HEARTS AND MINDS
Directed by PETER DAVIS
Procrustes was a mythic giant with a notorious bed. If his guests were too short, he stretched them to fit. If they were too tall, he chopped off the excess. In Hearts and Minds, the giant is impersonated by the film makers. The bed is the film itself.
Beginning with the noblest of motives—examination of the roots and consequences of the Viet Nam War—this vigorous, chaotic documentary manipulates time for its own ends. The bombing of Haiphong harbor, John Foster Dulles' domino theory, J. Edgar Hoover's fears of "common-ists," a brutal football game, '40s war movies—all flow...