At the core this film is a proto-Vietnam war movie. Which in itself is funny seeing how the French Indochina War was a prequel of sorts of the Vietnam War. Anthony Beevor, the most respected war historian, has described this movie as being the one portraying the military the best. I would agree.

The movie might be the archetype of the Vietnam War movie. It has all the elements that became staples of the genre. It has the forsaken and isolated platoon, the long, weary and ultimately pointless activities/marches, the dreadful hostile tropical environment etc... The only thing it lacks is the shattering of exceptionalism, although you could argue that the young lieutenant fills that role somewhat.

However, this movie in particular felt fresh and lighter than other war movies. It tells its story exclusively from a military point of view. It is a very minimalistic movie; it is about people in tough situations. In this movie the war is not a heroic thing. It is not romantic, tragic, epic or brave. It is primarily exhausting, tiresome. It isn't cool by any means; it is dirty by all means. The life of a soldier is not shooting, or fighting, it's mainly walking under moist heat. It is about being tired, not being able to sleep, being thirsty, being hungry. It shows a very mundane aspect of war, and therefore it allows itself to be sincere about it. More than any other war movie, there is something very raw about it, in a good way. The movie is very honest, it feels real.

It might be also because there is no story to speak of. The movie takes place in parallel to the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. There are echoes of the war and how the conflict progresses, but for the most part the platoon is isolated. You spend two hours with these guys and you completely understand that the war is unwinnable. Instead of a story the plot focuses rather on the soldiers. Especially the young idealistic, nerdy, officer opposed to the battle-hardened veteran. It is an pattern that is reused in Platoon with more drama. Here it starts as an antagonism of sorts but, interestingly, the events turn it into camaraderie. Bruno Cremer is the hero of this movie. And it is kind of bold for a movie from the sixties, when the anti-hero archetype was not as widespread and even less associated with the army.

The strengths of the film are emphasized by the mise-en-scene. The movie has that Nouvelle Vague effortlessness. It is not in the streets and cafés of the big city, it is the bushes in the jungle and going through rivers. The style is also very simple, yet it is effective. The image is in black and white, it conveys that feeling that in the jungle everything looks the same. The only music that is used is the tunes the soldiers get when they set up their radio. It is brilliant.

It has become very fashionable amongst uninformed opinion to mock the French military heritage . John A Nagi's best selling book Learning To Eat Soup With A Knife is a modern day bible of counter-insurgency warfare and chronicles the differences between America's failed conflict in Vietnam and Britain's spectacularly successful conflict against communist terrorists in Malaya in the 1950s . One of the major keys to British success was developing a French strategy learned in the Indo-China war of the ink spot strategy , a military counter-insurgency technique America dismissively ignored in Vietnam . That said there's different factors in winning and losing wars and when the British tried the Ink Spot strategy in Helmand province Afghanistan it was next to useless . Likewise the final outcome of the French Indo-China war was defeat for the colonial French after the pitched battle of Dien Bien Phu . But let it never be said that a bloody defeat requires less courage than a bloody victory and 317TH PLATOON tells of a bloody French defeat

I came in to this film knowing absolutely nothing about it except was directed and written by Pierre Schoendoerffer who was present at the battle of Dien Bien Phu as a cameraman and in 1992 made the epic war film featuring the battle . In short what Schoenddoerffer doesn't know about the French Indo-China war isn't worth knowing and expected him to translate this to screen

I was not disappointed . I've never seen a war but do know about the hot humid hell of monsoon in Asia and the director translates this very well to the audience where cloths are never dry and no matter how much liquid is consumed a thirst is never satisfied . Leeches and insects are always a problem and if a man suffers a small wound infection leading to gangrene is a threat . In this part of the world it's not only the enemy a White European has to fight but also the environment itself

This helps to give a very real sense of time and place to the story that plotwise is very familiar to war film aficionados . The story itself is very simple of a platoon stuck behind enemy lines and having to fight their way to sanctuary . It does contain a very European film making style , one of cinema verite , of naturalistic light and sound recording and of choppy editing giving the audience a slightly disorientated feel but this in keeping with the film . If you're expecting the expressionistic nightmare of APOCAYLPSE NOW or the emotional roller-coaster of PLATOON then you'll be disappointed because that's not what 317TH PLATOON is trying to be but in its own way it's as effective as any Hollywood 'Nam epic

A couple of things don't work . One is the audience might have to know the background of the conflict in order to understand why the platoon seemingly become stuck 150kilometres behind enemy lines . Another plot point is why the platoon have to open fire and give away their position to a passing Vietminh battalion when they could have laid low and bypassed it but these are minor flaws in a film that deserves to be better known about a counter-insurgency conflict that is totally forgotten . With Afghanistan being in the headlines for twelve years it might be a good idea to remember the quote from Marx that " History repeats itself first as tragedy , secondly as farce "

"La 317ème Section" The 317th Platoon – 1965

This film is probably the best film about the war in French Indo-china. Director Pierre Schoendoerffer was involved in the actual 1946-54 war as a cameraman at several of the war's battles, including the defeat at Dien Bien Phu. He shows the just what war in the dense jungle was like, dirt, rain, mud, dirt, rain, mud with firefights here and there with the Viet Cong.

The film is set just before the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. A small outpost just over the border from Cambodia has received orders to withdraw. They are to destroy the base and head south into Cambodia. They are to head for another base 100 kilometres south. The Platoon is led by the just arrived in country, Jacques Perrin. Under his command are 5 French NCO's and about 35 Cambodian troops.

The senior NCO is played Bruno Cremer. Cremer, a long time veteran of the war is all for avoiding contact with the VC and hot footing it to the base in the south. He soon has a falling out with LT Perrin over how to conduct the with-drawl. As a result of a clash with pursuing Viet Cong, they now have several seriously wounded men. Cremer says they need to leave the wounded and continue in all haste away from the enemy. Fresh from Officer training school, Perrin refuses to leave the wounded behind.

This of course slows the party down and soon the enemy is barking at their heels. The group splits up with Perrin and the wounded going one way while Cremer and several Cambodian soldiers attempt to lead the VC off their trail.

Several days later the two parties meet further up the trail. Cremer has managed to throw the pursuers off the trail, though he knows it will not be for long. Lt Perrin has by now realized that Cremer was right about the wounded. They have all died, and they are now 2 days behind where they should be.

The group starts out again, only stopping for rest, food and to try and make radio contact. The party is losing men with every clash they have with the pursuers. The soldiers finally reach the base, only to discover the VC already there. They now need to head further south to the next base and hope they can outpace the enemy.

While stopping for a much needed rest. The platoon is hit hard in an ambush by a large VC group. Only 5 men, Cremer, a badly wounded Perrin and 3 Cambodian troopers make it away from the massacre. Perrin orders Cremer to leave him behind. Cremer hands him a grenade and fades into the jungle with the 3 remaining troopers.

The film was shot on location in the jungles of Cambodia.

Director Pierre Schoendoerffer other films include the Vietnam War films, THE ANDERSON PLATOON and DIEN BIEN PHU. He also wrote the WW2 novel, FAREWELL TO THE KING which was made into the film of the same title. This one stars Nick Nolte and is set in the jungles of Borneo.