A Strong Clear Vision… Literally

After watching both Hearts and Minds and Fog of War, I was anxious to crack open the Netflix envelope and see what Maya Lin had in store. I’ll admit I have never usually been an avid documentary fan, though the assignments in this class have exposed me to a unique take on images and events that are ordinarily portrayed by actors. I have been able to stray from any “history is boring” stereotypes by seeing Vietnam illustrated in a creative and eye-opening manner. Espe

Unfortunately, Maya Lin strayed from my high expectations. I was taken back to the days in high school when your teacher resorted to playing a VCR-recorded History Channel documentary after a test during which classmates either doodled, did homework or slept. Not to say that the material wasn’t respectable, but the way it was filmed was quite literally a strong, clear vision of Maya Lin’s story… and nothing else.

The story progressed as a conventional documentary would, gluing interviews in between narrated scene shots. We were given the timeline exactly as it occurred: Maya Lin entering contest, winning contest, and moving forward to future endeavors. Although there was a slightly unpredictable time in which people opposed her piece getting selected for the memorial, there wasn’t enough emotion for me personally to truly feel the significance of the film-especially having visited the life-changing structure myself.

Perhaps there were different motives with this film. Maybe filmmaker, Freida Lee Mock, wanted it to be a simple reflection of the story without any potentially interpretive elements.For me personally though, there could have been more passion involved to portray such an important monument displaying such a memorable time in history.