PIC of the Week – Go Tell the Spartans
Article series by Ray Schillaci
Over the years there have been a number of great anti-war films, from All Quiet on the Western Front to Hacksaw Ridge. Perhaps it’s generational, but looking back there appears to be a powerhouse of films based on the Vietnam War, including Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, and Apocalypse Now! There are also the independent films that are nearly as powerful and poignant that have been lost to at least a couple of generations: Hamburger Hill, The Siege of Firebase Gloria, and 84 Charlie Mopic.
Ask Vietnam veterans about this last batch and they will pay them in high regards next to some of those Oscar nominated films. In fact, they may even find them better. Those films hit a raw nerve of reality for what they went through rather than Hollywood’s version. That’s where my PIC of the week comes in with Scorpion Releasing’s Blu of Go Tell the Spartans, starring Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity, Judgement at Nuremberg).
Lancaster is an icon of cinema, and not only does he have a top of his class resume of films including The Rainmaker, Birdman of Alcatraz, and Elmer Gantry (Best Actor, 1961), he also made a solid group of consciously social and politically charged films throughout his career, including Seven Days in May that involved a group of U.S. Military leaders looking to overthrow the President amidst a possible nuclear treaty, Executive Action, which suggests who was involved in the Kennedy assassination, and Twilight’s Last Gleaming, where Lancaster plays a rogue general that takes over a nuclear silo and threatens WWIII if the heinous details behind the Vietnam War are not released to the public. With this type of credit, it’s no wonder Lancaster jumped at the chance to be involved in Go Tell the Spartans, the story of a U.S. Major (Lancaster) on a doomed mission that was already proved to be a miserable failure when the French army were involved ten years prior.
Director Ted Post was more known for his role as a TV director (Peyton Place, Gunsmoke), but proved himself with some thinking man’s action films with the Dirty Harry sequel, Magnum Force and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Truly, no spoiler here since anyone familiar with history, and the quote will be able to figure this one out. Now, if you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea what happened to the Spartans when they fought the Persian army then skip the rest of this paragraph. Post does not flinch in laying out the terribly ill-fated mission that would send all to their deaths as the title suggests. The movie is an excellent indictment on the thoughtlessness of leaders who send men to battle with no thought to the outcome.
Everything about this film is first class from its star to the the first rate production. Lancaster is aided by two very capable stars, Craig Wasson (Ghost Story, Body Double) and Marc Singer (Beastmaster, Eagle Eye) that turn in compelling performances as well. The movie is taken from a powerful and critically lauded book, Incident at Muc Wa, written by Daniel Ford, who is credited for the film along with Wendell Mayes (Anatomy of a Murder, In Harm’s Way, Dear Wish). The build up is excruciating since we get all the tell-tale signs that this special mission is going to go very bad with our only question being, who will survive?…if any. This is one of those perfect ’70s films that tackles a very touchy subject without flinching while delivering intelligence as well as intense action. Any film fan owes it to him/herself to catch this film in glorious Blu. This limited edition with only 1,500 copies available comes with the following extras:
¥ Video – Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
¥ Audio – DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
¥ Interview with actor Marc Singer
¥ Interview with director Ted Post
¥ Interview with actor Joe Unger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
¥ Interview with actor David Glennon (Gone Girl)
¥ Interview with actor Jonathan Goldsmith (Hang’em High)
¥ Reversible art
¥ Trailers
Available at Amazon – $18.89
