Film Analysis Of The Movie Hearts And Minds, By Peter Davis

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The film Hearts and Minds is a documentary made by Peter Davis in 1974 to portray America’s unethical involvement in Vietnam and examine the opinions of many by showing interviews and vivid footages. The film focuses more on those who were against the war than those who supported it. For the U.S. all that mattered was the victory. However, those who were opposed to the war felt that there was no right or reasonable justification for their actions. The real issue illustrated by the film was whether the U.S. wanted to protect the country from communism or to manifest its greatest power in the world by winning another war. Therefore, throughout the film, we see the atrocities committed against innocent Vietnamese people such as brutal beatings, …show more content…
Some did not even know where the airplanes came from, but all that mattered was that people were being blown away and homelands were being bombed without any remorse. It is shown how Vietnamese in tears explained that the bombs destroyed their homes and families. As a consequence of this war, hundred of thousands of people have died due to poison and bombs. There are images and footages that show Vietnamese children’s dying and skin coming off from Napalm, soldiers burning down villages and beating up innocent people. The most heartbreaking scene was a father grieving for his 8 year-old son and 3 year-old daughter who had been …show more content…
America’s number one ambition was to win the war. The government and president Nixon lie about the plans and reasons for building American troops in Vietnam. Once the public and soldiers realized how wrong they were, over half the troops deserted the military, but came back to be punish with jail and bad discharges that had to carry around for the rest of their lives. Toward the end of the documentary, we can see the regret of many veterans since they had no justification in being involved in this war and realized their actions were immoral and wrong since Vietnam fought only in self-defense. As Father Chan Tim Saigon said, Vietnam only fight against the invaders in order to protect their freedom, independence and national unity. Thus, the U.S. was seen as the enemy rather than heroes such as Daniel Ellsberg says, “we weren’t on the wrong side, we were the wrong

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