Peter Davis's elaborate diagram and diagnosis of the American involvement in Vietnam — its history, its rationalizations, and its repercussions. In striving after comprehensiveness, Davis has put his fingers onto many points of interest (film clips from WWII Hollywood movies suggest the molded shape of American patriotism; the melodrama drummed up around a high- school football game attests to the national obsession with winning; and so on). Davis, who made The Selling of the Pentagon, for television, sometimes scores points facilely or speciously; and the information from any one source is often so clipped and out-of-context that it has meaning only in relation to Davis's undisguised ideas of Right and Wrong. The best moments come from the camera's passive scrutiny of a firm and forthright personality: Daniel Ellsberg choking up dramatically during his reminiscence about Bobby Kennedy; or Lt. George Coker, a POW returning home with his ideals intact, and lecturing, on tour, in front of the hometown folks, school children, and America's mothers. Ironically, this step up for Davis — from TV documentary work to feature films — is apt to be seen by fewer people than it would have been on the home screen. (1974) — Duncan Shepherd
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