‘GO TELL THE SPARTANS’

This terse, acrid 1978 account of the early days of our involvement in Vietnam was one of the first American films to deal with that war head-on. Yet it never reached the audienced deserved, despite Ted Post’s astute direction and one of Burt Lancaster’s finest performances as a salty veteran officer. Considering this is a war pictureit’s ironic that it has a sequence that may well be the funniest of Lancaster’s career. With a supporting cast of soldiers including, from left, John Megna, Evan Kim and Jonathan Goldsmith. (KTTV Friday at 8 p.m.)