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Though a war movie, "Merrill's Marauders" makes its deepest impressions in the scenes between the battles.

As a unit of exhausted American soldiers claw their way along a rocky slope, one falls to a screaming death. The others pause a moment to watch, then resume climbing.

At one village, a boy gives a crusty sergeant played by Claude Akins a bowl of rice. The sergeant tries to smile, only to break down instead.

"When you lead, you have to hurt people," General Merrill (Jeff Chandler) tells his prize officer "Stock" (Ty Hardin). "The enemy, and sometimes your own."

Sam Fuller was a war vet as well as a director. In making his war films, he struggled to keep it real while at the same time delivering popular entertainment. "Merrill's Marauders" leans too much in the latter direction, with hokey battle scenes and gung-ho narration. But Chandler and Hardin provide sympathetic rooting interests. The cinematography by William Clothier captures riverine landscapes in all their harsh and wild beauty.

The real story of the 5307th Composite Unit and its role in retaking Burma provides a solid backdrop for Fuller's cold view of war and its human toll. Of the 3,000 troops that started out, only 100 remained standing at the end, typhus and Japanese taking equal measure of the rest. Merrill's decision to press forward ("If they've got a single ounce of strength left, they can fight!") is portrayed as a cruel necessity, this much softened from the real GI take on Merrill's boss, Vinegar Joe Stilwell. Stilwell was roundly hated by the Marauders for pushing his boys too hard.

This is something we don't see here. Cooperation with the U.S. military required some futzing on Fuller's part, which he did in hopes of following it with a pet project regarding his own World War II experience that would only emerge 18 years later: "The Big Red One".

The battle scenes feel forced and phony. Fuller himself would complain nobody dies in war as neatly as in movies, and you see that a lot here. A perversely favorite moment for me is when a soldier named "Bullseye" shoots a Japanese soldier off of a watchtower. The soldier starts to fall, then pauses, grabs a baluster, and performs a neat tuck-and-roll in the direction of an offscreen mat.

The one battle scene that works, even with the inane fanfare scoring that is this film's single worst element, is a fight through a maze-like warren of train-support blocks at the railhead town of Shaduzup. Japanese and American soldiers appear and fall in random, endless waves. I don't think soldiers in World War II really called each other "knothead", but moments like those at Shaduzup really connect and help to pull this film over the finish line - however raggedly.

Though probably a bit too rah-rah for Fuller's fans, "Merrill's Marauders" packs a punch and some moments of affecting surprise.

Myitkyina, pronounced "Mitchinah"--remember the name. this is the objective in this gritty, tough-minded, mostly-authentic and unforgettable war movie. There is little Hollywood gilt about the film, as many viewers have noted; it was not made to be thrilling, event-filled or filled with speeches. Its theme is the limits men have, and how approaching or exceeding such limits of mind, body and emotions can affect men in an emergency or wartime situation--in this case the volunteers of Frank D. Merrill's unit in world War II fighting in the jungles of Burma.The unit is first discovered in the midst of a nasty and fatiguing jungle combat with Japanese soldiers; credit, as several reviewers have noted, is given to the brave British troops are carrying the main battle. But this unit has a single mission--to take Myitkyina, crawling there over mountains and through malarial jungles, fighting fierce opposition all the way. Not your average war film, this is the dramatic story of men in combat told by a man who had been there, and whose films are always short on gimmicks and long on the demand for courage--and made about the man who can answer that call the best. Writer-director Samuel Fuller used other writers, notable Charlton Ogburn III and Milton Sperling, but the main part of this late war film is his own. Jeff Chandler, wearing steel-rimmed glasses, played Brigadier General Merrill . He had died of a botched operation in hospital by the time the film was out, at the end of an illustrious career than should have had many more years to run. This is an award caliber performance in any year. As his second, there is Ty Hardin, good enough in the best role of his career as a strong young soldier. Andrew Duggan narrates and plays the unit's doctor with his usual skill; others in the nearly-all-male cast include dependable Claude Akins, Peter Brown, Will Hutchins, John Hoyt as General Stilwell, and Pancho Magalona. William Clothier gets the credit for the very atmospheric outdoor cinematography, and Howard Jackson for the music, which used additional older works by Max Steiner and Franz Waxman. There are prettier war films, and films about war with a more of a varied choice of scenes. But this Spartan production is among the most harrowing looks at the harsh realities of war ever put onto the screen. "They took Myitkyina", says the narrator simply at the end; cue the closing music. Some few films tell us what men are capable of achieving by showing them being tested to the limit. This films tells us that there were men once in British and United States uniforms who passed a severe test with flying colors. And that is quite a lot for any film to accomplish, especially one as engrossing as is this unrelenting narrative of combat.

Post Battle Of Britain there were two campaigns of the second world war that were almost exclusively British led and British fought . One was the North African campaign and the other was the Burma campaign , and unlike the inaccurate American flag waver OBJECTIVE BURMA the production team of MERRIL`S MARAUDERS have taken the time and effort to point out the British contribution of the campaign . A British patrol is spotted " A five hundred mile hike and the eighteeneth Japanese imperial army are waiting for them , I`m glad I ain`t in that British Army - Amen to that " and later General Stilwell points out " That the British have been fighting alone here for three years " , so a big thank you to Sam Fuller and co for pointing out a few truths that American didn`t win the war single handed . If only Spielberg , Hanks and Ambrose had done the same with BAND OF BROTHERS

This movie was definitely worth watching. I met Jeff Chandler when he came into the the photography shop where military could develop their own photos. He was quite a man. Very tall, with piercing eyes and that silver hair... Sad that he died in such a fashion.

I was in the Air Force in the Philippines when this was made and I actually was in the movie as an impromptu stunt man :) They paid me $35 because I fell off of a horse in the race scene :) Watching other scenes being shot was quite humorous at times when men would be shot and fall and then, not wanting to be out of the scene I imagine, would get up and get back in the fight :))) The editors did a great job with what they had ...

Just watch the film, it is really well worth it!

General Stitwel (John Hoyt) assigns a dangerous mission to commander Merril (Jeff Chandler) and his 3000 USA Marines volunteers . As the tough officer commands a two-fisted regiment fighting in the jungles of Burma. In 1944 the exhausted unit achieves their latest aim and expects to be relieved . However , Merril has to lead his band throughout the Burmese jungles to his definitive mission in Japonese zone , beyond the enemy lines , at Mykyana . At the end of the movie there is a parade review that features the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Action , adventure , war movie by the great Samuel Fuller in which Chandler leads a group of soldiers through the Burmese jungle and battling feared Japonese . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Ty Hardin , Claude Akins , Peter Brown , Andrew Duggan , John Hoyt and Will Hutchins . At the beginning , the film being produced by Warner Bros and hired Gary Cooper . However , Cooper died by cancer and then it was totally financed by screenwriter and producer Milton Sperling in a lower budget . Nicely played by Jeff Chandler , an ebullient actor who died by stroke before the movie was released . Colorful cinematography by William H. Clothier , John Ford regular . Well photographed in Warnerscope and Technicolor and shot on location in the Philippines Islands . Furthermore , a thrilling and moving score by Howard Jackson .

The motion picture was well directed and co-scripted by Samuel Fuller for three months . Fuller has become something of a cult favorite , an essential and fundamental figure in the film world . Here Fuller excels at showing the mayhem and confusion of battles , giving spectacular frames as when it takes place a desperate pitched fighting at an enemy installation , as a railhead and other overwhelming bloody events . The cigar-chewing Fuller directed several classic movies , such as : ¨The naked Kiss¨ , ¨Pickup on South Street¨ , ¨Underworld USA¨ , ¨shock corridor¨ , ¨Hell and high water¨ , ¨Fixed bayonets¨ , ¨White dog¨ and ¨The big Red one¨.