Build a movie plot around this: Who decides to stays behind to help? Barker
It's July 1964 in the period when American troops were euphemistically termed "military advisors" in Vietnam. Major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster) has been given this command: a poorly-manned outpost named Muc Wa in rural South Vietnam somewhere near the rural Da Nang to Phnom Penh (Cambodia) highway that a decade earlier had been the scene of a massacre of French soldiers during the First Indochina War. Barker is a weary infantry veteran in his third war (he served in the Pacific during World War II as well as in the Korean War), who provides veteran supervision to a cadre of advisors attached to a group of South Vietnamese who garrison the deserted village of Muc Wa.Barker, as a seasoned officer, knows that he cannot defend his position due to lack of numbers and the quality of his local troops. He is still obliged to carry out the orders of his superior, General Harnitz (Dolph Sweet), who sends Barker U.S. re-enforcements to appease him. His command consists of a handful of U.S. soldiers (encompassing the inexperienced, unhappy, idealistic and glory-seeking) and some reluctant former Vietnamese paddy farmers turned militiamen. Barker is a capable commander who has ended his career by having an affair with a senior officer's wife. He argues that the hamlet is deserted and has no importance, but sends a detachment from his command. The detachment is commanded by the brash but nervous Lt. Hamilton, and includes veteran Sergeant Oleonowski, who is suffering from battle fatigue, a drug-addicted medic, Cpl. Lincoln, and a young draftee, Cpl. Courcey, who quickly befriends an elderly native volunteer, nicknamed "Old Man". The American troops along with around 30 South Vietnamese troops and similar number of milita, set out from their base as Pangan to Mu Wa.On their way to Muc Wa along a dirt road, the column is ambushed at a roadblock, resulting in the sadistic ARVN Cpl. Nguyen "Cowboy" (Evan Kim) capturing and beheading the lone Viet Cong attacker. On reaching the hamlet, Hamilton sets up his defenses in a...