"A landmark!
The definitive American documentary about Vietnam!"
– Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

“First released in 1974, this fearless, Oscar-winning film is important and tragically comprehensive all over again.…
‘Hearts and Minds’ sounds a deeply somber chord.”
– Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

“One of the most unsettling discussions of Vietnam and its aftermath ever to appear in any medium.”
– Don Druker, Chicago Reader

"One of the best documentaries ever made...SUPERB!"
– Desson Thomson, The Washington Post

“Power is virtually the first word heard in Peter Davis’s epic documentary Hearts and Minds,and power real and mythical is what the film contemplates in as many tones and moods asyou might expect in superior fiction… Hearts and Minds is so various, so full of associations that go beyond the war, that the film does a lot more than preach to the committed.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times (1975)

" The charity of spirit that flood Hearts and Minds give it the right to be considered not only a true report but also a work that has the individual point of view possessed by art…It is an extremely contemplative picture about some of the origins and consequences of the American involvement in Vietnam. Impressive that a work so coherent and mature can have been completed when the book is even now not closed.” – Penelope Gilliatt, The New Yorker (1975)

“A thoroughly committed, brilliantly executed and profoundly moving document… Unlike our leaders who encourage us to put Vietnam behind us, Davis wants us to confront our feelings about it first and to understand the experience before we bury it. We turn away from this portrait of ourselves at our peril.” – Paul Zimmerman, Newsweek (1975)

"A triumph… Davis has held up a mirror to our national conscience. His work endures as a touchstone for our concept of Americanism, patriotism, and personal and political principle.”
– Judith Crist, New York Magazine (1975)

"Two years ago, Mr. Nixon and Dr. Kissinger gave the world the Christmas bombing.
This year, I would like to give them and every other American a free ticket to a movie called Hearts and Minds…Peter Davis wanted to show three things – what elements in our own history had led us into the war, what we actually did there and ‘what the doing of it did to us.’ He accomplishes this with almost two hours of new and old footage assembled with such skill and subtlety that we see the war on film as we seemed never able to see it in real life…Weeping child and weeping parent, football coach and company commander, Buddhist monk, Saigon whore, Defense Secretary, cheerleader, general, infant, President – Hearts and Minds forces one to look war in its human face.” – Shana Alexander, Newsweek (1974)

“I would not have thought I could be so moved by a film about the war, by images I’ve seen and arguments I’ve heard and metaphors I’ve memorized a hundred times over. But Hearts and Minds evokes the intensity that made the movement come to life.”
– Andrew Kopkind, Ramparts (1975)

Daniel Ellsberg's Home Page - Peace activist and author of “Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers”; Mr. Ellsberg is featured in HEARTS AND MINDS

Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation - Bobby Muller, president; Mr. Muller is featured in HEARTS AND MINDS

“If I were to pick the one film that inspired me to pick up a camera, it is 'Hearts and Minds,' a film that remains every bit as relevant today. Required viewing for anyone who says, 'I am an American.'" -Michael Moore

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Best known for “Hearts and Minds” (1975), his Academy Award-winning documentary on the Vietnam War, PETER DAVIS has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist and filmmaker unafraid to court controversy and tackle American politics in its many dimensions.

Familiar to many readers today for his ongoing coverage of the Iraq war in The Nation, Davis has, over the years, contributed articles to such diverse publications as Esquire magazine, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. His most recent book, If You Came This Way (John Wiley & Sons), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, while earlier titles Hometown and Where Is Nicaragua?, both published by Simon & Schuster, have been honored by the Literary Guild and the Book of the Month Club.

Davis’s groundbreaking work in television journalism and documentary filmmaking include such highly acclaimed series as “Middletown” for PBS (10 Emmy nominations, 2 Emmies; DuPont Citation; First Prize Sundance Festival) and “The Selling of the Pentagon” for CBS (Peabody, Emmy, Polk, Saturday Review, Writers Guild awards).

Davis began his career as a documentarian working on ABC’s landmark series FDR (1964), an experience he still remembers fondly. “I was 24 and here I was going around to interview Henry Wallace, Alf Landon, Mrs. Roosevelt herself,” Davis recalls. “[Working on the project] immediately engaged my feelings about contemporary American power, propelling me in the direction of scrutiny and criticism of our political landscape.”

Following his work on FDR, Davis became a producer-writer at CBS-News, where his documentaries on often controversial topics (student rebellion, homosexuality, racism, etc.) launched his politically engaged and uniquely uncompromising journalistic career.