{"id":40275,"date":"2018-09-18T13:39:20","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T20:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40275"},"modified":"2020-11-27T20:24:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T03:24:33","slug":"go-tell-the-spartans-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40275","title":{"rendered":"Go Tell the Spartans (1978)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;He was a dink! I&#8217;m sick and tired of the goddamned, fish-stinkin&#8217; dinks!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-40276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Poster.jpg 504w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nDuring the early years of the Vietnam War, a battle-weary major (Burt Lancaster) and his officer (Marc Singer) at a poorly manned outpost send a group of men &#8212; including promotion-hungry Lieutenant Hamilton (Joe Unger), burnt-out Sergeant Oleonowski (Jonathan Goldsmith), drug-addicted medic Corporal Abraham Lincoln (Dennis Howard), demolitions expert Corporal Courcey (Craig Wasson), communications expert Corporal Ackley (John Megna), and a half-Vietnamese translator named Cowboy (Evan Kim), in addition to mercernaries and South Vietnamese troops &#8212; to garrison the deserted hamlet of Muc Wa; but their journey is haunted by the ghosts of massacred French soldiers from an earlier conflict.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Burt Lancester Films<\/li>\n<li>Soldiers<\/li>\n<li>Vietnam War<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that &#8220;the best Vietnam War film&#8221; in 1978 &#8212; directed in a &#8220;surprisingly assured&#8221; manner by Ted Post, best known for his work on <em>Beneath the Planet of the Apes<\/em> (1970) and the wacky cult-camp classic <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=1834\"><em>The Baby<\/em> (1973)<\/a> &#8212; &#8220;was overlooked because of the highly publicized <em>The Deer Hunter<\/em>, <em>Apocalypse Now<\/em>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40251\"><em>Coming Home<\/em><\/a>.&#8221; He notes that this &#8220;convincing look at the war in 1964, before it escalated to mammoth proportions&#8221;, effectively shows the &#8220;sadistic, racist attitude&#8221; of some soldiers, as well as &#8220;the suicidal bent of some of the vets&#8221;.  Based on a 1967 novel by correspondent Daniel Ford called <em>Incident at Muc Wa<\/em> &#8212; and made ten years after John Wayne&#8217;s now laughably-dated <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40283\"><em>The Green Berets<\/em> (1968)<\/a> &#8212; <em>Go Tell the Spartans<\/em> nonetheless feels like it&#8217;s from an earlier cinematic era, likely due to its low budget (the U.S. Army refused to provide monetary assistance unless significant changes were made to the script; thankfully, Burt Lancaster found it brilliant and fronted his own money). Unlike <em>The Green Berets<\/em>, &#8230; <em>Spartans<\/em> &#8212; which Peary refers to as &#8220;brutal and uncompromising&#8221; &#8212; has held up quite well; I&#8217;m not surprised by its minor cult status. Special kudos go to Dick Halligan for his memorably haunting score (which will linger in your head weeks later), and to Wendell Mayes&#8217; sharp screenplay, which, despite taking &#8220;seven years to sell&#8221;, features &#8220;strong and realistic&#8221; dialogue as well as believable characters.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A well-acted, no-holds-barred look at the insanity of war<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"342\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still-300x160.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"342\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still3.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still3-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still3-300x160.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"342\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-40279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still2.png 640w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still2-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Go-Tell-the-Spartans-Still2-300x160.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, as a fine early depiction of the Vietnam War. Nominated by Peary as one of the Best Pictures of the Year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?page_id=1784#goodshow\">Good Show<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0077617\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/go-tell-the-spartans-1978\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/td>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;He was a dink! I&#8217;m sick and tired of the goddamned, fish-stinkin&#8217; dinks!&#8221; Synopsis: During the early years of the Vietnam War, a battle-weary major (Burt Lancaster) and his officer (Marc Singer) at a poorly manned outpost send a group of men &#8212; including promotion-hungry Lieutenant Hamilton (Joe Unger), burnt-out Sergeant Oleonowski (Jonathan Goldsmith), drug-addicted medic Corporal Abraham Lincoln (Dennis Howard), demolitions expert Corporal Courcey (Craig Wasson), communications expert Corporal Ackley (John Megna), and a half-Vietnamese translator named Cowboy (Evan&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=40275\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40275"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55386,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40275\/revisions\/55386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}