Director Pierre Schoendoerffer grippingly brings the close of the French war in Indochina to the screen in his portrayal of two officers and a group of Laotian soldiers serving under them in 1954. The inexperienced Lt Torrens, in overall command, has just arrived in Vietnam, and is reliant on his adjutant Willsdorf, an Alsatian who fought with the German Army during World War II. When the platoon is ordered to abandon a highland outpost and rejoin larger French forces, they soon find themselves behind enemy lines, outgunned, and in the path of a crushing Viet Minh offensive…Read More »