The 317th Platoon

The best thing about The 317th Platoon is the fact that it is essentially shot as a pseudo-documentary. This fact gives it an unpleasant vividness and rawness, manifesting in a way that you truly feel nothing is staged. There are scenes that can pull you in, and you fear you might catch a bullet too. (05/03/2017)

After the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, a platoon of soldiers find themselves on the retreat in the inhospitable jungle of the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian borderlands, while Vietnamese troops getting dangerously hot on their heels. A well-written and very uncomfortable war drama underscoring the French trauma of the Indochina War with a classic battle of ideas between a naive young soldier (Jacques Perrin) and a seasoned cynical veteran played by the always brilliant Bruno Cremer. (04/02/2024)