Heart of Darkness: The Vietnam War Chronicles

Filmmaker Edward Feuerherd's Heart of Darkness: The Vietnam War Chronicles—a seven-part series covering the Vietnam War from its origins through its aftermath—is mostly told from a boots-on-the-ground perspective here, emphasizing the experiences of soldiers in the field. The initial segment employs newsreel footage to outline the period of French colonial rule in the 19th-20th centuries, followed by the Japanese invasion of Indochina during WWII and the postwar struggle between the French and nationalist forces, before turning to the first stages of American involvement in the early 1960s. The remaining six parts combine archival footage and newly-filmed recollections from veterans to reconstruct specific battles (the horrifying struggle for what came to be called Hamburger Hill, for example) or to provide topical surveys (one segment deals primarily with medical services, while the last concerns American POWs, and is largely devoted to the imprisonment of James Stockdale, interviewed here along with his wife). A useful complement to what has become a touchstone treatment of the war, the magisterial PBS series Vietnam: A Television History (VL-10/87)—which takes a broader, more strategic view—Heart of Darkness is also a bit less objective (lambasting, for example, the Johnson administration for its political manipulation of the war but, curiously, treating the Nixon administration much more gently). An eclectic array of bonus material running over 90 minutes includes shorts produced by various branches of the Armed Services (one on river patrols, another on the lessons learned from a fire that struck the aircraft carrier Forrestal), and a Bell Helicopter promotional film extolling the capabilities of the Huey. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)