HEARTS AND MINDS

By Peter Davis

“Reprinted by permission of the authors and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences"

In 1972 the Vietnam war had just passed determination I shared with Bert to get the American Revolution as the longest to the core of the war. For me this was war in our history. I myself had made a an opportunity --discover the America film on Defense Department public that was fighting its longest war (up to relations, THE SELLING OF THE that point), proceed with the unheard-of- PENTAGON, the year before, as a result for-documentaries budget of a million of which CBS News and I were dollars – that would never come again. If investigated by Congress for our somewhere there’s a filmmaker who investigation of Pentagon propaganda. wouldn't rise to that bait and quit even a At this point Bob Rafelson, an old friend job he'd been very happy doing (which who had made the brilliant FIVE EASY was my lot most of the time at CBS PIECES, called me in New York and News), it wasn't me. Bert Schneider and asked if I'd like to speak to his partner, his two partners, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, about making a film that Steve Blauner, had a production had something to do with Daniel company amply funded, for my purposes Ellsberg and the Vietnam war. at least, by Columbia Pictures.

Meeting Bert a couple of days later in In the beginning I thought it might be Los Angeles, was, to put it mildly, a possible to use the trial of Daniel defining moment in my life. Other Ellsberg and Anthony Russo (for leaking executives might say, in a flush of early the secret Pentagon Papers on the hidden enthusiasm, the sky's the limit on what history of the Vietnam war to you can do here. To Bert, however, the newspapers) as an armature around sky was not the limit at all; the only limit which I could wrap the whole film. The was my own ability to make the best prosecution and defense would be film I could, the only failure would be bringing the policy makers and military because I couldn't bring forth the best leaders as witnesses, and I'd be able to that was in me and in the subject itself. question these men (they were all men) after they'd testified. Almost The subject. The Vietnam war was a vast immediately, though, it was clear neither subject and had been filmed virtually the defense nor the prosecution would every day for a decade. Which meant it have anything to do with a filmmaker had been in living rooms virtually every and would certainly not make their evening. There had also been excellent witnesses available to be filmed. Then documentary films by independent the trial was delayed. Then it lurched filmmakers such as Emile D’Antonio. forward, finally ending in a mistrial due Eugene Jones, and Pierre Schoendorfer. to the judge's having been bribed by the At first, of course, I had no title, no Nixon Administration with an offer of theme, no direction, just a mutual the FBI directorship if he'd conduct the 2 trial in such a way as to favor the hundred thousand feet of film meant a prosecution. A film in itself, of course, two hour film would have a shooting just not the film I was making. ratio of approximately 100 to 1, not uncommon now with digital cameras but I hired the best group of colleagues a extremely rare in the 1970s. filmmaker could hope for. Richard Pearce was the cameraman and associate After a year of shooting, while we were producer; Tom Cohen the sound man based in New York, we moved to Los and associate producer; Lynzee Angeles where we spent the next year Klingman and Susan Martin were the editing in Bert Schneider’s BBS editors; Brennon Jones was the production studio. We had filmed all researcher, and when we were in kinds of situations in this country, Vietnam he was also the translator, France, and Vietnam. We had filmed general guide, and assistant cameraman. many people connected to the war in a In Vietnam we were only four, and since variety of ways – soldiers, politicians, I’m a technical dunce, there were really policy makers. I made another decision only Dick, Tom and Brennon to do fairly early in the year-long editing everything that needed to be done with process; despite the fact we had filmed camera, sound and occasional minimal many people in the peace movement, the lighting. film did not have room for them. No American would appear in the final film Before going to Vietnam but after three who had not either fought in the war or or four months of research all over this been in favor of the war at one time. country and in the literature of both film That would eliminate much political and books, I decided on a focus for the analysis on the left, but it would also film. This focus would consist provide a way of telling the story of the essentially of three questions I did not war as a progressive unfolding of feel were being dealt with sufficiently in illusion, practical application (meaning war coverage: why did we go to the decisions leading to war and the war Vietnam in the first place; what was it itself), and finally disillusion on the part we did there to Vietnam and the of most, but not all, participants in the Vietnamese people; and what did the film. (General William Westmoreland doing in turn do to us? I didn’t feel the and Walt Whitman Rostow, for instance, film would answer those questions, but I both of whom appear prominently in the thought each sequence in the film should film, believed until they died that the address one or more of the questions. Vietnam war was worth fighting and had been winnable if only they’d been Then we shot 200,000 feet of 16mm allowed to carry the war forward.) I still film. “We” being a euphemism for, had no title and was playing with many mostly, Dick Pearce, with occasional when my brother-in-law, Frank help from other camera people as well as Mankiewicz, who had worked for Robert stock footage mostly found by a deeply Kennedy and George McGovern, perceptive researcher, Dell Byrne, whom suggested HEARTS AND MINDS. I’d first worked with in 1961 on a series about Franklin D. Roosevelt when I Our first screenings were terrible. We myself had been a text researcher. Two screened a five and a half hour version 3 for friends on Christmas Eve 1973. Actually, that would be how you treat More cutting, and much more shaping in enemies, not friends. I never intended for terms of a structure that I hoped would the film to be anywhere near that length, actually move from a beginning to an but it was time to show something – a end, without the middle being a muddle, rough assembly, we called it, not a rough and finally in March I took a scratch cut. A friend of mine walked out saying print to Paris to show to officials from she’d call me and of course never did. the Cannes Film Festival. They accepted I’m sure Bert Schneider’s friends were this murky black-and-white print with appalled and too polite to tell me so; he’s irritating unmixed sound. When I came far too gracious ever to have repeated to back we had four weeks to lock the me what they said to him. My own picture and began sound editing father, the screenwriter Frank Davis, immediately, even knowing there would said the material is there for a strong have to be changes to the sound as we documentary but it’s a hodge podge that plunged forward to our final structure. doesn’t go anywhere. Bert said the best thing: “It’s incredible, but it’s a mess.” At Cannes in May 1974 HEARTS AND MINDS was received with an If there are no atheists in foxholes there enthusiasm that shocked me. None of are probably no filmmakers who sleep our early screenings had prepared me for very well or have wonderful Christmases cheering. David Begelman, head of after hearing words like those from their Columbia Pictures, was asked by the producer on Christmas Eve. French press how soon he planned to release the film in America. He gave an Several weeks later we had another honest reply: “I don’t know.” screening at just under three hours, then more and more screenings, good and Columbia made many demands on Bert bad. Most of the time Lyn Zee, Susan Schneider, among them that he obtain and I felt we improved the film from one additional $20 million of E and O screening to the next, but there was an insurance against law suits. Amazingly awful afternoon when we knew we had to me, Bert was able to do this. None of ruined good sequences by chopping these labors, however, moved Columbia them and had shown a worse film than and in the end they refused to release we’d had a couple of weeks earlier. That HEARTS AND MINDS. At this point became known to Lyn Zee, Susan and three things happened: first, Warner me as the “hateful screening.” After Brothers, under John Calley, said they’d another screening a friend of Bert’s, the release the film but didn’t want to pay filmmaker Alan Myerson, came up to Columbia for it; second, Henry Jaglom me and said, “We have only one shot at and Zack Norman, filmmakers and this, you know, and you’re blowing it.” friends of Bert’s and then, eternally, of His “we” was accurate and I knew what mine, raised the money to buy HEARTS he meant in terms of the motion picture AND MINDS from Columbia and turn it community; a well-financed over to Warner Brothers; third, after documentary on Vietnam coming out of Warners announced they were putting a Hollywood studio was an occasion the film in theatres, Walt Rostow sued to highly unlikely to recur. block the release on the grounds that he 4 would be damaged by HEARTS AND HEARTS AND MINDS won the MINDS if it played publicly. A judge in Academy Award for best documentary Los Angeles issued a temporary feature in 1975. Thirty years later the restraining order. Our lawyers and film was re-released, but that’s another Rostow’s argued the merits of potential story. damage for Rostow versus prior restraint of expression on our side. The judge said he couldn’t make up his mind from The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not necessarily arguments alone and wanted to see the represent the views of the Library of film. As he left the screening the judge Congress. was overheard to tell his clerk, “Okay, a picture really is worth a thousand words.” The next morning he vacated the stay, and at Christmastime 1974, one painful long year from our first terrible rough assembly screening on Christmas Eve 1973, HEARTS AND MINDS was at last released.