In 1944, an elite US unit of jungle fighters dubbed Merrill's Marauders is engaged in a dangerous mission in Burma to capture a Japanese stronghold. Faced with treacherous conditions and greatly outnumbered, can they prevail ?
This gritty war story, like almost all of Fuller's fascinating films, challenges the viewer to decide what it is really saying. On one hand it's a simple story of bravery, heroism and loyalty overcoming incredible odds, and is comparable to many of the war pictures of its time. On the other however, it's a detached portrayal of military insanity, shocking savage mistreatment of men pushed through almost unimaginable hardship for scant reason. The victories and the patriotic ending (which was added against Fuller's wishes) dress it up a little more palatable, but for me it's clear which one of these viewpoints the film is really going for. People often think movies like The Deer Hunter or Platoon were the first to depict the physical and psychological ravages of war, but this is unfounded; there's a long tradition of realism in American war films, with movies like this, Robert Aldrich's Attack, John Huston's The Red Badge Of Courage, all the way back to Lewis Milestone's All Quiet On The Western Front. Fuller was a WWII veteran and he understands these men instinctively; the General given impossible decisions to make, the Lieutenant who finds it hard to be above the camaraderie of his men, the world-weary Sergeant who cries when a local woman offers him a bowl of rice. Shot in the Philippines in beautiful Cinemascope by longtime John Wayne collaborator William H. Clothier, the camera glides around the action often with long, elegant silent takes. One of the hardest things for a movie to do is convey the oppressive conditions this one does - heat, humidity, stench, malaria, grime, mud, thirst, sheer animal exhaustion - which are at the very core of the story. The pathos of the movie is that it's all true; there really was a 5307th Composite Unit and they did march 750 miles across Burma, fought five major battles and only 200 men from 3000 survived. The movie was adapted by Fuller and producer Milton Sperling from a book by journalist Charlton Ogburn. Chandler's final film.
This gritty war story, like almost all of Fuller's fascinating films, challenges the viewer to decide what it is really saying. On one hand it's a simple story of bravery, heroism and loyalty overcoming incredible odds, and is comparable to many of the war pictures of its time. On the other however, it's a detached portrayal of military insanity, shocking savage mistreatment of men pushed through almost unimaginable hardship for scant reason. The victories and the patriotic ending (which was added against Fuller's wishes) dress it up a little more palatable, but for me it's clear which one of these viewpoints the film is really going for. People often think movies like The Deer Hunter or Platoon were the first to depict the physical and psychological ravages of war, but this is unfounded; there's a long tradition of realism in American war films, with movies like this, Robert Aldrich's Attack, John Huston's The Red Badge Of Courage, all the way back to Lewis Milestone's All Quiet On The Western Front. Fuller was a WWII veteran and he understands these men instinctively; the General given impossible decisions to make, the Lieutenant who finds it hard to be above the camaraderie of his men, the world-weary Sergeant who cries when a local woman offers him a bowl of rice. Shot in the Philippines in beautiful Cinemascope by longtime John Wayne collaborator William H. Clothier, the camera glides around the action often with long, elegant silent takes. One of the hardest things for a movie to do is convey the oppressive conditions this one does - heat, humidity, stench, malaria, grime, mud, thirst, sheer animal exhaustion - which are at the very core of the story. The pathos of the movie is that it's all true; there really was a 5307th Composite Unit and they did march 750 miles across Burma, fought five major battles and only 200 men from 3000 survived. The movie was adapted by Fuller and producer Milton Sperling from a book by journalist Charlton Ogburn. Chandler's final film.