this exceptional and totally deromanticized and unjustly forget knockout get undeservedly lose in the shuffle in the late 70 when it have the grave misfortune to come out around the same time a such more widely recognize nam feature the deer hunter and come home and and apocalpyse now . the film depict the early stage of the war circa 1964 and when american troop where initially send over strictly a military adviser . burt lancaster give one of his fine and gritty and most appealingly ragged performance a a rugged and irascible and foul mouth major in charge of a ragtag army base who begin to have serious misgiving about america involvement in the war . equally crackerjack characterization be contribute by craig wasson a a naive and soft hearted raw recruit with romantic notion about the glory of war who quickly learn that war itself be an intrinsically ugly and unfair thing and joe unger a a foolishly gung ho corporal and jonathan goldsmith a a frazzled and alcoholic and battle weary combat vet and dennis howard a an oblivious to the world dope head and an especially chilling evan kim a brutish and bloodthirsty south vietnamese mercenary cowboy and marc singer in his film debut a lancaster loyal and yet cynical aide de camp and dolph sweet a lancaster stern and overbearing and overconfident superior and and james hong a a helpful elderly villager . ted post strong and precise and tough mind direction and ably pack up by harry stradling and jr. crisp and skillful cinematography and dick halligan tense and shuddery and moody score and inject a genuine heart rend sense of loss and anguish into the grim proceeding and therefor add the right element of roughhewn authenticity to the movie to make it poignant and convincing . wendell mayes sterling script it profane and dryly perceptive and often sardonically funny and with a laudably obdurate refusal to resort to either cheap macho heroic or mushy patriotic sentiment which go a long way in explain exactly why it spend seven year languish on a shelf before third tier studio avco embassy finally decide to make it into a movie spell out the savage and upsetting reality of war in very stark and bleak and no uncertain term represent it nothing more than a horrendous and chaotic and futile ordeal in which the participant do their utmost to stay alive and intact under circumstance of ever increase severity . an absolute powerhouse .