GO TELL THE SPARTANS (1977)
Label: MGM
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 114 Minutes 43 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (No Subtitles)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Ted Post
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Joe Unger Dennis Howard, David Clennon, Evan Kim, Dolph Sweet, John Megna, Hilly Hicks, Clyde Kusatsu, James Hong, Marc Singer, Denice Kumagai, Tad Horino, Phong Diep, Ralph Brannen, Mark Carlton
In the Ted Post (The Baby) directed anti-war Vietnam War film Go Tell the Spartans (1977) hard-boiled Major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster, The Island of Dr. Moreau) is stationed in Vietnam during the early days of the war, 1964 to be exact. He's a US Army advisor assigned to an outpost overlooking three strategic villages in South Vietnam. He and his executive officer Capt. Alfred Olivetti (Marc Singer, The Beastmaster) are ordered by his superior Gen. Harnitz (Dolph Sweet, The Swimmer, TV's Gimme A Break!) to reoccupy the nearby deserted hamlet named Muc Wa, where a decade earlier over 300 French soldiers were massacred during the First Indochina War. Barker's regiment is woefully understaffed, just a handful of American advisers and a small rag-tag bunch of poorly armed volunteer South Vietnamese soldiers, including the bloodthirsty half-French, half-Vietnamese
interpreter/interrogator Nguyen "Cowboy" (Evan C. Kim, The Dead Pool) and an old man (James Huang, Big Trouble in Little China). Gen. Harnitz realizing that Barker is short-changed sends a group of American soldiers to reinforce his rag-tag bunch, among them are peculiar draftee Cpl. Stephen Courcey (Craig Wasson, Ghost Story) a demolitions expert, who willfully extended his tour of duty to come to Vietnam, a burned-out Sgt. Oleozewski (Jonathan Goldsmith, who went on to be the 'Most Interesting Man In The World' from the Dos Equis beer ads!) who previously served with Barker in Korea, and a drug-addict medic Corporal Abraham Lincoln (Dennis Howard, Airplane II: The Sequel). Barker sends the Vietnamese volunteers and these new arrivals, alongside communications expert Corporal Ackley (John Megna, Smokey and the Bandit II) to Muc Wa, lead by the newly promoted and naively gung-ho Second Lieutenant Hamilton (Joe Unger, Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III) to set up a garrison in Muc Wa. On the road their they encounter a booby-trapped roadblock and shoot a Viet Cong soldier, when they are unable to get any information from the injured enemy Cowboy beheads him, much to the shock of the American advisors. Setting up a base of operations the group encounter violent opposition in a variety of encounters, leading to losses by enemy fire and suicide.
It's a grim and gritty take on the Vietnam war, decidedly shying away from the the usual flag-waving jingoism we get with war films, there's no hooray USA cheering, instead it's a commentary on the pointlessness of war and just how fucked up that particular war was for all involved. I loved Lancaster as the cigar-chewing and war-wizened career military man, sending his men into a losing battle but putting his own hide on the line both figuratively and literally to withdraw them when he discovers just how fucked the situation is. I also love the story he tells to his executive officer of how it is that he's done three touts and is still a major, which all comes down to an ill-timed blow job, his commanding officer and saluting the President of United States! Lancaster is in excellent form here, a war-weary veteran of multiple wars, as is Wasson as the idealistic and naive soldier, especially when he wants to see the better angels in humanity, a decision that ultimately leads to betrayal tragedy.
This is a real gem of war flick, I love how dour and grim it is, with a finale that not only offers nail-biting action and tension, plus the usual military conflict bombast, but also nails that 'what was the point of it all' feeling around this war, and does good work getting into the headspaces of the soldiers and their motivations. I also enjoyed seeing actor David Clennon (The Thing) as Lt. Finley Wattsberg, a psychological warfare expert who has developed a color-coded systems for predicting where the next Viet Cong attack will happen, based on flow-charts and graphs, which everyone but him realizes is complete bullshit.
It's not a perfect film by any means, the picture was shot in California and at times it's a pretty poor stand-in for Vietnam, and it's a pretty workmanlike shot film, Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket this is not, but the cast is pretty great and the story being told is well-made, so I had no problem just going along with the illusion. I'd never even heard of this film prior to this release, so I was quite surprised how it had evaded me for so long considering how solid it was, truly a anti-war gem of of a war flick.
Audio/Video: Go Tell the Spartans (1977) arrives on Blu-ray from MGM in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1),. The source is in solid shape, there's some white speckles, grit, and some faint vertical lines evident, though grain is well-managed and fairly consistent. There's what looks to be an inherent source-related softness to it. I am unsure of the source for this but I doubt were looking at a scan of the OCN. It's not the most crisp and well-defined image but akin tones looks solid and the dingy green and brown colors look accurate. Black levels are never true-black, and tend to lean milky or green, and it's fairly flat looking image as well. Audio on the MGM Blu-ray comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0, there are no subtitle options. Like the image it's not the most dynamic, though dialogue is delivered cleanly, and the sound of artillery, gunfire and explosions have some bombast to them, and the score from Dick Halligan (Fear City) is well-placed in the mix.
As with other recent MGM titles I've reviewed like Play Dirty and The Wild Party this is a barebones release with a static menu that only give the option to play. The film was previously issued on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing with a nearly two-hours of interviews with Marc Singer, Joe Unger, David Clennon, Jonathan Goldsmith and director Ted Post- which is now out-of-print, which could eb worth seeking out on the secondary market if you're a fan. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided wrap with the original illustrated movie poster artwork.
Special Features:
- None
Screenshots from the MGM Blu-ray:
Available from www.MovieZyng.com
