Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley (1975)

Directors: Lee Bernhardi, Stanley Kramer

Writer: Henry Denker

Composer:  No score except for 3 taps of a drum

Starring: Tony Musante, Bo Hopkins, G. D. Spradlin, Richard Basehart, Harrison Ford, Linda Haynes, Bruce Kimball, Stanley Kramer, William Lucking, Frank McRae, Jan Merlin, Steve Mitchell, Rob Reece, Darrell Zwerling

More info: IMDb

Plot: This docudrama follows the court-martial of the title character, the man held responsible for the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.


Pretty much everything takes place in a courtroom.  There's no music, no wacky sound effects or laughs as you'd expect (haha)...but it's dry as toast.  That said, it's somewhat interesting, engaging and worth watching but only if this sort of thing is your bag.  Me?  I dig the cast...Hopkins, Spradlin, McRae and of course a (barely) pre-STAR WARS (1977) Ford.  If you want to see this because of him, and Harrison Ford completists are going to have to, he's only in it for a few short, emotional minutes as a witness for the prosecution.  Han Solo cries. It's a good performance.  Hell, all of the actors make a good go of it.  I'd only heard of this incident and I didn't know how this would end so there was that going for it.  If you're interested in, what was at the time, the longest court martial in our history and the mechanics of the trial behind this incident, then you'll probably dig it.  The budget Platinum DVD offers the fullscreen presentation of this TV movie with no extras.