The two documentaries present very different sides of the issue. Hearts and Minds is an anti-war movie, and it sets out to persuade the audience that what happened in Vietnam was wrong and that the United States government and its imperialistic policies are to blame. Fog of War is a 2003 Errol Morris documentary consisting mostly of interviews with Robert McNamara and archival footage.
I also liked the way Fog of War was actually executed more in comparison to Hearts and Minds. Fog of War had a clear structure and it was easy to follow. The documentary was broken into 11 lessons and followed a chronological order of McNamara's life and the events of the war themselves. I had much more difficulty following the points made during Hearts and Minds. It seemed like it was simply showing images and stories of the lives of the people affected by the war in no particular order or pattern.
Hearts and Minds also showed a very large number of disturbing graphic images and told very heart wrenching stories, which made the movie very hard to watch. Quite frankly, it depressed me. Fog of War did not take a huge emotional toll on me. It was actually very enlightening and enjoyable to hear a highly intelligent man speak about his life experiences and hardships. Throughout the documentary, my respect and admiration of this man grew exponentially.
Hearts and Minds also seemed to continuously bash the government system and the people that were key to instrumenting the Vietnam War. It was full of anti war ideology and did not address the other side of the conflict. Fog of War gave me a more in depth look at what led the leaders of this nation, McNamara in particular, to make the decisions that were made and to try to explain their reasoning in a way that I could understand. McNamara is very honest in his self-reflection and does not try to cover up his tracks. It was very moving when he made a comment about being considered a war criminal if the U.S. had been on the losing side of the conflict.
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