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Go Tell the Spartans

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Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Go Tell the Spartans, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 10 August 2025
Go Tell the Spartans
Company typeFilm
IndustryMotion picture
Founded1978
FounderTed Post (director)
ProductsWar film

Go Tell the Spartans is a 1978 American war film directed by Ted Post featuring Burt Lancaster in the lead role. The movie is an adaptation of Daniel Ford's 1967 novel Incident at Muc Wa, portraying the experiences of U.S. Army military advisors during the early stages of the Vietnam War in 1964, a period when Ford was working as a correspondent for The Nation.

Plot

Set in 1964, the story follows infantry Major Asa Barker, a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War, who commands a lightly staffed US Army advisory outpost responsible for overseeing three South Vietnamese villages. His mission is to retake Muc Wa, an abandoned settlement on the highway connecting Da Nang and Phnom Penh, which had been the scene of a French massacre during the First Indochina War.

Barker and his second-in-command, Captain Olivetti, assign four new personnel to their team: Second Lieutenant Hamilton, eager for promotion; Command Sergeant Major Oleozewski, battle-hardened and fatigued; Corporal Abraham Lincoln, a combat medic struggling with drug addiction; and Corporal Courcey, a draftee demolition expert who voluntarily extended his service for Vietnam duty. They join forces with Corporal Ackley, a communications expert, an interpreter named Nguyen "Cowboy," several Hmong mercenaries, and roughly twenty South Vietnamese Popular Force soldiers.

While traveling to Muc Wa, the group encounters a booby-trapped roadblock and captures a Viet Cong fighter. After the prisoner refuses to divulge information, Cowboy executes him. Upon arrival at Muc Wa, Lieutenant Hamilton adopts Oleozewski’s defensive tactics to facilitate helicopter resupply missions. Courcey discovers a French cemetery bearing an inscription from the Battle of Thermopylae: "Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by. That here, obedient to their laws, we lie." He also spots a one-eyed Viet Cong scout nearby.

Leading a patrol, Courcey finds local Vietnamese civilians fishing despite intelligence reports indicating no inhabitants remain. He manages to connect with some women despite language differences. That night, Viet Cong forces launch an assault on Muc Wa; Lincoln sustains injuries during the attack. Courcey orchestrates an ambush that eliminates a Viet Cong mortar team, including one of the women he previously encountered. Barker travels to Saigon seeking reinforcements of 300 ARVN soldiers from Colonel Minh, who demands 1,500 artillery shells in return and refuses Barker’s request otherwise.

Muc Wa endures another Viet Cong offensive; Lieutenant Hamilton is killed while rescuing a wounded comrade after disregarding warnings. The following day, Oleozewski takes his own life. Barker's plea for withdrawal is rejected by General Harnitz, who dispatches Olivetti back to Muc Wa. A substantial Viet Cong force mounts yet another attack but is driven off by U.S. helicopter gunships.

General Harnitz eventually orders American troops to evacuate Muc Wa, now surrounded by an estimated Viet Cong battalion numbering around 1,000 fighters, leaving behind South Vietnamese soldiers and wounded personnel. Barker volunteers to aid in the evacuation effort. During this time, Cowboy kills Vietnamese civilians attempting to steal weapons; however, a teenage girl escapes and alerts the Viet Cong.

As they retreat under artillery cover, Barker falls victim to an ambush orchestrated by the teenage informant; Courcey is wounded but concealed by a militia member. By morning, Courcey remains as the lone survivor. He discovers Barker and the militia stripped of their uniforms and weapons before encountering the exhausted one-eyed Viet Cong scout at the French cemetery. The scout raises his rifle but ultimately lowers it; Courcey then departs from the ruins of Muc Wa along the dirt road.

Cast


Development

Director Ted Post persuaded Avco Embassy Pictures to back the film with a modest budget. He forwarded the screenplay to Burt Lancaster, who was 65 at the time and recuperating from a knee injury—reflected in his character’s persistent limp. Impressed by the script’s quality, Lancaster agreed to star and later invested $150,000 to ensure completion of the 31-day filming schedule when financial resources dwindled. The cast also included younger actors such as Marc Singer, portraying Capt. Al Olivetti, a career military officer pursuing the Combat Infantryman Badge, and Craig Wasson, who played Corporal Courcey, an idealistic draftee eager for authentic combat experience.

Writing

The narrative is inspired by a failed 1964 special forces mission at Tan Hoa in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, targeting an abandoned village that consisted merely of a field, an airstrip, and some French graves. These graves influenced the film’s title, which references Simonides’ epitaph for the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae: "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie." This serves as a grim prelude to the doomed nature of the soldiers’ assignment.

Screenwriter Wendell Mayes circulated the screenplay for several years, with established actors such as Robert Mitchum, William Holden, and Paul Newman considered for the role of Major Asa Barker. The project was rejected by both Paramount and 20th Century Fox. In contrast to Ford’s novel, which featured elite "US Army Raiders," Mayes’ script depicts the Military Assistance Advisory Group advisors as a group of misfits; additionally, a female reporter character present in the novel was omitted from the screenplay.

In 1977, efforts to secure support from the U.S. Army were met with conditions requiring script revisions. The Army emphasized that its Vietnam advisors were “outstanding individuals,” criticizing the portrayal of them as an unrealistic assembly of failures for that era.

Filming

Principal photography took place on location in Valencia, California.


Release

Go Tell the Spartans had its U.S. debut on June 14, 1978, followed by a Philippine release through Transamerica on November 14, 1978. The film was re-released on September 7, 1987, and later became available on VHS starting May 13, 1992. Subsequently, it was issued on DVD by HBO Home Video (distributed via Warner Home Video) on August 30, 2005, and received a limited-edition Blu-ray release from Scorpion Releasing in June 2016.


Reception

Although its theatrical run in the United States was limited, Go Tell the Spartans garnered significant critical praise, particularly among opponents of the Vietnam War. Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. commended its succinct depiction of America’s futile involvement in Vietnam. Critic Stanley Kauffmann regarded it as one of the finest Vietnam War films outside documentary form. Roger Grooms of the Cincinnati Enquirer described it as “one of the noblest films about men in crisis.” On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a score of 67% based on six reviews.

Over time, Go Tell the Spartans has been acknowledged as an antiwar classic, celebrated for its unflinching realism and emphasis on tactical failures rather than personal drama. Burt Lancaster’s portrayal of a disillusioned officer carrying out destructive orders has been especially praised. In 2023, critic David Thomson referred to it as “exemplary as a pitiless survey of an insane, inept, and criminal incursion on history.”

Awards and nominations

In 1979, the screenplay by Wendell Mayes received a nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award in the category of "Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium (Screen)".

External links

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