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I'm presently viewing the Criterion DVD release of "Hearts and Minds".It's one of those brain challenging releases, seemingly timeless, film releases, that is compelling...no matter what your political views on the subject are...meaning, that it's compelling, in every sense of the word, and to all of one's senses.
I wasn't There...but I feel the thing we all share...those from That Generation...was that we were "there", in the sense that we lived through the collective social trauma of The Thing, that was Viet Nam...without having actually, to have been, in the war itself.
What yours or my political sentiments are, isn't what's important about this film!
Director Peter Davis, in this film, rather than, to express all of the classic, knee-jerk "liberal" sentiments of that Time, really has created what is, something special...a motion picture experience.
It's hard to imagine, that a documentary film...of a modern generation...expounding one philosophy and one point of view, that can do this...but it does. Documentary has become something of a watered-down, weakened, hybrid, since the advent of Tv News. Tv has has diluted the impact of realism in Media, and how it impacts on the viewer.
I can only think of one other film, of this generation...
Barbara Koppel's "Harlan County"...that has approximated, what documentary REALLY is, to the viewer...in it's purest form...up to Michael Moore's "recent" examination of Flint, Michigan. While Fredrick Wiseman's "Titticut Follies", and the Maysles "Salesman", are touchstones, theatrical motion picture documentary has become a lost, and largely, desecrated, media art. And alot of that has to do with Tv News, and its various forms of "news expose'" and weak bastardizations by Geraldo Rivera (his Willowbrook Hospital Tv expose/documentary was just a straight "Titticut Follies" rip-off, and "new", only, to those who were, at the time, Tv News spoonfed), et al.Anyway....this is Essential for people who love to experience the Power, of what Film can do, to those who view it. Change minds.
Very dangerous stuff, indeed, these days !
Follow Ups:
Film is still not as abused a medium as TV, but the gap is closing. The sad thing is, it takes a film like "Hearts and Minds", all too rare, to offer us the perspective of just how greatly those two mediums fail to deliver the goods, particularly with regard to "reality" and shouldering the burden of responsible journalism. The Brave are not just those that stop a bullet, but the guys who go, see, and then "tell it like it is". I was part of the Vietnam era, but was too young to serve. Anyone approaching this subject in any medium today is brave by default; anyone succeeding in taking a fresh look, or offering any level of depth or compassion regarding this great tragedy, deserves their 15 minutes of fame IMHO.
The legacy of Vietnam is going to be with us for a long, long time. Thanks nymike for the "heads up".
Eric
Tokyo*
I agree...that's why directors...it should be "director"...like Oliver Stone challenges the viewer with his "point of view". They are not popular, because having any point of view or making a "message film", is viewed, as so disruptive, in this most passive of media.Personally, I objected to the intentional badgering of Walt Rostow, in this film. It was a "cheap shot", designed to provoke and get a reaction, rather than get anything informative out of the subject. I'm sure if he just spoke, he would "draw enough rope" for himself.
That some of the other participants, particularly Clark Clifford, are so glib and "comfortable" with the camera, he can't seem to talk enough...well, I guess, that's why they call it documentary !
What is evident about special film experiences like this, is not the subject matter, or our individual opinions are...but, that the Film Experience affects us, and makes us Think.When was the last time a film or Media Experience, did that for you ?
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