One of my all time favorites.

Memorable, crazy movie

Beautiful, moving film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As one who served as an MACV adviser (1965) and later in the infantry in Vietnam (1966), I can only echo those that say this is the best Vietnam film ever made. The cast is excellent. Johnathan Goldsmith was right on with his burnt out NCO portrayal. The overall tone of the film was perfect. This film had no political ax to grind and showed the situation we found ourselves in on a daily basis. No other film about Vietnam comes close to the truth as this one does. Burt Lancaster's best performance since "7 Days in May". Ted Post was never given the credit he richly deserves for his direction. Craig Wasson showed what a "rookie" was up against being thrown into an overwhelming spot. Everyone looked the part of a MACV adviser. I can speak to that from the position of: "Been there, done that, got the T shirt"

Compared with many war films that covered America's involvement with Vietnam, "Go Tell the Spartans' didn't set the world alight due to its very understated style and low-scale resources, but because of centering towards a steady character/situation driven story, it remained an thoughtfully harrowing and toughly grim account showing that there were no heroes, or anything to gain from this war. Leading the way is the commanding presence of Burt Lancaster's inspired performance barking out his dialogue, but holding a truly genuine rapport with his mainly unprepared soldiers. He's not in it for pride, as his knows this isn't the place for it.Vietnam, 1964. American forces haven't been fully deployed into the Vietnamese jungles yet, but Major Asa Barker is assigned to set up a barricade at an abandoned post at Muc Wa (where 10 years earlier 302 French soldiers were massacred by the Viet Cong), but at his disposal is only a few American soldiers and ragtag bunch of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers. Soon making there presence known, the motley crew come up against overwhelming odds to hold the barricade.Directed by Ted Post (who noticeably helm Clint Eastwood in 'Hang Em' High' and 'Magnum Force'... plus made the weird horror 'The Baby'), it's tautly handled in very candid, no-frills way. This forthrightly grounded touch, lend it to having some almost TV-like qualities (like the mechanical camera-work and spotty editing) but on the other hand it gave it true grit and an imitate cloud that stamped in a realistically raw air. This meant the dramas (psychological/psychical) while there (and this is a fairly laborious and talkative film confronting the issues of war and politics), were never overdone or overly milked, but still having enough kick to leave an impression. I read some complaints about it being flat or lacking emotion… but I thought it did enough questioning the naïve involvement (doubts outweighing the for) and the state of mind of their soldiers (looking at misguided obligations). Wendell Mayes' hardened script (who adapted the screenplay from Daniel Ford's 'Incident at Muc Wa') is precisely stimulating in its text be it personal or tactical, but also worked in is some welcoming humor. Outside of Lancaster, there are solidly humane and rounded performances from the cast in the likes of David Clennon, Jonathan Goldsmith, Joe Unger, Dennis Howard, Dennis Howard, Craig Wasson, Dolph Sweet, James Hong and Marc Singer. The literary is heavy, but the roughly rampaging action (intense firefights) might only be minor, still it's staged with excellent ferocity and alertness that it becomes like a disorienting blur (definitely the night sequences) amongst the harshly authentic surrounding terrain. You can feel its setting itself up for a big one, and when it happens the 'you know what' really hit's the fan. Despite the cheap origins 'Go Tell The Spartans' is an accomplished effort deserving a lot more merit, both meaningful and scathing without being pushy in its text, but also visuals.

For some reason, I hadn't seen this film before. I was in the army from 67-70 (did not go to Vietnam) and have read, written, and watched films about that time ever since. Burt Lancaster was...Burt Lancaster. He had some great lines, but I agree with the reviewer who commented on his age being a bit of a distraction. But the story more than compensated. This was when Americans in general had never heard of Vietnam. Burt's amazement that a draftee would be there spoke volumes about how early in our engagement this was. Yet, there were engagements. The US military was actively supporting the south Vietnamese, including fighting battles on the ground and giving air support. The ensemble cast felt like a stereotypical war movie cast, but the lighter dialogue in the first half of the film starts to give way to the seriousness of the situation. And finally, by the end of the film's "second act" it takes on more of an "alamo" feeling.Burt's character's cynicism, plus the viewers' historical knowledge of how things turned out for the US military in Vietnam, makes for some powerful moments. It also leads me to consider this an anti-war film. Because in the end, what did all the soldiers who died in the movie die for? As Burt's Major tells the hung-ho captain, this isn't like world war II. This one is just running us in circles. He knew the score in 1964, but unfortunately it was generals like Dolph Sweet's character who drove the policies that LBJ followed that resulted in so many more needless deaths.

Director Ted Post is incredibly talented when it comes to telling the audience a captivating story. His characters are believable and he helps create one of Burt Lancaster's finest performances. The story is told in a very entertaining and well-paced fashion while sustaining a feeling of tension. This film never received the attention it deserved when originally released. It's really worth your while and I hope when people see it in a video store they'll consider giving it a chance. It is definitely one of the most realistic and gripping accounts of the war in Vietnam. Ted Post proves to be a very talented director especially in the way he directs his actors. He manages to get great performances out of his entire cast (not only some of the stars). I highly recommend this film and hope that more people will appreciate the way I do.