an Oscar for Best Documentary, may not have agreed with presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon on the war, but he heeded Johnson's call to fight for hearts and minds. His aim was dead on target. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
The problem is that the film is at such pains to make its points that it doesn't trust us to find our own connections. - 60
The A.V. Club
During his clumsiest moments, Davis' fondness for provocation rises to the surface, which is unfortunate, since it weakens the impact of his many salient points about how American men are socialized to be warriors. - 50
The New Yorker
Hearts and Minds, which gives no clue that atrocities were committed by the other side, and which allows Davis to cut from a rampaging football game, back home, to the Tet offensive, will be a lesson to anybody who thinks that Michael Moore invented the notion of documentary as blunderbuss.
