Pierre Schoendoerffer Movies

Long before America was mired in an unwinnable conflict in Vietnam, the French had spent decades in an attempt to hold onto their Indochinese colonies, which included Vietnam. By the early 1950s, several generations of dedicated, independence-minded Vietnamese had fought the French to a standstill. This long conflict culminated in a battle along the Laotian border near the town of Dien Bien Phu in March, 1954, which the French narrowly lost. That loss led to a negotiated settlement and the partition of Vietnam. Broken promises and French stubbornness resulted in continued conflict in South Vietnam and the eventual involvement of the Americans. In this film, the wider human face of that 1954 conflict is seen through the eyes of an American reporter, played by Donald Pleasence, as he travels through Vietnam researching the story. In particular, it follows the fate of one group of soldiers, members of the French Foreign Legion, whom the reporter meets at a bar in Hanoi. It is a remarkable testament to political changes in the world that this French movie was filmed in Vietnam with the cooperation of the Vietnamese government. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When Patricia Caron (Nicole García) watches a television debate, she is shocked to hear her long-dead husband described as a war criminal and a torturer. Her husband Marcel (Jacques Perrin) had died more than two decades earlier when French troops fought in Algeria -- and although she had been married only a short time before he went off to his death, she was certain that he could never have tortured anyone. Irate and determined to clear her husband's name, she takes the television speaker to court -- where once the case progresses, there are flashbacks to the war and the activities of Captain Marcel Caron. As the court case drags on, director Pierre Schoendoerffer has hewn to acceptable topics and avoided the controversy surrounding the French army's behavior in Algeria. (French forces took over Algiers in 1830 and ruled Algeria as a colony for 132 years. In 1954, Algerian independence fighters started an armed revolt; in 1957, French troops were sent to quell the revolt, but by 1961, French insurgents were fighting alongside Algerians against the loyal French army and were defeated. Finally, on July 3, 1962, France granted independence to Algeria. The French sensitivity to their conduct in this war was still running high when this film was released.) ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The French documentary The Anderson Platoon zeroes in on the seminal days of the American experience in Vietnam. Filmmaker Pierre Schoendoerffer goes along with a group of American GIs on five days' worth of reconnaissances and skirmishes. Without judging the war or its participants, the film records the lives, deaths, hopes and fears of its subjects. The film obviously had a strong influence on the much later American docudrama 84 Charlie Mopic. The Anderson Platoon won a "best documentary" Oscar in 1967. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set near the end of the bloody Indo-Chinese War in which the Vietnamese struggled to shuck off the yoke of French colonialism, this taut, provocative French war drama chronicles the events leading up to the slaughter of the French Army's 317th Platoon, a unit comprised of 41 Laotians and a quartet of French officers that was ordered to make it back to the safety of camp Dien Bien Phu. It is an arduous journey and the soldiers must not only battle constant ambushes, but also the jungle itself. Many soldiers die along the way. When they finally make it to the camp, they find the enemy waiting. Not one member of the platoon survives the ensuing slaughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The biggest attraction of this drama by French director Jacques Dupont lies in its exotic setting -- Afghanistan. The story centers on a young boy anxious to go to an annual competition of horseback riders that requires both equestrian and fighting skills. The riders face off in a closed ring, a kind of sport that would have had its origins centuries earlier in the nomadic peoples of this region and Central Asia. (Afghanistan lies at one end of the ancient Silk Routes to China.) As the boy travels toward the meet, he is befriended by a mysterious stranger, a man who may symbolize more than just an ordinary person, based on what lies in store for the young lad. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide