Go Tell the Spartans (1978)

Information From IMDb

Plot Summary
A unit of American military advisors in Vietnam
prior to the major U.S. involvement find similarities between
their helpless struggle against the Viet Cong and the doomed actions
of a French unit at the same site a decade before
in this bitter look at the beginnings of the Vietnam war.
Written by Keith Loh

Full Cast
Burt Lancaster ... Maj. Asa Barker
Craig Wasson ... Cpl. Stephen Courcey
Jonathan Goldsmith ... Sgt. Oleonowski
Marc Singer ... Capt. Alfred Olivetti
Joe Unger ... Lt. Raymond Hamilton
Dennis Howard ... Cpl. Abraham Lincoln
David Clennon ... Lt. Finley Wattsberg
Evan C. Kim ... Cowboy (as Evan Kim)
John Megna ... Cpl. Ackley
Hilly Hicks ... Signalman Toffer
Dolph Sweet ... Gen. Harnitz
Clyde Kusatsu ... Col. Minh
James Hong ... The Old Man
Denice Kumagai ... Butterfly
Tad Horino ... One-eyed man
Phong Diep ... Minh's Interpreter
Ralph Brannen ... Col. Minh's ADC
Mark Carlton ... Capt. Schlitz
Dabney Coleman ... Helicopter pilot (uncredited)

Writing Credits
Daniel Ford novel "Incident at Muc Wa"
Wendell Mayes writer

Produced
Allan F. Bodoh .... producer
Mitchell Cannold .... producer
Jesse Corallo .... associate producer (as Jess Corallo)
Michael Leone .... executive producer

Original Music
Dick Halligan

Cinematography
Harry Stradling Jr.

Trivia
The title comes from a quote by Herodotus, the Greek historian, about the famous Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. 300 Spartan soldiers held a mountain pass against the entire Persian army; they all gave their lives, but the delay allowed Greece to prepare for their victory at Salamis. The epitaph of the Spartan soldiers reads "Stranger, go tell the Spartans that here we are buried, obedient to their orders."

The psychological operations model used by Lt. Wattsberg is still used by the US Army. It now uses computer databases rather than color charts.

While high on drugs in the observation tower, Corporal Abraham Lincoln sings the Gettysburg Address.

'Amapola' is the Spanish word for poppy, and used in the film as slang for opium.

Goofs
Crew or equipment visible: During the beginning of the movie, when the XO is showing Major Barker a map of MukWa, a microphone boom briefly appears at the bottom between them.

Anachronisms: When Lt. Wattsberg walks into Major Barker's office to tell him that they got the air support they needed, Barker was reading a book called "Seven Firefights in Vietnam", which wasn't published until 1970.

Revealing mistakes: At the very beginning of the movie during the credits and the overview of the camp and right after the title shot, if you look in the far background at the top of the scene you can see what looks like traffic and cars passing by.

Factual errors: Burt Lancaster (Maj Barker) was about 64 years old when this movie was made. No real Army major would be able to stay in the service until that advanced age. He would have been retired at a much younger age as a result of being continually passed over for promotion, as Major Barker had been.

Factual errors: Major Barker tells his executive officer that he served in Korea during the Korean War, yet he wears no Combat Infantryman's Badge. He would have earned a CIB for his infantry service during that earlier war.

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Both Corporal Coucey and Corporal Lincoln salute Major Barker incorrectly when they report to him for duty. Instead of saluting, waiting for the major to return the salute, then dropping theirs, both men quickly drop their salutes before Barker even begins his.

Factual errors: Many of the American soldiers, especially Corporal Coucey and the executive officer, have hair styles that are much longer than allowed by Army regulations.

Memorable Quotes
Maj. Asa Barker: Are you sure we're not in a looney bin? sometimes I think we're in a god damn looney bin!

Cpl. Courcey: I am your friend. I have chocolate.

Gen. Harnitz: Ole Barker might just come down here and shoot my balls off

Maj. Asa Barker: Never in the U.S. have we asked for anything back. It would screw up the bookkeeping.

Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film 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 screenplay by Wendell Mayes was shopped around for years
with various older leading men in the role of Major Asa Barker.
Barker is a weary infantry veteran in his third war,
who provides veteran supervision to a cadre of advisors
attached to a group of South Vietnamese who garrison the deserted village of Muc Wa.

Director Ted Post persuaded Avco Embassy Pictures
to produce the film on a limited budget.

He sent the script to a friend of Burt Lancaster, then 65 years old,
who was recuperating from a knee injury – his Maj. Barker limps throughout the film.
Calling the script brilliant, Lancaster agreed to star in it
and when the 31-day production budget ran short, he paid $150,000 to complete it.

The younger actors cast were Marc Singer as infantry Captain Mark 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.

The film's title is from Simonides's epitaph to the three hundred soldiers
who died fighting Persian invaders at Thermopylae, Greece:
"Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."

User Review

I was there - this one is real.
1 August 1999 | by jacksonc (East Glacier Park, Montana)

Quote

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). Believe this: it shows things pretty much as they happened. Lancaster was never better. I recommend it without reservation.