This movie was lent to me by a friend who presented it as his favorite war movie of all time. Knowing the fellow, this movie must have some Marks of developped psychological interest. And yes, the story of this lost small platoon in Burma is completely insane, all soldiers and officers just can't stand each other. Instead of fighting the invisible japanese in a cheap studio jungle (minor weakness of the movie), they fight all together : panic, cowardness, insults, racism (between Scottish, Gaellic, English and Japenese). And there's the second weakness of the movie : they musn't shoot at the japenese prisoner to avoid the noise, but they always bark and yell at each other, and that's a tremendous mistake. My favorite character is of course the japanese character, so touching and fragile : the actor has no charism of a star, on the contrary, he looks like a poor devil victim of those british psychic weirdos. I also like David Mac Callum's character, also fragile as a too young and unexperienced radio operator yelled at by his mates.
All the platoon always have to make the right choices but no one gets satisfaction with each other as the main officer fails to impose his authority. Never mind the poor settings, it's a jungle so the paths are very narrow. We have no time to watch the settings as the dialogues are omnipresent, and there are often two faces in the same shot. And with that low budget on settings, Leslie Norman concentrates on the high energy dialogues. I haven't seen any other movie by Leslie Norman but we all know his "Persuaders" episodes.
Thanks again to that friend who tipped me on this movie, he already tipped me on "Yesterday's Ennemy", directed by Val Guest with Stanley Baker, also the story of a platoon in Burma with hard choices to make. thanks for that Mark of distinction.
All the platoon always have to make the right choices but no one gets satisfaction with each other as the main officer fails to impose his authority. Never mind the poor settings, it's a jungle so the paths are very narrow. We have no time to watch the settings as the dialogues are omnipresent, and there are often two faces in the same shot. And with that low budget on settings, Leslie Norman concentrates on the high energy dialogues. I haven't seen any other movie by Leslie Norman but we all know his "Persuaders" episodes.
Thanks again to that friend who tipped me on this movie, he already tipped me on "Yesterday's Ennemy", directed by Val Guest with Stanley Baker, also the story of a platoon in Burma with hard choices to make. thanks for that Mark of distinction.