- Directed by
- Schoendoerffer, Pierre, French, 1928 - 2012
- Subject of
- Lt. Anderson, Joseph B., American, born 1943
- Written by
- Schoendoerffer, Pierre, French, 1928 - 2012
- Produced by
- Schoendoerffer, Pierre, French, 1928 - 2012
- Narrated by
- Schoendoerffer, Pierre, French, 1928 - 2012
- Owned by
- D.C. Public Library, American, founded 1896
- Date
- 1967
- Medium
- acetate film
- Dimensions
- Duration (Reel 1): 35 Minutes
- Length (Film): 1275 Feet
- Duration (Reel 2): 25 Minutes
- Length (Film): 900 Feet
- Caption
- This film was a part of the Washington D.C. Public Library's circulating 16mm film collection housed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Central Library. The collection is particularly noted for the wide variety of African American and African diaspora content.
- Description
- A documentary film with the title The Anderson Platoon. It consists of two (2) reels of 16mm black-and-white acetate film with optical sound.
- The film, created and narrated by Pierre Schoendoerffer who returned to Vietnam and spent six weeks filming the documentary, follows an integrated platoon led by Lt. Joseph B. Anderson. In the opening scenes, the narrator describes being a French veteran who fought in the First Indochina War and returning to the country to follow American soldiers for the documentary. Some scenes provide glimpses into the soldiers' daily activities on the battlefield, such as praying before combat, taking communion, playing dice and gambling.
- Later in the film, Schoendoerffer describes the role of the integrated Anderson Platoon and the B Company of which it is a part. He names some of the men in the platoon as they walk past the camera, tells where they hail from, and describes their role in the platoon. He also identifies which ones were eventually wounded. In one scene, men from the platoon are seen rescuing a little girl that had been wounded for ten days. In another, Schoendoerffer describes an incident in which a patrol from the platoon was ambushed and one of the soldiers was killed and several others wounded, before showing a scene in which members of the platoon question the villagers in a nearby village and detained two individuals as suspects.
- Place used
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Place depicted
- Viet Nam, Asia
- Collection title
- DC Public Library Film Collection
- Classification
- Time-based Media - Moving Images
- Type
- documentaries
- sound films
- black-and-white films (visual works)
- feature films
- 16mm (photographic film size)
- Topic
- Catholicism
- Documentary films
- Film
- Military
- Prayer
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2017.55.108.1ab
- Restrictions & Rights
- Restrictions likely apply. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




