Go Tell the Spartans **** (1978, Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, Jonathan Goldsmith) – Classic Movie Review 9902

Director Ted Post’s 1978 war drama Go Tell the Spartans stars Burt Lancaster as Major Asa Barker, a top US military adviser, who is worrying about Vietnam back in 1964, and he has to save a rookie platoon from an ambush by the Vietcong.

Go Tell the Spartans is an acute, powerful, underrated film, with first-rate acting by Lancaster, Craig Wasson as Cpl. Stephen Courcey and Marc Singer as Capt. Al Olivetti, plus taut direction by Post.

Wendell Mayes’s compellingly dark-toned screenplay, leavened with a sense of humour, is taken from Daniel Ford’s novel Incident at Muc Wa.

The strong language is cut in the TV version.

Also in the cast are Jonathan Goldsmith, Joe Unger, Dennis Howard, David Clennon, Dolph Sweet and James Hong.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9902

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