Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Hearts and Minds: In-Class Work, 10/7


After watching the film Hearts and Minds, write a post of 300-500 words about your reaction to the film. Some questions you might consider:

1) Peter Davis gives us the voices of a wide range of people affected by the war. Which voices seemed to you particularly striking or important? Who said something that you didn't expect to hear?

2) The film also mixes different kinds of sources: interviews, news footage, scenes from old movies. We see scenes from football games, and a scene in a brothel. Davis is also very careful about placing very different scenes next to each other. Describe some of the choices he made as to what to include and how to put it together. What do you think he wanted to achieve with these choices?

3) In Professor Johnson's class you've been discussing ideology. Based on the film, what ideologies do you think led to U.S. involvement in Vietnam? How do we see these ideologies being passed on?

4) In the film we see many graphic scenes of war. Many were shown on the news in the United States while the war was being fought. In more recent wars, fewer of these images have been seen by the public. Do you think these images serve a purpose? Should they be shown?

As you can see, there's a lot to talk about. Take the time to read each other's responses, to reply, and we'll continue the discussion next Tuesday, bringing in your reading of interviews from Appy. Also for Tuesday, read "On the Rainy River" by Tim O'Brien, thinking again about the ideology that leads this particular American to the decision that he makes.

If you're revising your essay #1, you can also work on this for next week. Revision of essay 1 are due on Thursday, October 21st.

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