Although now a fairly obscure relic of world cinema history, this understated 1965 black-and-white masterpiece of early French cinema verité, written and directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer, was a huge influence on war films of the 1970s and 80s, as many filmmakers have inevitably borrowed from its inimitable visual style. And why wouldn’t they?
As 317th Platoon was shot by legendary cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who before this film had already done massively influential work that shaped the look of the French New Wave—Perriot Le Fou and Jules and Jim, to name a couple of classics.
The film is set in 1954 during the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu, a conflict that saw the French give up their imperialist ambitions in what was then French Indochina. The titular platoon, led by the feisty duo of Lieutenant Torrens and Warrant Officer Willsdorff, has orders to trek to Northern Cambodia in order to finagle a last-minute evacuation from a country quickly being overrun by the Viet Minh forces. Despite this being a French film, there is surprisingly little philosophizing going on about the horror of war or the messy intricacies of European imperialism in the Far East—in fact, there’s not much reflection on their tricky situation at all. These French and Laotian grunts simply hack and shoot their way through the thick Vietnamese jungle trying to make their objective without getting killed or captured.
The scenes of the dead and dying are pretty unsparing, especially for the mid-1960s, and the intense documentary feel of real combat, no doubt inspiring everything from independents like 84 Charlie Mopic to blockbusters like Oliver Stone’s Platoon. It’s a rare look at the French experience in Vietnam, which would be a prelude to the futility of US involvement in that region only a short decade later. Recommended for film studies students looking at French cinema and history majors studying the early parts of the Vietnam War.