Hearts and Minds (film) - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Hearts and Minds has attracted extensive critical attention, almost all of it either glowingly positive or damningly negative, but rarely anything in between, with reviewers tending to treat it either as a masterpiece in political documentary film making or as a hatchet job anti-Vietnam War propaganda film, one that has received "passionately opposing views". A mixture of mostly contemporary film critic reviews on the review tallying website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of the 30 film critics reviews they tallied were positive with an average critics score of 8.2 out of 10.

Vietnam War films from the 1960s to the 1970s reflected deep divisions at home over the war. Some reflected pro-war sentiments and vilified anti-war protesters, while others stood at the opposite end and criticized government officials and policies. "Hearts and Minds" was one of the first of the latter to have been produced and released before the war's end in 1975.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it an "epic documentary ... recalls this nation's agonizing involvement in Vietnam, something you may think you know all about, including the ending. But you don't." Canby included the film among his ten best of 1975, calling it a "fine, complex, admittedly biased meditation upon American power" and a movie "that will reveal itself as one of the most all-emcompassing records of the American civilization ever put into one film." Desson Thomson of The Washington Post described it as "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." Rex Reed called it that year's "best film at the Cannes Film Festival" and stated that "his is the only film I have ever seen that sweeps away the gauze surrounding Vietnam and tells the truth." World Movies, the Australian subscription TV channel, included Hearts and Minds in its 2007 series of 25 Docs You Must See Before You Die.

Other reviewers have criticized the movie for its biased presentation. Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun Times wrote: "Here is a documentary about Vietnam that doesn't really level with us ... If we know something about how footage is obtained and how editing can make points, it sometimes looks like propaganda ... And yet, in scene after scene, the raw material itself is so devastating that it brushes the tricks aside." Walter Goodman of The New York Times in an article titled False Art of the Propaganda Film, pointed out Davis' technique of showing only one side of the interview, pointing out that Walt Rostow's response may have been in response to "some provocation, a gesture, a facial expression, a turn of phrase" from his interrogator. To this criticism, actress Shirley MacLaine responded, " displays the very deception and distortion that is usually associated with the pejorative meaning of propaganda. For example, Mr. Goodman starts out by claiming that in most countries, propaganda is a monopoly of the state, but that in the United States the most notable examples of propaganda 'come from the state's adversaries.' This is ridiculous. In America, the state spends millions of dollars every year on propaganda."

David Dugas of United Press International, in a 1975 review printed in Pacific Stars and Stripes, saw that "Davis' approach clearly is one-sided and is not likely to impress Vietnam hawks. But his film is brilliantly assembled, biting and informative."

Colin Jacobson wrote in his review of the movie for the DVD Movie Guide: "Probably the biggest criticism one can level at stems from its editorial bent. Without question, it takes the anti-war side of things, and one could argue it goes for a pro-Vietnamese bent as well....In the end, Hearts and Minds remains a flawed film that simply seems too one-sided for its own good." In his review, David Ng of the online Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture wrote: "The documentary is clearly anti-war in both tone and content." M. Joseph Sobran, Jr. of the conservative magazine National Review, wrote: "... blatant piece of propaganda ... disingenuously one-sided ..." and goes on to show the cinematic techniques used by the producers to achieve this effect. Stefan Kanfer of Time magazine notes that "Throughout, Hearts and Minds displays more than enough heart. It is mind that is missing. Perhaps the deepest flaw lies in the method: the Viet Nam War is too convoluted, too devious to be examined in a style of compilation without comment."

Michael Moore has cited Hearts and Minds as the one movie that inspired him to become a film maker, calling it "not only the best documentary I have ever seen, it may be the best movie ever". Many of the cinematic techniques used in Hearts and Minds are similar to Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.