Jump Into Hell

I saw this when it came out in 1955. I would like to obtain it in DVD or VHS format. Where can I get this done? I think that it would help the American viewing public to understand we got involved in Vietnam. The problem was that the French were surrounded in Dien Bien Phu and were expecting American air strikes to help them get out of being surrounded by the Vietminh. The air support never came and the French were over run. The United States filled the vacuum left by the French in order to contain communism.

President Eisenhower started by sending about fifteen American servicemen as advisers in the late 1950s.

President Kennedy increased the complement of American servicemen to 15, 000 men and President Johnson up the ante to 500,000.

Most of the reviewers here have been pretty spot on with their observations. It's worth noting that there were some exceptional stories of valour and gallantry at Dien Bien Phu. A good example is the Walker light tanks that were literally dropped in crates and built on-site by the Motorcar platoon at the fortress. The tanks are still there today. The action was more than a little 'faked' but not at all out of character for the 1950's. (See the Gene Barry-Angie Dickinson movie, 'China Gate' for a very comparable French Indochina picture.) It would have been far more compelling as a docudrama chronicling the events of the siege from the beginning until the tragic (at least for the Legionnaires) end. This is a movie that would be well worth a remake, however unlikely that is. All in all there are many worse war movies. The appearance of a young and beautiful Patricia Blair in her pre-Daniel Boone days is a plus. It's disappointing that she did not have a more expansive career.

This decent war film starts out with a tribute to a fight against slavery. Unwittingly, the tribute actually described the struggle of the North Vietnamese against all foreign invaders and colonialism by the West. It was meant to imply the French were against slavery. Tell that to the colonials under their rule in various African and Asian countries, and they would laugh in your face. It has taken the world several decades to learn that colonial powers were the real slaveowners. And some have still not learned. The battle sequences are good, but, once again, one-sided. There is no character development of anyone except French people. The other soldiers are just mechanical men because they are communists. As if colonialists were morally superior to communists. I wonder why it did not occur to these people why the communists fought so bravely; as bravely as the French.

Well done look at the French loss at Dien-bien-phu which some historians believe led to their withdrawal from Indo-China. Demonstrates the difficulties in fighting a committed enemy on his own ground long before US faced the same problems. French efforts to reinforce and save their forces in an enclave surrounded by soldiers that would, in later years, be described as Viet Cong prove to be unsuccessful. Loyalty to comrades on the ground leads French paratroopers to jump into a death trap.

Stars Jacque Sernas who later played Paris, Prince of Troy, in "Helen of Troy" with Rosanna Podesta as Helen. That 1956 movie should be a good measuring stick for the new Brad Pitt version.

It is so far the only American war film speaking of French war in Indochina, with also ROGUE'S REGIMENT and Samuel Fuller's CHINA GATE. Later, US movie industry will evoke this period of war for France, just evoke and will speak more about war in Algeria, another colony war for France just after Indochina; this movie is LOST COMMAND, from director Mark Robson, starring Alain Delon and Anthony Quinn. Back to this one, from director David Butler, for whom it is the best movie for me, with maybe KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, a medieval film, and also THE COMMAND his unique western and not bad at all movie, it is not at the level of Pierre Schoendoerffer's DIEN BIEN PHU, far far more accurate and based on the actual battle, which was a defeat for French. But yes, from a director specialized in operette, and musical or other flat comedies, this is a good surprise. Much footage material for this anti red propaganda film, and for this reason I think US movie industry took advantage of the defeat of French army against Communist soldiers to "attack" this very same political system. As they did for Korean war.