320 317TH PLATOON, THE [FrenCH: LA 317ÈME SECTION]
rains, mud, and dysentery. Though he is smart and well trained, the idealistic
Torrens is inexperienced in guerilla warfare. He often clashes with the tough, prag-
matic Willsdorf, who has been in Vietnam for years and possesses a wealth of
combat experience; he is not shy about challenging Torrens’ decisions in the field.
Willsdorf, who wants to avoid contact with the enemy and get to Tao Tsai as soon
as pos si ble, emphatically disagrees with Torrens’ decision to mount a surprise attack
on a Viet Minh column. The platoon wins the resulting firefight but now has several
seriously wounded men on its hands. Anxious to get away from the enemy, Wills-
dorf tries to get Torren to leave the wounded behind but Torrens refuses. Taking
along the wounded slows down the platoon and soon the enemy is barking at
their heels. The group splits up, with Torren and the wounded going one way while
Willsdorf and several Cambodian soldiers try to lead the enemy off their trail. Sev-
eral days later the two parties meet farther down the trail. Willsdorf has managed to
throw the pursuers off the scent, though he knows it will not be for long. Torrens
now realizes that Willsdorf was right about the wounded; they have all died, and
the platoon is now two days’ hike behind where they should be on the trail. The
group starts out again, only stopping for rest and food and to try and make radio
contact to order a supply drop. The platoon is losing men with every clash they
have with their pursuers. The soldiers fi nally reach Tao Tsai, only to discover that
it has already fallen to the Viet Minh. They now need to head farther south to the
next base and hope they can outpace the enemy. While stopping for a much- needed
rest on Monday after noon, 10 May 1954, the platoon is attacked by a large enemy
force. Only five men— Willsdorf, a badly wounded Torrens, and three Cambodian
troopers— escape the massacre alive. Torrens orders Willsdorf to leave him behind.
Willsdorf complies, hands Torrens a grenade, and fades into the jungle with the
three remaining troopers.Reception
The 317th Platoon was released in France on 31 March 1965 and was screened at
the 18th Cannes Film Festival three months later, where it shared the prize for
best screenplay with another war film: Ray Rigby’s The Hill (1965). The 317th Pla-
toon opened in a few other Eu ro pean countries and film festivals and was shown
on West German TV in 1968. Everywhere it played, the film garnered excellent
reviews. Indeed, British war historian Antony Beevor rates it the best war movie
ever made (Carey, 2009). But the film never had a theatrical screening in the
United States during the time of its initial release, made no money, and was largely
forgotten— until 45 years later, when La Cinémathèque Française and StudioCa-
nal, with the support of The Franco- American Cultural Fund, undertook a pains-
taking digital restoration overseen by Schoendoerffer and Coutard, now el derly men
near the end of their lives.Reel History Versus Real History
A survivor of the Battle of Diên Biên Phu, Pierre Schoendoerffer was intimately
familiar with the look, smell, and feel of combat in Vietnam. With The 317th Pla-
toon Schoendoerffer and his cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, created an utterly