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Pretty Good

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Peter Davis tried to help us see our purpose in Vietnam with use of cinematic juxtaposition. In that regard, this film is extremely successful. On the one hand you hear the callous remarks of an aloof man far removed from the intricacies of everyday life in the country of Vietnam. He casually states that life in the orient is "cheap" in his own words. In the next scene, we see the pain and misery (I should say we feel it) that villagers who have lost children experience. It is agonizing to watch. The arrogance on the part of some Americans reduced the enemy to stereotypes carried over from World War II and was made to apply here by over simplistic politicians. The lessons from Vietnam are hard to forget for my generation, who lost so much: our innocence, our trust, and our brethren. When we watched those mistakes take place in Iraq, it pained many of us to relive them all over again. War enacts a terrible toll in terms of lives lost and wounded. Those wounds extend for generations.This review comes at a time when politics once more plays a new important role in the Academy Awards. On the night of his acceptance, Peter Davis complained that the Vietnamese people still suffered at the hands of the American military and pleaded their case during the Oscar telecast. Frank Sinatra came out next and excused the speaker as not being a voice for members of the Academy. Warren Beatty, who next presented, thanked Sinatra as "you old Republican, you!" It displayed the bitter divisions that fracture our democracy along political lines, all started with Vietnam.War has a terrible impact on the people who live in the area of conflict. While soldiers comprise a very small percentage of those involved, it is the citizens who suffer and die the most (most unreported), and whose lives are forever affected. Peter Davis simply tried to help us see the impact of what we do in places so far removed from this "peaceful" nation.

This was one of the most bias documentary films I have ever seen.It was so one sided it couldn't truly be considered good on any level.Shame on anyone who sees this film as a "truth" of the times.The only reason to watch a film like this is for the technical aspects of it.There is nothing redeeming about this film.The director makes the entire Vietnam War seem as though no Americans were even hurt. That all the blood shed happened on one side and not to both sides.It was filmed too close to the epicenter of the action and it is therefore not a true sense of what the war was like.I hope someday people will be able to look at this and be able to take away the awards it received.

There are no Michael Moore narratives in this documentary. Players from all sides speak for themselves, and you have to see it to believe it.A Vietnamese carpenter, who makes caskets for children, recounts stories of children killed by American bombs. A Vietnamese woman is so grief-stricken that she climbs into the grave of a loved one as it is being covered with dirt. Viatnamese children run naked through the streets, skin dripping from their bodies, from recently dropped napalm.An American soldier executes a handcuffed Vietnamese man in the middle of the street. A former CIA official coldly recounts the story of a Viatnamese POW who was thrown from a helicopter because he would not answer questions.Back at home, a former American bomber pilot cries as he imagines his own children being exposed to the same incendiary devices he dropped on the children of Vietnam. An American mother and father describe the son they lost and eerily repeat the jingoistic phrases of the government they continue to fully support, while another American mother says, "All these people holding their heads up high because they lost a son in Vietnam or some place, well, I don't think that's much to be proud of. They've lost more than they'll ever gain for the rest of their life." But Gen. Westmoreland sums it up best: "The Oriental does not put the same high price on life as the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the orient."Hearts and Minds is a great documentary. It speaks for itself.

The only fully honest movie or documentary I've seen on the Vietnam War. Several movies show the suffering of U.S. soldiers who fought or were wounded in Vietnam, or readily admit that the war effort was flawed - e.g., former Secretary of Defense Bob McNamara in "The Fog of War." But none that I know of tell us what was really behind the war and how it divided the country between the jingoist or conformist hawks and the people of conscience who could not support such a bloody Ne-colonial war of aggression - "aggression," not an honest "mistake" that our media portray. It showed the Vietnamese people in their humanity, patriotism, and incredible courage in the face of crucifixion by an utterly awesome U.S. war machine. Unfortunately, the documentary's message got lost or was never seen by millions of Americans who are still in denial about what Vietnam stood for - a denial that permits the kind of character assassination by the "swiftboat veterans" that may have cost John Kerry the election in 2004.