Product Details

• Directors: Pierre Schoendoerffer
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Homevision
• VHS Release Date: June 16, 2000
• Run Time: 65 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630308432X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,626 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #17 in	Video > Documentary > Military & War > Vietnam War
  #32 in	Video > Military & War > Vietnam War

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

French documentarian Pierre Schoendorffer served as a combat soldier in Vietnam in the 1950s during France's quagmire. In the fall of 1966, he returned with a cameraman and spent six weeks with an American infantry platoon. This film, which won a 1968 Best Foreign Documentary Oscar, is stark and riveting. Commanded by a West Point graduate, Lieutenant Joseph Anderson, the 33-man platoon Schoendorffer traveled with was a cross-section of America. Perhaps as the film was shot relatively early in the war, the soldiers still seem motivated and even naive, though it seems to be dawning on everyone that their task may well be hopeless. Exhausting patrols to hunt the Viet Cong turn up nothing but deserted camps, and at one point when the platoon is taking heavy gunfire, you can hear an American yelling that he can't tell where the shooting is coming from. Schoendorffer refrains from making any political statements and offers only the most minimal narration to the black-and-white footage, none of which appears to have been staged for the camera. When the body of a young soldier killed in an ambush is loaded aboard a helicopter, the pain of the scene is palpable. At one point the platoon is shown getting a detailed briefing on a mission, only to have the plans abruptly change and the helicopters drop them into a battle where they have virtually no idea what their role is supposed to be. The Anderson Platoon doesn't tell you, it shows you, and this remarkable film resonates deeply. --Robert J. McNamara

Product Description

This Oscar®-winning documentary confronts the realties of war--any war. The Anderson Platoon was an integrated combat unit in Vietnam led by an African-American West Pointer, Lt. Joseph B. Anderson. In 1966, producer Pierre Schoendorffer and his cameraman spent six weeks filming the men of the Anderson platoon as they ate, slept, fought, and died. The soldiers' faces say much more than words ever could about the tension, frustration, anger, and stark realties of war.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a Hollywood production..., April 25, 2003

By	jb Bolvin (France, Paris) - See all my reviews

Going through some reviews, I understand what their disappointment might be. This is not a documentary produced by Hollywood or by a major movie Cy. This is the result of 6 weeks shooting, on the field, with the troop, in the very conditions the soldiers lived then and there, a completely accurate picture of what their lifes really were. Some point out the low camera angle in some parts, but I guess the cameraman couldn't simply stand up and record whereas the Vietcong were shooting at them ! Risk was there and the movie team (three people) could be killed every moment...Just to show what the soldier's life is. Not more, not less. The american awards it received are simply telling how people liked it then, in 1966. This documentary is simply human. A must see.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT FILM BUT BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, October 13, 2004

By	Samuel R. Johnson (Chicago IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The original version By Pierre Schoendoerffer,is an Excellent film, A MUST see for any military historian.

BUT BEWARE!!!!! there is a 1987 remake of this film that has the same title ands uses rearanged original footage from the film, This butchery is the WORST thing to happen to "Anderson Platoon" Try to make sure you are buying the original!!!! Huge difference!!! The edititng in the 1987 verson looks like a high school AV room, and the broken naration is so vauge, you have no clue what is going on, (unless you had seen the original already)
It was VERY frustraiting to watch this film, Id give The original 5 stars, and the remake 1 star.
-Sam Johnson

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best movie about the worst war, February 13, 2001

By A Customer

This is hands down the best movie about the Vietnam conflict I have ever seen. I saw it this evening, and I already want to stick it back in my VCR. While "Apocalypse Now," "Platoon," and "Full Metal Jacket" are all fantastic Hollywood movies with brilliant actors and amazing special effects, "The Anderson Platoon" is just as entertaining if not moreso. You look at the soldiers as they silently file past the camera, knowing that in two weeks some of them will be dead. And it's the real thing too, from policing up a helicopter wreck to dodging the MPs in forbidden Saigon. The cinematography is magnificent as well.