Hearts and Minds (1974)
BBS Productions

Description

A courageous and startling film, Peter Davis' landmark documentary Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronts the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Using a wealth of sources-from interviews to newsreels to documentary footage of the conflict at home and abroad-Davis constructs a powerfully affecting portrait of the disastrous effects of war. Explosive, persuasive, and shocking, Hearts and Minds is an overwhelming emotional experience and the controversial winner of the 1974 Academy Award® for Best Documentary.

Tags

1960s, 1970s, Vietnam War, Oscar winner

Collected reviews and ratings

10 The Guardian | Peter Bradshaw

... a stunning insight into the disillusion and discontent that was to wash through the rest of that decade.
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10 New York Times | Vincent Canby

Power is virtually the first word heard in Peter Davis's epic documentary, "Hearts and Minds," and power, real and mythical, is what the film contemplates in as many tones and moods as you might expect in superior fiction.
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10 San Francisco Chronicle | Steve Winn

The unnerving brilliance of the film owes to the director's skill at assembling information and allowing it to speak for itself. The scenes have full weight and amplitude; nothing is exploited for an easy effect. "Hearts and Minds" builds a withering critique by never raising its voice.
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10 Washington Post | Desson Thomas

It's one of the best documentaries ever made, a superb film about the thoughts and feelings of the era, the whole festering, spirited animus of it.
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10 digitallyobsessed.com | Mark Zimmer

A powerful examination of what went into the Vietnam War and what came out of it; not exactly a probe into causes so much as a look at motives and effects, it spares no one while being sympathetic to nearly all views. One of the great documentaries and highly recommended.
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10 DVD Outsider

One of the only films about the conflict that was made and released before its conclusion, it has found renewed political relevance in post-Iraq war America, where 1960s communist paranoia has been traded in for 21st century terrorist paranoia, prompting similarly polarised public and political attitudes and quotes as dogmatic, ill-informed and simplistic as any presented here.
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10 Empire | Colin Kennedy

Still shocking, still powerful, still prudent. What is it they say about the more things change?
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9.2 The Onion A.V. Club | Nathan Rabin

At its best, Hearts & Minds bears wrenching witness to the terrible cost of war, from permanently traumatized soldiers to the communities and families it destroys. One of the definitive anti-war documentaries, Davis' film puts a human face on an American and Vietnamese tragedy.
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9.0 Amazon user reviews

There were, and are, no words to express the darkness of men's souls; there is only art. And, besides being a good documentary on the Vietnam war, this film is art, of the most important kind.
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9.0 DVD Active | Scott McKenzie

It is highly recommended viewing, giving a frank depiction of the effects of American foreign policy on another country that was trying to adopt US values of independence.
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9.0 The Documentary Site | Heather McIntosh

Hearts and Minds shows how the United States failed to win over the hearts and minds of not only the Vietnamese people, but also numerous Americans, including former soldiers and politicians. The film shows the “enemy” as human, as people, not faceless strangers.
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9.0 DVD Verdict | Barrie Maxwell

Davis's view of the war is very clear despite his efforts to provide a balanced view of its causes and effects, its pros and cons. For once, we get an idea of what the ordinary Vietnamese experienced and what they thought about American support, rather than just a parroted response from the propped-up South Vietnamese regime.
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8.0 Eye For Film | Anton Bitel

Unlike Moore, Davis treats all his interviewees with due respect and gravity. There are no mocking stunts or contrived entrapments here; rather, the subjects are left to be judged by their own words.
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8.0 DVD Talk | Jason Bovberg

Hearts & Minds isn't exactly a rah-rah piece of American propaganda—far from it. Instead, it's a documentary that reaches into the soul and tries to make sense, in human terms, of an American tragedy.
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7.5 Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

If we know something about how footage is obtained and how editing can make points, it sometimes looks like propaganda, using such standard tricks as the juxtaposition of carefully selected but unrelated material to create a desired effect. And yet, in scene after scene, the raw material itself is so devastating that it brushes the tricks aside.
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7.5 Reel | Tor Thorsen

Few films — documentary or otherwise — have shown as effectively how political doctrine turns into bloody chaos once boots hit the ground.
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7.0 filmcritic.com | Christopher Null

If Davis weren't so obviously compromised, I'd say his Hearts and Minds was the most uncompromising look at the Vietnam War you'll find.
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6.0 DVD Times | Anthony Nield

Clearly Davis is trying to attain an emotional response rather than an intellectual one and it is this approach with we see throughout.
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6.0 DVD Journal

Davis's sharp, contrapuntal structure hammers the point again and again — how much longer can the American government, and the American public, turn a blind eye to the horrors of Vietnam, particularly in an arena of battle that offers no clear strategy or victory?
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