317TH PLATOON, THE [FrenCH: LA 317ÈME SECTION] 319
a filmmaker in the late 1950s. In 1963 Schoendoerffer published La 317e section
(The 317th Platoon), a novel inspired by his war ser vice in Indochina. Shortly there-
after, he undertook a film version of his book. Explaining his motivation many
years later, Schoendoerffer said, “I was there with the troops on their long
marches... I was injured, taken prisoner, and hit the rock bottom of human
misery: three- quarters of my comrades didn’t come back. They died on the road
[and] in the camps... I lived through more than most people see in a lifetime.
I felt a need to bear witness to that” (Museum of Modern Art, 2010). Schoendoerffer
secured a modest production bud get from French and Spanish co- producers
Georges de Beauregard (Paris) and Benito Perojo (Madrid). He also managed to gain
permission from Cambodian authorities to shoot his film in landscapes closely
resembling the actual settings in Vietnam, though actually hundreds of miles far-
ther south.
Production
To shoot The 317th Platoon, Schoendoerffer brought together a few actors and a dozen
technicians, including his former his comrade- in- arms, Raoul Coutard (1924–2016),
Jean- Luc Godard’s cinematographer. Cambodian extras were hired to comprise the
bulk of the “317th Platoon.” The shoot occurred in 1964, in remote locations in
northeastern Cambodia not far from where the borders of Cambodia, Laos, and
Vietnam converge— and just a few miles from an American military base in Viet-
nam. Constrained by a low bud get and influenced by French New Wave stylistics,
Schoendoerffer opted to use guerilla shooting techniques. Every one camped out
at a forest location many miles from the airstrip where they landed, ate mostly rice,
and shot mostly live ammunition because they had only been able to get a limited
supply of blanks into Cambodia. The extreme economy of means imposed an aes-
thetic as well as moral rigor to the film that resulted in a stunning sense of real-
ism. With his small crew in the middle of nowhere, Coutard was limited to
bare- bones essentials: two Éclair Cameflex CM3 35-mm cameras (sometimes hand-
held, sometimes on a tripod, with night shots lit by a single magnesium flare), a
Nagra III NP reel- to- reel tape recorder, and a generator to recharge batteries.
Plot Summary
On Tuesday, 4 May 1954, during the First Indo- China War, the 317th Platoon is
ordered to abandon its isolated post at Luong Ba, on the Vietnam– Laos border, and
proceed south to join up with another unit at Tao Tsai (a fictional version of Diên
Biên Phu), a key French outpost. The 45- man 317th Platoon is led by 2nd Lt. Tor-
rens ( Jacques Perrin), a young and inexperienced officer who has arrived from
training at Saint- Cyr, France, only a fortnight earlier. The rest of the unit is com-
posed of two other Frenchmen, Sgt. Roudier (Pierre Fabre) and Cpl. Perrin (Man-
uel Zarzo); an Alsatian ex- Wehrmacht soldier, Warrant Officer Willsdorf (Bruno
Cremer); a Laotian auxiliary sergeant, Ba Kut (Boramy Tioulong); and 40 other
Laotian regulars. Tao Tsai is 150 kilo meters (93 miles) to the south, and the long,
dangerous trek involves traversing mountainous jungle terrain; crossing rice pad-
dies, rivers, and enemy lines; and dealing with deadly enemy ambushes, monsoon