After watching the documentary " Hearts and Minds" by Peter Davis I found myself disappointed in our involvement in the conflict. I was always aware that Vietnam was a quagmire for the United States, but have never seen anything detailing some of the specifics.
By having the documentary focus on a few main characters and their thought and perceptions of the war Davis brings the emotion of the war back to life. He carefully focuses on characters who contrast each other like the pro war POW, and then the seemingly pro war Marine who later states that the war took his life and his national pride away.
In all I think the film did a good job of establishing the atrocities of the war. Also I think it brings home the fact that we knew in order to win the war we had to win "the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. The fact that the soldiers over there were trained to see them not as people but as the enemy goes a long way in showing how detached and lost we were in the struggle.
After further thinking of the movie there is a lot of technical aspects That I could have focused on. After thinking about the technique of filming the documentary there is a lot of commentary that I could of focused on. For example the usage of dead bodies and their portrayal throughout the film. Another aspect would be the how the shot changes in the movie were used in order to support Davis' argument.
ReplyDeleteUpon further refection I can now understand more completely the goals of the movie. It was not just created to show and underscore the missteps of the Vietnam War. It was created to show that there was no concern for the people of Vietnam and for that matter little concern for our troops, and the effects the war had on them. By outlining the different perceptions of various soldiers, Davis is able to bring home that not only did we not take care to embody a strategy focused on winning the war for the people of the Vietnam war, that to do so we would have had to have a strategy here at home that that focused on our troops, thus providing the opportunity for our military and Government, to have operated more effectively in the conflict.
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