Go Tell the Spartans

[jfko6]

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 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."

The choice of film's name thus constitutes a deliberate "spoiler" by the film makers, telling anyone familiar with the source of the quote that the film's soldier characters - like the Spartans at Thermopylae - had been sent to their deaths.

DVD:Go Tell the Spartans

[Norton]

Great period film. I saw it in the theater in 1978 and never forgot the ending. It did not say The End
It just said 1964 on a black screen. That period of the Cold War is nearly forgotten.
From 1961 to early 1965
These advisers lived, ate, marched, fought with their South Vietnamese counterparts.
Fighting was at the point mostly done by small units and it was personal.

[Norton]

Thought about it and wanted to add this as this mirrors both Daniel Ford's book Incident at Muc Wa and 1977 movie
Go Tell The Spartans
Actual photo from 1964 of U.S. Adviser looking at a monument or marker honoring French soldiers killed in the exact same place in 1954. The Translation on the stone says Go Tell The Spartans in French and Vietnamese.

1964

[jfko6]

For me (thanks for your post) I caught up with it circa 1990-1993. Having had a discussion about the film with a Vietnam vet; who apparently got affected by Agent Orange; a memorable scene being about politics which was mirrored in the Clinton Scandal; it was political satire for him; then later news about Jackie Kennedy broke unexpectedly about her health and sudden passing.

What stood out in memory was some of the battle scenes with Singer. The film was an accurate portrayal of tactics used and the dialogue an accurate depiction of Army life and tactics still being taught today.

[jfko6]

Cold War topic.