Diên Biên Phu (1992)

DIEN BIEN PHU 1992This is French director, Pierre Schoendorffer's third film on various battles in Vietnam. Director Schendorffer was an army cameraman at the actual battle of Dien Bien Phu.The French had been battling the Vietminh since they reclaimed Indochina after World War Two. The Communist crowd were not happy with this idea, and started an ever-growing campaign against the French. The French fought back not realizing the drain on men and material that a war weakened France could tolerate. The war raged on till 1954 and the Viet victory at the battle of Diem Bien Phu.The film follows several officers of the French Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment. We follow their exploits during the final month of the battle. The French Government is not willing to expend any more resources. Several thousand troops are soon trapped after the Reds overrun the surrounding hills. Air support can only do so much and the French positions fall one after the other.There is also a minor side plot with an American newspaper man doing a story on the battle. The man, Donald Pleasance, seems to spend most of his time drinking and checking out the local gambling establishments. Said establishments are doing a box office business with wagers on when the French garrison will fall.The look of the film is quite good with excellent use of period detail and weapons involved. The pace of the film though is just too slow, the jumping back and forth between the battle and back area of Hanoi, just does not work.I wanted very much to like this film, as I was impressed with the director's other two Vietnam films, THE 317th PLATOON and THE ANDERSON PLATOON. This one however just does not make the cut.

Well, this movie is basically a fictionalized documentary about the fall of Dien Bien Phu. It goes 5/10 because photography is good enough and i could watch it until the end. There is nothing particular to say about acting. There are a few subplots, but they all boil down to how war affects people. Character development (if any) isn't noticeable. There is Donald Pleasence, but i wonder why...perhaps they needed some name-recognition tied to an obscure french movie. He plays a famed reported, but basically goes around exchanging futile chatter and riddles with basically sketched characters. It goes past 2h, so the movie drags its feet, for the kind of movie it is. I found it easily watchable enough, but i am NOT going to watch this twice. Good residual documentary value.

I saw this movie in East Beirut some years back when I was reluctant to watch war movies. Donald Pleasance makes an English language appearance in a French Language film. And as always is riveting. However the film strikingly reminded me of certain world powers', their colonial aspirations and their consequent outcomes, related to Lebanon and Vietnam. The film unravels how they, the tail end of the Victorian era, French in this case, loose colonies, lost control, and what followed would turn out to be similar. It is interesting that even the coins of both countries were both called piasters, and both had slots in the middle, like much of the Asian coinage still does. The French tried to suppress the national uprising in favor of their own revenues, and later the Americans saw their opportunity, to target practice and sell goods, if to no one else their own GI's. Lyndon Johnson and his tribe started Southland Corp. aka(7-11)after all. Haliburton had a big hand in that conflict as well. This film is worth your while if you can find it. I haven't seen it on Blockbuster online or Netflix.

Well... I guess that I really did like this movie in one way.. and in antoher way I really disliked it.Basically one MAJOR!!! thing is missing in it.. Vietnamse soldiers, Vietmihn to be exact.We get a good look at them in the end once the french have given up but that is just about it.You might argue that this aspect of the movie should be true that you are indeed fighting some sort of an "unseen" enemy, but that is simply not true in the case of Dien Bien Phu.Let me elaborate some what on that point, several forages and attacks were made from the French in futile attempts to roll up and out the enemy (i.e. a lot of close combat and SEEN enemies).Several human wave attacks were launched against the French (most unsuccesfull though).Finally the Vietmihn managed to dislodge the French soldiers by basically trenching their way to them, foot by foot, yard by yard.At some points of the battle is somewhat more resembled a WWI scenario more than jungle combat.I feel that the movie gave us a fairly good view of the French parts.. but just where the hell did the Viets go?