Peter Davis' landmark documentary Hearts and Minds confronts with stark frankness the United States' involvement in Vietnam and the development of its foreign policy in the 1970s. Using a carefully constructed range of meticulously researched and powerful material including original interviews, newsreel and documentary footage of the conflict and its aftermath both on the battlefield and on home soil, there emerges a devastating and affecting self-portrait, one that sheds light on not only the soldiers and the war itself, but also the catastrophic effects that conflict has on the citizens it so often rages negligently around. An incendiary, enlightening and ultimately sobering experience.
Hearts and Minds was the controversial but undeniably deserving winner of the 1974 Academy Award for Best Documentary.