Hearts and Minds

This Oscar-winning documentary from director Peter Davis literally shook the world when it first shown at the Cannes International Critics' Week in 1974, almost a full year before the fall of Saigon and the end of the war it was investigating. Some of the images in the film, like a young girl running naked down the street, her body burned with napalm, or the graphic assassination of a man shot through the  head, have been with us for generations and still have the ability to shock and appall the viewer. Watching it now, though, some 40 years after its release, the experience feels a bit watered down, especially if you were of an age to see it way back when. Sure, it’s still disturbing to listen to a US Army General tell people that Asian people value life less than Americans do (with the none-too-subtle subtext that it’s OK to kill them), but today’s audience is far more cynical. They almost expect their leaders to be corrupt, unfeeling jerks like General Westmoreland. The fact that such cynicism is a direct result of our experience in Vietnam echoes throughout your viewing.