comment #1

Jeffrey Wells says ...

I gather Go Tell The Spartans hasn't been seen much by HE readers. Pretty much a forgotten film, and yet it's one of the most respected Vietnam films ever made. (Respected by people with brains and a pulse, I mean.) Nonetheless, I've just composed a pretty good facsimile of a hilarious soliloquy which Lancaster, with his regal dignity as intact as ever, delivered perfectly. And I was hoping that someone, somewhere might have run across a PDF script or a transcript or a video clip. But no...flatline. Thanks, readership!

comment #2

The Hoyk says ...

I feel your frustration, Jeff. Part of the problem is this film is just hard to come by. Embassy barely released the thing, HBO put it on DVD in what I think is a panscan transfer that is out of print. Few people outside of afficionados like yourself and myself have likely even heard of the movie.

But, maybe this will encourage someone to rent it and dupe said footage to a YouTube snippet. Keep hope alive.

comment #3

Rickblaine says ...

Greetings from central Europe. Saw Go Tell The Spartans back home in London in '78-79. Bought a VHS copy in the 80s. Still have it but no machine to play it on. Meditative, almost brooding, and eschewing the overtly gung-ho heroics the poster invariably suggests, the film's psychological (and metaphorical) bent puts it - in my opinion, anyway - up there alongside Kubrick's Paths of Glory and even Renoir's La Grande Illusion. My favorite scene: when Wasson's idealogical corporal suddenly realises to his growing horror that the fragmented intelligence reports he's been collating clearly indicate that the seemingly strategically unimportant and undermanned outpost he's been sent to is about to be overrun by the advancing Vietcong. Great Lancaster performance and the allusions to ancient Greek history are cool, too. "Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie"

comment #4

Gordon27 says ...

"Pretty much a forgotten film, and yet it's one of the most respected Vietnam films ever made. (Respected by people with brains and a pulse, I mean.)"

Wow, you're a dick.

You cultivate an aggressive, unfriendly relationship with your readership and then complain that nobody else can find something on-line which you yourself couldn't find on-line for the simple reason that it isn't on-line? And you assume that it's because your readers are idiots? (Dead idiots, if one takes a literal reading of your post.)

Admit it; you were drunk when you posted that comment, right?

comment #5

Jeffrey Wells says ...

I don't cultivate an aggressive, unfriendly relationship with HE readers. I was simply amazed that no one said zip about my post for hours. And no, I don't post anything if I've had anything to drink so no, I wasn't bombed when I wrote what I wrote. I've kind of developed a knack over the years of writing as if I am slightly bombed, which is to say uninhibited. Took me decades to get there.

comment #6

Gordon27 says ...

"I gather Go Tell The Spartans hasn't been seen much by HE readers. Pretty much a forgotten film, and yet it's one of the most respected Vietnam films ever made. (Respected by people with brains and a pulse, I mean.)"

If this were the only time you said stuff like this about the entirety/vast majority of your readers, I'd agree that you don't cultivate an aggressive, unfriendly relationship with your readers. But since you say shit like this at least once a week -- rarely as strong, but the general attitude is the same -- I'd say you do.

"I've kind of developed a knack over the years of writing as if I am slightly bombed, which is to say uninhibited."

When I said that you seemed drunk, no, Jeff, it wasn't a positive thing. The reason you seemed drunk wasn't because you were "uninhibited", it was because you suddenly responded (to yourself) by getting angry at the people who weren't doing enough for you. It read like you made the main post, then went out and had some drinks, and got excited while you were drinking about how great it was going to be to see the clips, and then nobody responded so you flipped out and said that everybody was brainless because you assumed they hadn't seen the movie.

comment #7

Gordon27 says ...

"I don't cultivate an aggressive, unfriendly relationship with HE readers" -- Jeff Wells today

"Hey, everybody, I'm going to continue to post spoilers above the line so that everybody who visits my site can see them, and anybody who complains [which is everybody] is a whining baby." -- Jeff Wells at least once a month.

comment #8

Cobraverde says ...

"Are you fucking this girl, Captain?"
"No sir."
"Well, someone should be."

I saw GTTSpartans once a few years ago on Irish TV. Lancaster's soliloquy and the above snippet of dialogue stayed with me ever since.
*SPOILER*

Plus the shot of him lying dead in the mud in nearly perfectly white boxers.

comment #9

CMAC says ...

We just watched this film last week. Me spousa was trying to find a DVD copy for me. We got one through one of his "find the rarest copy of something: movies, records/cd's and posters companies." Anyway the copy is not a great one but I love the film, tres brill and? After what would become much later in the war, a rather small victory, I worship the last frame. It reads: 1964 Yikes!

Oh and PS? I didn't respond sooner because I was waiting for my new computer to download everything and PSS? I actually was going to bring this movie up for some other post a week ago but thought people would just get sorely crabbed at me, so I WIN!
Okay, one other note I'd like to make. We learned last night that after purchasing the brand new BluRay North by Northwest, even though we have a top of the line (no, seriously) fancy shmancy super expensive bluray player /home theater doo dah doo dah day thingy...Jim still had to download upgrades to play it. He was SO pissed and cranky cause we were going to watch it last night and everything was WRECKED. I had to go walk the dogs. But we're watching it tonight. So excited.

comment #10

Jeffrey Wells says ...

[pasted at 7:36 am]

HE reader Eric Dinehart has passed along what reads/sounds like a reliable transcript:

GO TELL THE SPARTANS (1978) Why the Major’s stayed a Major.

Burt Lancaster (Maj. Asa Barker)

Marc Singer (Capt. Al Olivette) Starts at about 59:00

BARKER: …And you’ll do it, too. You’ll do it because you’ve got the call and you’ve got the steam. But watch out for those fucking block signals.

OLIVETTE: Well, h-h-how do you mean, sir?

BARKER: Well, did you ever ask yourself, Al, why after two wars and a bucket-full of medals, I’m still a Major?

OLIVETTE: Well, I wasn’t going to ask that, sir.

BARKER: Booze and pudenda. Oh, I could handle the booze, alright, but it was the pudenda that got me.

OLIVETTE: I don’t know that word, sir.

BARKER: Well, in politer circles they call it pussy.

OLIVETTE: (snorts)

BARKER: Don’t laugh, son. Listen, the Pentagon has a secret vault and nobody has the key but the Chief of Staff – wears it around his neck. And in that vault is a list of names of officers who are not gentlemen. Now, anytime an officer comes up for promotion, the Chief steals into that vault and runs down the list. If the officer’s name is on that list, Zap!...no promotion. I’m on that list. I’m not a gentleman. Oh, I was once, yes, but, uh, there was a certain General -- I won’t tell you his name or how many stars he wears -- but I was his aide for a while right after moving up to Major. He had a wife, oh, some twenty years younger than he, and I guess he wasn’t up to snuff in the conjugal department, because it wasn’t long before I found myself being groped – but I was a gentleman, Al, and this was my General’s lady and I tried to be courteous and remain upright at all times, but shit, how long can a fellow remain upright when he’s being crawled all over every time the general goes out to pee or something? Not long, right? Well, finally, I screwed her. Big mistake, Al. Big mistake. I thought I’d cool her off some, but it turned out I got hooked. She was the hottest thing ever had in all my life.

OLIVETTE: Wow.

BARKER: Thereafter, I found myself humping her on any and every occasion in all fashions known to men. One night, there was a big to-do in an embassy in Washington, and I accompanied the General and his lady. Very prestigious affair, even the President was there. And while the General was brown-nosing around the President, the lady and I slipped out into the garden. You know what a gazebo is?

OLIVETTE: (shakes his head)

BARKER: Well it’s a bird cage piece of junk that sits in gardens covered in rosebuds. The lady and I slipped quietly into this dark little bower…she sat with her back to the door while I remained standing keeping a sharp lookout all around. Whereupon she proceeded to make love to me…orally.

OLIVETTE: (grins)

BARKER: Well, as you well know, there comes a time in a sexual encounter when a fellow is apt to lose interest in his surroundings.

OLIVETTE: (grinning broadly, nodding)

BARKER: Which is precisely what I was guilty of doing. And when things swam into focus the first thing I saw was the General, standing in the arch, pink roses all around his old gray head, and next to him was the ambassador’s wife…and you-know-who.

OLIVETTE: The President?

BARKER: …of the United States. And it tore the embassy gardens…….

OLIVETTE (in awe): Jesus H. Christ!

BARKER: There are stronger words for that situation, Al…like “Gee, whiz.”…and, “Oh, gosh.”…and “Golly.”…because the lady with her back to the door didn’t know they were there. She had not yet ceased operations.

OLIVETTE: (takes in a very deep breath)

BARKER: And that’s why after all these years, I’m still a Major.

OLIVETTE: What did you do?

BARKER: Do?

OLIVETTE: When you saw them standing there?

BARKER: I did the only thing I’ve ever been trained to do. I saluted.

Thanks, Eric! If this is in fact genuine, my memory of the scene was pretty close.

comment #11

Spartan Tell says ...

As accurate as I could make it, triple-checking with a fine tooth ear. Have enjoyed HE for years; happy to find a way to "earn" a handle and join in. (Eric)