Academy Award-winner Burt Lancaster delivers one of the finest performances of his career as a hard-boiled major in command of a grubby Vietnam outpost in this classic film of wartime confrontation. The war was still a 'conflict' and American soldiers were merely 'advisors,' yet the ambushes, the betrayals and the brutality were all very real. While the riveting action concentrates on a single, obscure incident, this excellent, understated and sharply intelligent film illuminates the vast landscape of an era.