Stranger, go and tell the Spartans That we lie here, obedient to their commands. Go Tell The Spartans, Stranger Passing By That Here Obedient To Their Words We Lie. There has been criticism of this movie as being dull and unrealistic (probably from someone who wasn't even born before the events depicted in the movie). Go Tell the Spartans The next day, Oleonozski commits suicide rather than face the pressure of command. Reluctantly dispensing much of that advice is veteran American major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster). The game does not allow the player to reverse history (i.e., totally defeat the Persians to the extent While he is investigating the graveyard, Courcey spots a one-eyed Viet Cong soldier, who is presumably a scout. It is only 14 years too late. Go Tell the Spartans is primarily a solitaire game simulating the three day battle for the pass at Thermopylae (the Hot Gates) between the Persian horde of Xerxes and a mixed Greek force dominated by Leonidas and his small force of Spartans. 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. The Spartans have won their last three Big Ten titles at TPC River's Bend and this year's 11-under-par 853 was the lowest of their three winning scores at the course. But the Vietnamese teenage girl that Courcey befriended gets away and informs the Viet Cong scouts of the Americans' plans to withdraw, thus revealing that she and all of the other civilians were in fact Viet Cong supporters, as Cowboy had predicted. Though he knows what works and what doesn't on the battlefield, Barker is obliged to carry out the go-nowhere policies of the American military brass. "Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium (Screen)". "Moc Hoa" was a real Special Forces base in the, This is the second film where Lancaster was bedeviled by knee troubles. Unlike the elite US Army Special Forces of Ford's original novel, whom he called the "US Army Raiders", Mayes' screenplay of Military Assistance Advisory Group military advisors comprised a collection of misfits. Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film directed by Ted Post, starring Burt Lancaster, and 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, a time when Ford was a correspondent in Vietnam for The Nation. The evacuation mission leaves behind the South Vietnamese troops and the walking wounded. Keith Loh . In John Frankenheimer's, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "After 'Platoon,' Can 'spartans' Come Back? 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". A female reporter character in the novel was removed from the screenplay. Courcey wanders off the graveyard and onto the dirt road leading away from the ruins of the village. Once they get there, the experience proves worse than they could have imagined. The following morning, Barker receives orders from Harnitz to withdraw all American troops from Muc Wa, which is believed to be besieged by the 1,000-strong 507th Viet Cong battalion. [8], Go Tell the Spartans was released in the United States on June 14, 1978. That evening, the Viet Cong attack Muc Wa and Lincoln is wounded. Directed by (1) Writing credits (2) Cast (19) Produced by (4) Music by (1) Cinematography by (1) Film Editing by (1) Casting By (1) Art Direction by (1) Costume Design by (1) Makeup Department (1) Production Management (4) Go Tell the Spartans A good war film needs heroes. Several helicopters and flare ships arrive just in time to stop the Viet Cong attack. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. During the Cold War, the CIA orders free-lance operative Scorpio to assassinate his former CIA mentor Cross and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues. Add the first question. But Vietnam had no heroes in the eyes of most Americans. [6] He sent the script to a friend of Burt Lancaster, then 65 years old, who was recuperating from a knee injury (his character limps throughout the film). Courcey translates the graveyard's French inscription as referring to the Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 Spartans died. [3] The project was turned down by Paramount and 20th Century Fox.[4]. It was released on DVD by HBO Home Video on August 30, 2005[9] and as a limited-edition Blu-ray by Scorpion Releasing in June 2016.[10]. On their way to Muc Wa, along a dirt road, the column encounters a booby-trapped roadblock. Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by, That here obedient to their laws we lie. Screen legend, Burt Lancaster stars in GO TELL THE SPARTANS, a Vietnam Conflict tale set in 1964, early in the U.S. armed forces involvement in South Vietnam.… Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his remote 10th Century castle hoping a battle there against the advancing Germans will not lead to its destruction and all the heritage within. A patrol from the outpost led by Sgt. 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 Coming Home and The Deer Hunter, the film won critical admiration, but audiences preferred individualised sagas, sentiment, and romantic melodrama. Since the late 20th century, the Soviet-American CoDominium had kept the peace, both on Earth and among the stars. But now the CoDominium is dying, and its death-throes will … Oh stranger, go tell the Spartans that here we lie, obedient to their decrees. The next morning, Barker travels to Saigon to meet with Colonel Minh, the military chief of the region, and tries to persuade Minh to send reinforcements of at least 300 ARVN troops to Muc Wa. Tatoeba-2020.08 He is best known for his Flying Tigers research and for the Vietnam novel that became the Burt Lancaster film Go Tell the Spartans. Minh offers the requested troops in exchange for 1,500 shells. Second Lieutenant Hamilton has been passed over for promotion and sees volunteering for Vietnam as a way to obtain a promotion to remain in the Army. After the final battle, Courcey is the only survivor. But the group is ambushed and surrounded by the Viet Cong, led by the civilian girl. Since the late 20th century, the Soviet-American CoDominium had kept the peace, both on Earth and among the stars. Advisory Command in Vietnam and not the full-blown war we are all used to. 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. Major Asa Barker has been given command of a poorly manned outpost overlooking three villages named Boo Jum, Mung Tau and Hat Song. That evening, the outpost is attacked. The VC have withdrawn. Thermopylae was the narrow mountain pass where in 480 BC a small Greek force led by … Major Barker sends his four new men plus Cpl. 1978; 1 hr 54 mins Drama R Watchlist. 84 of 95 people found this review helpful. The younger actors cast were Marc Singer as infantry Captain Al Olivetti, a gung-ho career officer seeking to earn the Combat Infantryman Badge, and Craig Wasson as Corporal Courcey, the idealistic college-educated draftee who wants to see what a real war is like. In 1967, five young men undergo boot camp training before being shipped out to Vietnam. Go Tell the Spartans "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 years as Coming Home and The Deer Hunter , the film garnered critical admiration, but audiences preferred individualized sagas, sentiment and romantic melodrama. , box office, & company info of a series containing: - a 'breakthrough ' sorts! 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