Go Tell the Spartans
Go Tell the Spartans | |
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AVCO Embassy Pictures (US/Canada) (International)United Artists | |
Release date |
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Running time | 114 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.5 million |
Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American
Plot
In 1964, infantry Major Asa Barker, a seasoned but weary veteran of World War II and Korean War, is given command of a poorly manned US Army advisor outpost overlooking three villages in South Vietnam. He is ordered to reoccupy a nearby deserted hamlet named Muc Wa on the Da Nang-to-Phnom Penh highway - which a decade before had been the scene of a massacre of French soldiers during the First Indochina War. [2]
Barker and his executive officer, the career-oriented Captain Olivetti, order four replacements to accomplish the mission.
After the group encounter a booby-trapped roadblock on the way to Muc Wa, they capture a lone Viet Cong soldier who is beheaded by Cowboy when the man refuses to divulge information. On arrival at the hamlet, Lt. Hamilton follows Oleozewski's defensive advice so the unit can be resupplied by helicopter. Courcey discovers the graveyard where 302 French soldiers were buried after being massacred by the Viet Minh. He translates a French inscription at the entrance as "Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by. That here, obedient to their laws, we lie" which references the Battle of Thermopylae. Courcey spots a one-eyed VC soldier scouting the area.
Courcey leads a patrol that finds Vietnamese women and children fishing along a small creek despite intelligence saying no civilians live in the area. Courcey befriends some of them despite the language barrier. That evening, the VC attack Muc Wa and Lincoln is wounded. Courcey leads an ambush patrol that kills a VC mortar crew, which included one of the women he spoke to earlier. The next morning, Barker travels to
That evening, Muc Wa is attacked again. After ignoring Oleonozski's warnings, Lt. Hamilton is killed trying to rescue a badly wounded man who was left behind by a combat patrol. An anguished Oleonozski commits suicide the next day. When informed of the deaths, Barker wants to pull his troops out now that they lack an experienced leader, but this request is denied by General Harnitz forcing Barker to send Olivetti to Muc Wa. That night, the outpost is attacked again by a large force of well-armed Viet Cong, not the few dozen predicted by high command. US helicopter gunships arrive just in time to save the outpost from being overrun.
The next morning, Harnitz finally orders Barker to withdraw all American troops from Muc Wa, which is now believed to be besieged by the 1,000-strong 507th Viet Cong battalion. However, all the South Vietnamese and the walking wounded are to be left. Barker volunteers to stay and help evacuate these troops. Cowboy kills some Vietnamese civilians that Courcey brought into the base camp after they stole weapons and tried to escape. But a teenage girl, who Courcey tried to befriend, escapes and informs the VC of the Americans' evacuation plans. As night falls, Barker and Courcey begin the retreat from Muc Wa under the cover of friendly artillery fire. However, the group is ambushed and Barker is killed by the waiting VC, who are led by the same teenage girl. A wounded Courcey is hidden in bushes by an elderly militiaman.
The next morning, Courcey is the only survivor. He finds that Barker and the South Vietnamese militia soldiers have been stripped of their uniforms and weapons. A dazed Courcey staggers into the French graveyard where he encounters the one-eyed VC scout whom he had seen earlier. The badly wounded VC raises his rifle at Courcey before dropping it out of exhaustion. Courcey wanders out of the graveyard onto the dirt road leading away from the ruins of Muc Wa.
Cast
- Burt Lancaster as Maj. Asa Barker
- Craig Wasson as Cpl. Courcey
- Jonathan Goldsmith as 1SG Oleonowski
- Marc Singer as Capt. Olivetti
- Joe Unger as Lt. Hamilton
- Dennis Howard as Cpl. Abraham Lincoln
- David Clennon as Lt. Finley Wattsberg
- Evan C. Kim as Cpl. "Cowboy"
- John Megna as Cpl. Ackley
- Hilly Hicks as Signalman Toffee
- Dolph Sweet as Gen. Harnitz
- Clyde Kusatsu as Col. "Lard Ass" Minh
- James Hong as Pvt. "Old Man"
- Denice Kumagai as "Butterfly"
- Tad Horino as "One-eyed Charlie" (Vietcong scout)
- Phong Diep as Minh's Interpreter
- Ralph Brannen as Col. Minh's ADC
- Mark Carlton as Capt. Schlitz
Production
Development
Director
Writing
The story was inspired by a futile 1964 special-forces operation at Tan Hoa in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, an objective that turned out to be an abandoned settlement containing only a field, an abandoned airstrip and three or four French gravestones.[5] The graves inspired the film's title, taken from Simonides's epitaph to the 300 soldiers killed in the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persians in 480 B.C.: "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie." The film's name thus constitutes foreshadowing of the narrative arc, as the film's soldiers–like the Spartans at Thermopylae–are sent to their deaths.
The screenplay by
Unlike the elite
In 1977, the producers sought assistance from the U.S. Army, who responded that assistance would only be forthcoming if modifications to the script and characters were made. The Army response stated that its advisors to Vietnam in 1964 were "virtually all outstanding individuals, hand picked for their jobs, and quite experienced ... [I]n presenting an offhand collection of losers it is totally unrealistic of the Army in Vietnam in that period".[7]
Filming
The film was made on location in Valencia, California.[8]
Release
Go Tell the Spartans was released in the United States on June 14, 1978. In the Philippines, the film was released by Transamerica on November 14, 1978.
Reception
Though the film had a limited release in the United States, critics, especially those opposed to the Vietnam War, praised it: "In sure, swift strokes", wrote
Over time, the previously overlooked film became an antiwar classic. At one of its revivals, it was described as:
A cult fave – and deservedly so – Go Tell the Spartans was hard-headed and brutally realistic about our dead-end presence in Vietnam; released the same year as
EMI Films released by Universal Pictures), the film won critical admiration, but audiences preferred individualised sagas, sentiment, and romantic melodrama. Rather than tackle the effects of the war on physically and emotionally wounded vets, this brave film exposed the fundamental, tactical lunacy of the war as perceived by an American officer (Burt Lancaster) who knows better, but must follow through on stupid, self-destructive orders from above. This is one of Lancaster's best performances: embittered, a cog in the military juggernaut, this good man foresees the killing waste to come.[14]
Awards and nominations
In 1979, Wendell Mayes' screenplay was nominated for the
References
- ISBN 0-595-08927-5
- Plain of Reeds, southern Vietnam. The name is pronounced "muc-hwa", but spelled "Moc Hoa".
- ^ This is the second film where Lancaster was bedeviled by knee troubles. In John Frankenheimer's The Train, Lancaster injured himself playing golf on a day off from filming. A scene showing Lancaster getting shot was inserted to explain his limp.
- ISBN 0-306-81019-0
- ^ a b Ford, Daniel. "Daniel Ford: Novel into Film". Warbirdforum.com. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ "Backstory 3". publishing.cdlib.org. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ Suid, Lawrence H. Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film University Press of Kentucky, 2002; pp. 247-348.
- ^ Mathews, Jack (6 April 1987). "After 'Platoon,' Can 'spartans' Come Back?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
- ^ "Opens Today". Bulletin Today. November 14, 1978. p. 34.
- ^ "Go Tell the Spartans (1978) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
- ^ "GO TELL THE SPARTANS (1978 / 1500 EDITION) -- SCREEN ARCHIVES ENTERTAINMENT". 1.screenarchives.com. Retrieved 22 September 2017.
- ^ Kauffmann, Stanley (1979). Before My Eyes Film Criticism & Comment. Harper & Row Publishers. p. 313.
- ^ "Go Tell the Spartans | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. 1978-09-01. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
- Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, May 2000