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Go Tell the Spartans
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Go Tell the Spartans
Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film directed by Ted Post, from a screenplay by Wendell Mayes, and starring Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Marc Singer and Jonathan Goldsmith. The film is based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel Incident at Muc Wa about U.S. Army military advisors during the early part of the Vietnam War in 1964, when Ford was a correspondent in Vietnam for The Nation.
The film was released by Avco Embassy Pictures on June 14, 1978. Despite limited publicity, it received generally positive reviews, and has been noted for its antiwar themes. Critic Stanley Kauffmann considered it "the best [film] so far on the Vietnam War," and David Thomson wrote that it is "a pitiless survey of an insane, inept, and criminal incursion on history."
In 1964, Major Asa Barker, a weary veteran of World War II and the 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 where a massacre of French colonial troops had occurred a decade before, during the First Indochina War.
Barker and his executive officer, the career-oriented Captain Olivetti, order four replacements to accomplish the mission. Second Lieutenant Hamilton hopes that volunteering for Vietnam is an opportunity for promotion. Burnt-out Command Sergeant Major Oleozewski served with Barker in Korea, and has already done three tours in Vietnam. Corporal Abraham Lincoln is a combat medic and a drug addict. The fourth man mystifies Barker. Draftee Corporal Courcey is a demolitions expert who extended his enlistment by six months to serve in Vietnam. Barker sends the new men with Corporal Ackley, a communications expert, to garrison Muc Wa with a half-French, half-Vietnamese interpreter/interrogation specialist named "Cowboy" Nguyen, and a squad of Hmong mercenaries and twenty South Vietnamese Popular Force troops.
The group encounters a booby-trapped roadblock on the road to Muc Wa, and captures a lone Viet Cong soldier who refuses to divulge information and is killed by Cowboy. At the hamlet, Hamilton follows Oleozewski's advice so the unit can be resupplied by helicopter. Courcey discovers a graveyard containing 302 French soldiers killed 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.
A patrol led by Courcey unexpectedly finds Vietnamese women and children despite intelligence denying the presence of civilians in the area. Lincoln is wounded that evening by a VC attack on Muc Wa and Courcey leads an ambush patrol that kills a VC mortar crew. One of the female civilians is among the dead. When Barker meets Colonel Minh, the regional military leader, in Saigon he requests three hundred ARVN troops for Muc Wa. Minh refuses, claiming the troops are needed to prevent a potential coup in Saigon. He then offers the reinforcements in exchange for 1,500 artillery shells.
Muc Wa is attacked again and Lieutenant Hamilton is killed after ignoring Oleonozski's warnings against trying to rescue a wounded man left behind by a combat patrol. Oleonozski commits suicide the next day. Barker requests withdrawing the US advisors from Muc Wa but General Harnitz refuses, and Barker reluctantly sends Olivetti to take command at Muc Wa. The outpost is hit again by an unexpectedly strong Viet Cong attack. Only the arrival of US helicopter gunships saves the outpost from being overrun.
Harnitz finally orders Barker to withdraw all American troops from Muc Wa, believed to be besieged by the 1,000-strong 507th Viet Cong battalion. The South Vietnamese and walking wounded are to be abandoned. 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. A teenage girl, who Courcey tried to befriend, escapes and informs the VC of the Americans' evacuation plans. Barker and Courcey begin the withdrawal after dark under cover of artillery fire. The group is ambushed and Barker is killed by the waiting VC, led by the teenage girl. A wounded Courcey, the only survivor, is hidden in bushes by an elderly militiaman.
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Go Tell the Spartans
Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film directed by Ted Post, from a screenplay by Wendell Mayes, and starring Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Marc Singer and Jonathan Goldsmith. The film is based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel Incident at Muc Wa about U.S. Army military advisors during the early part of the Vietnam War in 1964, when Ford was a correspondent in Vietnam for The Nation.
The film was released by Avco Embassy Pictures on June 14, 1978. Despite limited publicity, it received generally positive reviews, and has been noted for its antiwar themes. Critic Stanley Kauffmann considered it "the best [film] so far on the Vietnam War," and David Thomson wrote that it is "a pitiless survey of an insane, inept, and criminal incursion on history."
In 1964, Major Asa Barker, a weary veteran of World War II and the 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 where a massacre of French colonial troops had occurred a decade before, during the First Indochina War.
Barker and his executive officer, the career-oriented Captain Olivetti, order four replacements to accomplish the mission. Second Lieutenant Hamilton hopes that volunteering for Vietnam is an opportunity for promotion. Burnt-out Command Sergeant Major Oleozewski served with Barker in Korea, and has already done three tours in Vietnam. Corporal Abraham Lincoln is a combat medic and a drug addict. The fourth man mystifies Barker. Draftee Corporal Courcey is a demolitions expert who extended his enlistment by six months to serve in Vietnam. Barker sends the new men with Corporal Ackley, a communications expert, to garrison Muc Wa with a half-French, half-Vietnamese interpreter/interrogation specialist named "Cowboy" Nguyen, and a squad of Hmong mercenaries and twenty South Vietnamese Popular Force troops.
The group encounters a booby-trapped roadblock on the road to Muc Wa, and captures a lone Viet Cong soldier who refuses to divulge information and is killed by Cowboy. At the hamlet, Hamilton follows Oleozewski's advice so the unit can be resupplied by helicopter. Courcey discovers a graveyard containing 302 French soldiers killed 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.
A patrol led by Courcey unexpectedly finds Vietnamese women and children despite intelligence denying the presence of civilians in the area. Lincoln is wounded that evening by a VC attack on Muc Wa and Courcey leads an ambush patrol that kills a VC mortar crew. One of the female civilians is among the dead. When Barker meets Colonel Minh, the regional military leader, in Saigon he requests three hundred ARVN troops for Muc Wa. Minh refuses, claiming the troops are needed to prevent a potential coup in Saigon. He then offers the reinforcements in exchange for 1,500 artillery shells.
Muc Wa is attacked again and Lieutenant Hamilton is killed after ignoring Oleonozski's warnings against trying to rescue a wounded man left behind by a combat patrol. Oleonozski commits suicide the next day. Barker requests withdrawing the US advisors from Muc Wa but General Harnitz refuses, and Barker reluctantly sends Olivetti to take command at Muc Wa. The outpost is hit again by an unexpectedly strong Viet Cong attack. Only the arrival of US helicopter gunships saves the outpost from being overrun.
Harnitz finally orders Barker to withdraw all American troops from Muc Wa, believed to be besieged by the 1,000-strong 507th Viet Cong battalion. The South Vietnamese and walking wounded are to be abandoned. 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. A teenage girl, who Courcey tried to befriend, escapes and informs the VC of the Americans' evacuation plans. Barker and Courcey begin the withdrawal after dark under cover of artillery fire. The group is ambushed and Barker is killed by the waiting VC, led by the teenage girl. A wounded Courcey, the only survivor, is hidden in bushes by an elderly militiaman.