DVD: 1965, 90 minutes, B+W, French with English subtitles. In Vietnam a lone French Foreign Legion platoon is isolated behind enemy lines tries and tries to pull back to safety in Cambodia. Vividly portrays the element of fighting a withdrawing action in monsoon season. Soldiers are armed with US and French small arms in post WW2 South East Asia.
An online review reads: “America made many movies about the Vietnam war, good ones and bad ones. On the contrary, France didn’t make films about the Indochina and Algeria wars. But “la 317e” is not only rare because of this, but also because it shows war as it was really fought, not by Rambo-like superheroes, but by simple men, some courageous, some not… Besides, Shloendorffer is a great film maker, and you can feel during the film that he was really there, that he shared tragic hours with these men.”