THE 317TH PLATOON (1965)

                        “The 317^th Platoon” is a French film set in the First Indochina War.  It is based on a novel by the director Pierre Schoendoerffer.  He was a war cameraman with the French army at Dien Bien Phu.  He won the best screenplay award at Cannes.  Two years later, he directed the documentary “The Anderson Platoon” which was the Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards. 

                        The film takes place in May, 1954.  A French platoon, with Laotian allies, is ordered to abandon its position and withdraw to a base miles away.  They are naïve about the trek as evidenced by their taking a refrigerator with them.  In a great action scene, they ambush a Vietminh supply convoy that is using bikes.  Afterwards, they check a wounded soldier to see if he is pissing blood.  It’s little details like this that set the movie apart from the more big budget Vietnam War movies.  The convoy was a juicy target, but the ambush is a big mistake because now the unit is being chased.  The leader is Lt. Torrens (Jacques Perrin).  He believes in obeying the rules of war.  However, he is superseded by the arriving Adjutant Willsdorf (Bruno Cremer).  Willsdorf is a fascinating character.  He is a veteran from the German army in WWII.  He is a survivor who has seen defeat and feels that in a guerrilla war, there are no rules.  “In war, you must make sure your goals are worth the losses.  Otherwise you will lose.”  From this point on, the movie is a lost patrol movie.  Few of these men will survive the journey.  As Willsdorf says:  “This is not a stroll.”  It sure ain’t.

                        “The 317^th Platoon” is a classic that is hard to find, but its worth the effort.  It has been compared to “The Battle of Algiers” because of its documentary feel.  It also has a cast of mostly nonprofessionals, although Perrin and Cremer are acclaimed in France.  The cast is excellent with no scene-chewing.  The movie is dominated by the Torrens/Willsdorf dynamic.  Each represents a different take on the war.  They remind me a bit of Elias/Barnes in “Platoon”.  Torrens reflects the American view of fighting in Vietnam (at least in the early years) and Willsdorf represents the French view circa Dien Bien Phu.  Willsdorf plants a grenade under a body while Torrens sniffs.  Torrens will risk lives to save the wounded, Willsdorf goes back to salvage a machine gun, but leaves the wounded behind.  After a bloody ambush, Torrens is disgusted, to which Willsdorf responds:  “No, it’s not disgusting.  It’s war”.  I have to admit that although I don’t necessarily agree with him, Willsdorf is one of my favorite war movie characters.

                        Another movie it reminds of is “84 Charlie Mopic”.  The cinematography is intimate, for the most part.  An ambush at a waterfall is filmed by a stationary camera at the top of the waterfall.  There is no music, but outstanding sound effects.  In fact, the soundtrack is used sparingly.  The movie puts you with the unit.  There are lots of close-ups.  You get a feel for the last days of a losing effort.  This is war without the frills.  Thus, it is realistic.  The soldiers are just doing their jobs.  A great war movie gets us to empathize with the men without having to undergo the hardships they went through.  The soldiers of the platoon know fear, bravado, stress, dissension, and exhaustion.  Few movies have done a better job of showing the effects of exhaustion on soldiers.  Torrens makes mistakes due to tiredness.  Mistakes even a good commander might make.  The enemy are not demonized and are faceless.  It is implied they commit atrocities, but the movie concentrates on the way the war has corrupted the French.

                        “The 317^th Platoon” should have been required viewing at the Pentagon when it came out.  Since many of our leaders did not bother to read about the French experience in Vietnam, perhaps they would have sat down and watched a movie about it.  Just as they should have watched “The Battle of Algiers”.  You should watch it too.  It is one of the best Vietnam War movies.  Pair it up with “The Anderson Platoon” and then watch “Go Tell the Spartans”.  Your cinematic tutorial on the war has begun.

GRADE  =  A