GO TELL THE SPARTANS

US, 1978, 114 minutes, Colour.
Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Marc Singer, David Clennon, Dolph Sweet.
Directed by Ted Post.

Go Tell the Spartans is a quotation from the historian Herodotus after the battle of Thermopylae in 380BC. The Spartan soldiers held the mountain pass against the Persians but all died. The delay in stopping the Persian army at the pass enabled the Greeks to have more time to prepare for the battle of Salamis where the Persians were defeated. The famous epitaph is: Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we are buried here, obedient to their orders.

The film is very critical of the Vietnam war and was released during the time of coming home, The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. However, being a smaller-budget film it actually was overshadowed by these films.

The setting is early in the Vietnam conflict and a platoon struggling in the same place where a French platoon had struggled ten years earlier, in the mid-50s, with the defeat of the French by the Vietnamese.

The film reflects sombrely on the role of American soldiers going abroad, in confused situations of war, in dying for their country. Burt Lancaster is very strong as the leader of the platoon. In hindsight, the film is very interesting given the history of the conflict in Vietnam and its consequences.

1. The impact of the Vietnam war in the late '70s? The reappraisal of American involvement? Apocalypse Now, Deerhunter etc.? This film produced at the same time? Its picturing the period at the end of the advisory section of the war and the opening of American military involvement? Attitudes shown, experience, disillusionment? The news presentation and reassessment?

2. The title and its reference to the deaths of the Spartans holding Thermopylae? The valour for country? The heroism of the small group against impossible odds? The news for people at home? The implication of history repeating itself? The linking of the Vietnam war with all wars - especially those of the invasion of Greece by the Persians? The village of Muc Wac? The help, the sacrifice, the dead and the cemetery and the message?

3. Colour photography, the re-creation of the atmosphere of Vietnam, the jungle, the location of war? Special effects? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score and its atmosphere?

4. The 1964 situation in Vietnam? Revolution? North and South? Civil war? American involvement? Advisers? The background history of European involvement in Indo-China? The French - and the way they are pictured in this film, memories of involvement? The Americans as their successors? The nature of the advisory role? Action? Whose war? Escalation? The corruption in Vietnam? The rebellion of the Viet Cong? American pride? The change from the '60s through the experience to the defeats of the '70s?

5. The situation within Vietnam: government, fighting? The American advisers? The Vietnamese liaisons - especially Cowboy and his sadism? Villagers. the Viet Cong and their sabotage, communities?

6. American tradition and prowess? Barker and his experience in World War TWO? The Korean War experience? Americans seeing themselves as giving advice? Superiority? Reference to 'Gooks'? Their involvement, types of personnel, capacities, techniques? Drawing on the Korean experience? Seeing the Vietnam involvement as - not a real war? Volunteers. experience, the curious, the raw recruits? Calls for heroism and death? Compassion and disillusionment?

7. Cowboy as a realistic figure, symbolic figure? The opening, sympathy, later when the audience understood him better? The violence of the decapitation? madness, heroics, death? His giving a tone to the presentation of Vietnam? Government and deals? Excuses? The contrast with the villagers and the Viet Cong?

8. Burt Lancaster's presence in the film? His portrayal of Barker - old, experience of World War Two, strong presence, manner? His wag of waging war? Military style, shrewdness, a loner? His attitude towards Cowboy and stopping him? His making of reports - and fabricating them? His standing up to Harnitz? His story about his lack of promotion, the sexual escapade with the President's wife? His relying on Olivetti and his support? Double talk, deals, communications and threats? The shrewd American? Deals? The evacuation? His being forced - his decision to stay? Guide? His death - and his final comment 'Shit' as a summary of his experience and the involvement in the war? The death of the old style American soldier - what might have been?

9. Harnitz and the tough American General? His rigour, theory? Setting up Muc Wac and then offering no help? Pressures, double talk, American pride?

10. Olivetti and his help, youthfulness, relationship with Barker, feelings? Learning and experience? The war and the siege? Participation in the evacuation? Living to fight again?

11. The group: the initial interviews and the individuals being summed up, the questioning of motives? A microcosm of those involved in the war? Hamilton and his intensity, charge, decisions, civilians, the rescue, death? Oleansky and his war experiences, weariness, shrewdness, seeing through people, the death of Hamilton, the pathos of his suicide? Lincoln and his name, drugs, bombarded? Work? The sketch of the other volunteers?

12. Courcy as a hero-figure? The younger generation? In comparison with Barker? The Draft, volunteer? Stories? A hero, the patrols, the girl. true story? His compassion? Decision to stay? The ambush? His surviving to fight another day? Disillusionment - and his shout?

13. The popular genre of the patrol film and its being transferred to the experience of Vietnam? Using a Vietnam war story to illustrate America in the '60s and '70s? The conventions of the outposts, maps, men dying? The psychology? The colour chart? Occupation, river attacks, mortars, siege, evacuation, the disguised Viet Cong?

14. The film as a comment on the war? On war? On civilians in war? On the military in war? An American examination of an American war experience. defeat and disillusionment?