Jump Into Hell

One of the Vietnamese characters, a troop on an airplane, pretty much sums up the overall issue in Indochina: they didn't want outsider Russians and Chinese, nor did they want the outsider French unless the French granted them some autonomy (he used the much-overused phrase "democracy"). Later, the vast majority of them didn't want the outsider Americans, either.

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.

***SPOILERS*** Movie loaded with great battle scenes as well as cold war propaganda about the epic battle and siege of DienBienPhu in Northern Vietnam and the men of the French Foreign Legion and free Vietnamese nation who fought and died there. It's the spring of 1954 and the Communist Viet Mihn-forerunners of the Viet Cong of the 1960's and 70's- are making a last major assault of the last French resistance point in Indochina the jungle fortress of Dienbienfhu that's being held by a desperate force of some 12,000 French legionnaires and Free Veitnemese troops.

I saw this film many years ago. Perhaps watching Platoon, Firebase Gloria, Go Tell it to The Spartans, Casualties of War brought this film to mind.

I saw this when it came out in 1955. I would like to obtain it in DVD or VHS format.

In 1992, The French made "Diên Biên Phu" a movie about the battle. It was their "Apocalypse Now".

This is one of the very few films dealing with the the "French" phase of the Vietnam War. It's a medium budget (even though the guns aren't fully authentic) American film with many European actors.