Compared with many war films that covered America's involvement with Vietnam, "Go Tell the Spartans' didn't set the world alight due to its very understated style and low-scale resources, but because of centering towards a steady character/situation driven story, it remained an thoughtfully harrowing and toughly grim account showing that there were no heroes, or anything to gain from this war. Leading the way is the commanding presence of Burt Lancaster's inspired performance barking out his dialogue, but holding a truly genuine rapport with his mainly unprepared soldiers. He's not in it for pride, as his knows this isn't the place for it.<br /><br />Vietnam, 1964. American forces haven't been fully deployed into the Vietnamese jungles yet, but Major Asa Barker is assigned to set up a barricade at an abandoned post at Muc Wa (where 10 years earlier 302 French soldiers were massacred by the Viet Cong), but at his disposal is only a few American soldiers and ragtag bunch of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers. Soon making there presence known, the motley crew come up against overwhelming odds to hold the barricade.<br /><br />Directed by Ted Post (who noticeably helm Clint Eastwood in 'Hang Em' High' and 'Magnum Force'... plus made the weird horror 'The Baby'), it's tautly handled in very candid, no-frills way. This forthrightly grounded touch, lend it to having some almost TV-like qualities (like the mechanical camera-work and spotty editing) but on the other hand it gave it true grit and an imitate cloud that stamped in a realistically raw air. This meant the dramas (psychological/psychical) while there (and this is a fairly laborious and talkative film confronting the issues of war and politics), were never overdone or overly milked, but still having enough kick to leave an impression. I read some complaints about it being flat or lacking emotion… but I thought it did enough questioning the naïve involvement (doubts outweighing the for) and the state of mind of their soldiers (looking at misguided obligations). Wendell Mayes' hardened script (who adapted the screenplay from Daniel Ford's 'Incident at Muc Wa') is precisely stimulating in its text be it personal or tactical, but also worked in is some welcoming humor. Outside of Lancaster, there are solidly humane and rounded performances from the cast in the likes of David Clennon, Jonathan Goldsmith, Joe Unger, Dennis Howard, Dennis Howard, Craig Wasson, Dolph Sweet, James Hong and Marc Singer. The literary is heavy, but the roughly rampaging action (intense firefights) might only be minor, still it's staged with excellent ferocity and alertness that it becomes like a disorienting blur (definitely the night sequences) amongst the harshly authentic surrounding terrain. You can feel its setting itself up for a big one, and when it happens the 'you know what' really hit's the fan. <br /><br />Despite the cheap origins 'Go Tell The Spartans' is an accomplished effort deserving a lot more merit, both meaningful and scathing without being pushy in its text, but also visuals.