The Anderson Platoon
| The Anderson Platoon La Section Anderson |
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|---|---|
VHS cover image
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| Directed by | Pierre Schoendoerffer |
| Produced by | Pierre Schoendoerffer |
| Written by | Pierre Schoendoerffer |
| Starring | Joseph B. Anderson |
| Narrated by |
Pierre Schoendoerffer Stuart Whitman English version |
| Cinematography | Dominique Merlin |
| Distributed by | French Broadcasting System Pathé Contemporary Films |
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Release date
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February 3, 1967 (France) 1967 (Italy) April 10, 1968 (U.S.) July 17, 1968 (Germany) 1968 (UK) |
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Running time
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60 min./65 min. (uncut) |
| Country | France |
| Language |
French English |
The Anderson Platoon (French: La Section Anderson, released in 1966 in Europe, 1967 in the US) is a documentary feature by Pierre Schoendoerffer about the Vietnam War, named after the leader of the platoon - Lieutenant Joseph B. Anderson - with which Schoendeorffer was embedded. Two decades later, a sequel was released as Reminiscence.
In summer 1966, France Soir news magazine director and French public channel ORTF producer Pierre Lazareff proposed that war reporter and director Pierre Schoendoerffer complete the "unachieved" war documentary Schoendoerffer began in 1954.
Back in May 1954, Schoendoerffer was covering the First Indochina War for the French army's cinematographic service SCA. At the siege of Dien Bien Phu, he filmed the battle between the French Union forces and the Viet Minh, but his reels were captured when he surrendered to the enemy.
After the departure of the French forces from Vietnam in 1956, the U.S. Army replaced it several years later and fighting soon flared again, at the beginning of the Vietnam War.
Arguing that "the war was the same, the French only switching with the Americans", Lazareff convinced the French veteran to return to Vietnam as a kind of second chance to complete his war documentary.
The French war cameraman and First Indochina War veteran Schoendoerffer (38), already famous for his celebrated masterpiece The 317th Platoon (1965), returns to Vietnam.
On 1 August 1965, the 1st Cavalry Division (United States) is sent to South Vietnam. The following year in September, Schoendoerffer joins it and follows a 33-man platoon of GIs led by Black West Pointer Lieutenant Joseph B. Anderson (24) until October 1966.
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Wikipedia