Hearts and Minds Analysis

Hearts and Minds The documentary Hearts and Minds, directed by Peter Davis displays the many perspectives of the Vietnam War through video footage and interviews of Vietnamese and American Soldiers, Vietnamese and American Citizens, and other individuals. Throughout the documentary, a former American soldier from the Vietnam War, Randy Floyd is questioned. One hour, forty-three minutes, forty- fives seconds (1:45:52) into the documentary and continuing to the conclusion documentary, it is here when his perspective made the biggest influence. Randy Floyd’s name appears in the subtitles. Floyd begins to speak about the bombs, artillery, and gases that were being released on the Vietnamese. An explosion is shown, while Floyd speaks, there is video footage of children, running away from the explosion. The children run up to American soldiers, and all the soldiers are able to do is poor water from their canteens onto their wounds. There is also a woman, burned badly herself, carrying a children who appears to be unconscious. The children are severally burned; their skin is pealing off in large pieces. One of the children has no clothing on, showing how poverty stricken the children in Vietnam are. Floyd speaks continuously throughout the clip, using a narrative cut’s to navigate between clips of the bombed, burnt children and the eye level interview of Randy Floyd. Floyd’s voice is heard over some of the clips of the bombing destruction, along with the cries and screams of the children. These devastating sights and sounds create a depressing tone for this perspective of the documentary. During a clip of his eye level interview, Randy Floyd speaks about why the American soldiers dropped the artillery and gasses on the Vietnams. It is clear that Floyd is emotional about the subject of the actions that he was involved in. Floyd doesn’t know the answers to why the United States dropped such harmful weapons on the Vietnamese. This final interview with Randy Floyd in the documentary Hearts and Minds makes one clear point, the United States did a large amount of damage on the innocent Vietnamese people they were attempting to protect.