Because of its controversial nature, Wendell Mayes' screenplay about a handful of American “advisors” in 1964 Vietman took seven years to reach the screen. It may be the most chillingly accurate film to portray the Vietnam era: Judy Stone in the San Francisco Chronicle last September called it “an honest movie... in a quiet persuasive and unpretentious way, it is a gripping and finally sad look at a confusing and hopeless war.
“It is simply the account of an inept bureaucratic decision to take the peacful hamlet of Muc Wa (Muc Hoa)...
“That disastrous decision is enforced by headquarters in Saigon over the strong objection of the Army career major, brilliantly realized by Burt Lancaster...”

“Spartans has much vitality, abundant wry humor and a performance by Burt Lancaster that easily ranks among the very finest of his career.”
-Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times