- Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3,000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), aka “Merrill’s Marauders”, behind Japanese lines across Burma to Myitkyina, pushing beyond their limits and fighting pitched battles at every strong-point. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR Age: 085391188421 UPC: 085391188421 Manufac
Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3,000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), aka “Merrill’s Marauders”, behind Japanese lines across Burma to Myitkyina, pushing beyond their limits and fighting pitched battles at every strong-point.The theatrical trailer included in this DVD release of Merrill’s Marauders, touting its depiction of “World War II’s most fabulous jungle fighters… (as) they showed the world what the American soldier can do,” makes director Samuel Fuller’s 1962 film sound like jingoistic propaganda, but it’s considerably more than that. The year is 1944; the U.S. Army’s 5307th Composite Unit, a 3000-strong outfit under the command of Brigadier General Frank Merrill (Jeff Chandler), has already been fighting the occupying Japanese forces in the wilds of Burma for several months when they’re assigned to march hundreds of miles through jungles, swamps, and mountains to Myitkyina, a town of considerable strategic importance and the gateway to India, where the Allies fear the Japanese and Nazis will meet and consolidate their forces. Mission impossible? So it would seem, as the men are exhausted, disease-ridden, disheartened, and ill-equipped; his second in command, Lt. Stockton (Ty Hardin), argues that they’ll never make it, but Merrill (who has a heart condition that could bring him down at any moment) refuses to let up. There are numerous combat sequences, most of them quite convincing (including a very cool scene in a concrete maze), but the film’s strength lies not only in its graphic chronicling of the obvious horrors of war but in its sympathetic (but never condescending) portrayal of the more quotidian aspects of these soldiers’ miserable lives, from easy banter to quarrels over food and ammunition, from the interactions with locals to the sheer hell of simply walking another step when you’ve already passed the limits of human endurance. Grim, gritty, intense, and realistic (Fuller was an Army vet himself), this is an effective precursor to the director’s best-known movie, The Big Red One. –Sam Graham
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March 4, 2008
#1
I have to disagree with folks who like this film. The action scenes are extremely lame. Even the gunfire sounds like blanks, not real shots. The scenery could never be mistaken for Burma, it looks like, well, the Philippines! Despite earnest performances by all concerned, especially Chandler, the script goes nowhere and is merely a string of cliches. The budget must have been tight on this one, and it shows all over. The only decent music is stolen from “Objective Burma”, a far superior production. It’s too bad, as the cast here could have done fine with a better script and budget.
March 5, 2008
#2
It was enjoyable to watch this 1962 movie about Merrill’s Marauders starring Jeff Chandler and so many familiar faces from that time. This was the way Hollywood used to make movies about the American military instead of the anti-American, anti-U.S. military, leftist drivel they put out now. Highly recommended for a glimpse of a little-known fighting unit in the forgotten China-Burma-India Theatre of WW2.
March 5, 2008
#3
This is very good in some parts and very bad in others. Jeff Chandler does a good job but most of the rest of the actors seem to be part of the Warner Bros TV series stock company. It’s based on a real story and what they went through is pretty amazing.
March 5, 2008
#4
Merrill’s Marauders is an excellent movie covering the Army’s early special operations into Burma during WWII where men did the impossible by marching 1500 miles through dense jungles, supported only by air drop supplies to take on the Japanese as America’s only fighting force in the region. An action packed thriller that brings the viewer into the experience and shows the dedication and tenacity of the American figthing man. A must have for anyone’s video library.
March 5, 2008
#5
this was a partnership between warner brothers and a filipino film company. It starred Jeff Chandler as Brig. General Frank Merrill who’s whose company were top jungle fighters during WW2 in the CBI theater of operations. Other solid names in this production were some of the Warners stock company, Ty Hardin, Claude Akins, Andrew Duggan, Will Hutchins, and Peter Brown. It’s a nice war film most notable by being Jeff Chandler’s last film before going in for back surgery which was horribly botched leading to Jeff’s premature death at the age of forty two.