Go Tell the Spartans

Starring:Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Marc Singer, Joe Unger, Dennis Howard, David Clennon, Evan C. Kim, John Megna, Hilly Hicks, Dolph Sweet, Clyde Kusatsu, James Hong, Denice Kumagai, Tad Horino, Phong Diep, Ralph Brannen, Mark Carlton
Director: Ted Post
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

Burt Lancaster delivers one of the finest performances of his career as a hard-boiled major in command of a Vietnam outpost. A classic of wartime confrontation.

Customer Reviews:

A good premise for a movie, but poor execution.......2007-06-08

"Go Tell the Spartans" is important in the genre of Vietnam war films primarily because, unlike Platoon or Full Metal Jacket, it looks at the earliest phase of American military involvement in Vietnam. The production values of the film suffer from its low budget (supposedly Burt Lancaster kicked-in his own money to get it made) and third-rate actors. It has the feel of a made-for-TV movie from the 70's. I think that the story would be a good subject for a higher-quality remake. I'm not sure why, but I still like the movie, although I think of it as a very rough cut of what the film could have been.

One of A Kind.......2007-01-20

This is the one movie that covers this period of the Viet Nam war adequately.
First, you must get past the haircuts...minor. Then you must get past the poor quality of the DVD. It seems to be a direct transfer from the VHS version. As a member of one of these advisory teams, I found this movie to provide the most accurate portrayal of the Advisor's frustrations.

The characters were people I knew. The experienced WWII, Korean war Vet who also served as liaison with the British in Malayian insurrection, who lived to fight. The old sergeant who was essentially a expatriate who never wanted to go back to the stateside peacetime army, The young guy who was good at what he did, and wanted to see what war was all about. The Captain who had to be there to get his ticket punched, afraid that it would all be over before he could get his Combat Infantryman's Badge.
The surprise at seeing a 2d lieutenant sent to a place where experience was needed more than "just a body". , however, the "Idealistic West Pointer" was missing.

If you want to know what it was like...watch this movie.

More anti-Vietnam war propaganda than "best movie".......2007-01-16

Yes, there were many, many failures in Vietnam. Truthful writers/directors should portray them and help us examine the reality and complexity of that war. But truthful authors should also show the successes, innovations, sacrifices, and honorable motives that are an equal part of the Vietnam story. This overdone movie errors by heavily playing up the negatives, often stereotypical as well as actual. It does show some individual heroism and sacrifice, but the overall purpose of the film is very clear. I've read a lot of memoirs and battle records of the Special Forces in 'Nam; this movie cheapens the professionalism and cross-cultural successes of many of those "advisors," not so much by what it includes but what it leaves out. Wayne's "Green Berets" may be one extreme. This movie heads the other direction. I picked it up on the chance that it would be a solid story; instead, I got one director's profane, crude hostility toward the war. Well-acted? Sometimes. Worth keeping? Ask my garbage can.
NOTE: Let me add the following after seeing how "non-helpful" I've been :) and the comment below. There is almost always a point of view, an agenda, built into a movie - especially a war movie. For any objective viewer, this movie has a clear anti-Vietnam war bias, and this purpose drives the crafting of the characterizations and the plot. The political and social history of Burt Lancaster supports this. Lancaster was renowned as a left-wing activist. He strongly supported the ACLU, vocally opposed many Republican politicians, refused to work with John Wayne in a movie because of their opposite political views, and was known as a Vietnam war opponent. As to the movie itself, even though the Department of Defense praised some portrayals of self-sacrifice in the film, the Army refused to cooperate in making the film (and straightening out some inaccuracies) because they felt it incorrectly portrayed the specially-chosen advisors of the era as unprofessional "losers." (They also objected to Lancaster's crude story of oral sex with a general's wife as the reason his character had not been promoted.) My point? Every film has a cultural context. If you want to watch something that is designed to support criticism of the Vietnam War, have at it. If you want a war film built on historical facts, watch something like "Black Hawk Down," which manages - all at once - to question war, question policies, truthfully show the stories of real men who deliberately sacrificed themselves for hurt comrades, and immerse the viewer in the intensity of street combat. "Black Hawk" is realism. "Spartans" is well-made, selective propaganda.

comes around again..........2006-10-01

story line of the film is the early 1960's in vietnam, when the u.s. presence was still an advisory one. a lowkey budget enhances the story w/o the distracting flash and bang of special effects. the subtext of the movie is that as with the greeks of thermopylae from which the title is taken, the american military had as much to fear from its allies and leadership as they did from the enemy, a story line thousands of years old and unfortunatley just as relevant today. despite ones view of politics, an excellent film of the professional soldier if not the obedient one.

A great movie that could have been a classic ........2006-07-19

This is a well acted movie with a good story line . Burt Lancaster does a great job . My favorite part is Lancaster telling the story of how he fell from grace as a generals aid and ended up in Vietnam .As others have stated the production does have a "made for TV feel" to it which is a shame .

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