The Oscar-winning documentary chronicles the culture and political interests that gave rise to the U.S. war in Vietnam and greater Southeast Asia. Director Peter Davis weaves together brutal film footage from the battlefield, scenes from Hollywood films, and interviews with military veterans, AWOL soldiers, former CIA spooks, protesters, Vietnamese dissidents, and U.S. generals and policymakers. In the process, Davis lays bare not so much a foreign policy gone awry as a tragic culture of militarism and government deceit.
The WPI Film Series is sponsored by the Department of Humanities and Arts. Each film in the series, which runs through D-Term 2014, will be introduced by a faculty member from HUA or IMGD. Hearts and Minds will be introduced by John Sanbonmatsu, associate professor of philosophy, and series organizer Jim Cocola, assistant professor of literature.
Other films in the series (all screened in Fuller at 7pm):
• My Dinner with Andre (Monday, Dec. 9)
• The 400 Blows (Monday, Feb. 3)
• The Battle of Algiers (Monday, Feb. 17)
• Solaris (Monday, Feb. 24)
• Harlan County, USA (Monday, Mar. 31)
• Koyaanisqatsi (Monday, Apr. 14)
The Department of Humanities and Arts is grateful to the staff of the Gordon Library for acquiring the Criterion Collection, and to Lens and Lights, which will screen the films on WPI’s Christie® CP2210, the most compact digital cinema projector in the world.
For a free film series poster, or for more detailed information about the series, contact John Sanbonmatsu atjs@wpi.edu.
