L'inferno è a Dien Bien Fu

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.

The narrative follows the 1954 battle of Indo-China's Dienbienphu, as the French try to prevent their fortress from falling to the indigenous Viet Minh.

Strictly as a war movie, the results are not very good. Outside of the stock footage, the small battles are not well staged. For example, there's that dreadful scene where three French troops dive into a Viet Minh foxhole, the battle being filmed more like a Three Stooges comedy than a matter of life or death. That's not surprising since director Butler's credits shows a distinct preference for comedy. Then too, the acting, particularly Van Eyck, is uninspired, to say the least. I agree with the reviewer who notes the movie's best parts are those in Paris. Also, note how brief the women's parts are even though they're given the kind of billing that misleads audience expectations.

All in all, it's not possible to discuss this nakedly propagandistic movie without a few observations. The Viet Minh are consistently vilified, while the French colonialists are consistently lionized (with one exception). Nowhere, however, does the film acknowledge the French as an army of foreign occupation, in service to what remained of the French empire post-WWII. Nor does the film distinguish between nationalism, anti-colonialism, and communism. Yet all three were in play among the Viet Minh. The political landscape was, in fact, much more complex than this simple-minded, reductionist screenplay acknowledges. As propaganda, the movie is clumsily obvious, at best. Too bad, we Americans had to find out the complex realities of Indo-China the hard way. At the same time, it's movie screed like this that helped grease the skids.

In 1992, The French made "Diên Biên Phu" a movie about the battle. It was their "Apocalypse Now". It's pretty impressive. The only other movie I have seen about the event is "Jump into Hell". However it is anything but impressive, and although there are some facts in there, the filmmakers didn't let them get in the way of the drama.

When I was a kid in the 1950s, I used to like this film. At the time it seemed a novel war movie set in an obscure place called Indo-China, and as it didn't involve our guys, it could be viewed with a certain amount of detachment. But of course a few years later it morphed into the Vietnam War and did involve our guys very much indeed.

Looking back, the views in the film seem awkward - Russian and Chinese communism is presented as the main reason the French are having such a hard time rather than any nationalistic spirit on the part of the Vietnamese.

The look of the film is patchy. Grainy documentary footage is mixed with scenes shot for the film and it isn't seamless. The acting is of the emphatic variety with exposition issuing from all and sundry.

The key points of the battle are touched upon: the outgunned and outnumbered garrison; the isolated forts all named after women that fell one by one, and the fact that reinforcements bravely parachuted in.

Long after I saw "Jump into Hell", I read Bernard Fall's history of the battle, "Hell in A Very Small Place". It left me with respect for the French soldiers, especially the paratroopers.

Jacques (Jack) Sernas plays one of the soldiers who parachutes in along with characters who were Hollywood's version of typical Frenchmen - wine and women being a big focus.

A recurring motif is the interaction between the commander, General De Castries (Arnold Moss), and defeatist Major Maurice Bonet (Lawrence Dobkin). Each time the major suggests surrender, instead of popping him against the wall and spraying him with bullets, the general sprays him with high-minded speeches about how they are sacrificing themselves for the freedom of the world. However after a gallant stand, the garrison of Diên Biên Phu did surrender.

"Jump into Hell" is a hard one to recommend to an audience these days, but it does reveal the mindset of the 1950s and in a way helps explain why the next phase of the war in Vietnam was probably inevitable.

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.

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.