In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Another attempt for Sam Fuller to show the "blood and guts" Reality of War. The Horror that the real Folks Felt and endured, Suffered and sweat, and in the end it was all for the Love of Squad and Country. Hollywood Hotshots paraded through the standard War Movie was not acceptable. But here is the Rub, unfortunately the Industry was not ready for or Never Did Understand the Vision of this Maverick Director, and that is usually what He got. He Tried so Hard with varying results Restrained by the System and at odds with the Money Men. His best War Films are his Independently produced Movies that were Cutting Edge and pushed the boundaries of Social Paradigms and rampant Hypocritical Behavior. This Film does have the Psychological predetermination and Buddy Bonding lacking in lesser efforts done by Hacks and Company Men and some Exceptional Photography and Battle staging. But compared to say, The Steel Helmet (1951), this is more of a Studio Film than he felt comfortable with and was Not totally Satisfied with the completed Work.

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!

I could never get with Andrew Duggan, the doctor who trudges along with the Army expedition into Burma. He always seemed so actorish, no matter what the part. Ty Hardin looks good, I guess. His features are razor sharp and he has a hefty build but he's not much of a performer. Jeff Chandler, as the real-life General Frank Merrill, who leads the force against the Japanese in 1944, at least had the advantage of steel-gray curly hair, aquiline nose, a deep baritone, big ears, and industrial-strength facial bones going for him.Director Sam Fuller was in his stride in 1962 and this is a well-done film. A viewer will find it a character study in the context of combat. There are several brisk fire fights that only emphasize the real focus of the movie -- fatigue and illness. It's an unusual story for that reason alone. It's an exhaustion of mind, body, and spirit, and you can almost smell it.The film is about the war in Burma but it's relatively modern and more realistic than most of the movies made during the war years. An officer belts an enlisted man, for instance. It was shot on location in the Philippines rather than the live-oak covered hills of California. There are no stereotypes -- no wise guy from Brooklyn or braggart from Texas -- just as there were no stereotypes in Errol Flynn's "Objectiv Burma", of which this is a simulacrum. ("Merrill's Marauders" even borrows some of the musical score from the original.) Claude Akins is the tough and uncomplaining top sergeant who keeps the men together, and there is a scene in which the bearded and played out Akins is slumped against a wall after a fierce battle, his eyes closed, almost too fagged out to move. A Burmese child, and then an old lady with a bowl of rice, creep out of the rubble and approach him. He opens his eyes as the wizened woman offers him some rice and then he begins to weep abjectly. It's a touching moment, especially so, coming as it does from the cynical and unsentimental Sam Fuller.Francis Stahl was the sound man and Ralph Ayres did the effects. They should both be applauded. The fire fights don't sound like any other movie fire fights. The battles sound like strings of firecrackers going off on Chinese New Years. I've never been in combat but those clusters of cracks and pops sound much like rifles did on the firing range.Fuller could be a headlong and reckless director and he made some clinkers but this isn't one of them. Along with "Pickup on South Street," I'd consider this among his best efforts. For what it's worth, Frank Merrill survived World War II, but just barely.

It's too bad this great cast and interesting subject matter were squandered in this cliché-ridden, cheaply made production. The music is awful, except the bits they stole from "Objective Burma". The Phillipine Army, standing in for the Japanese, look way too modern and American with their equipment and uniforms. And from the look of it, the movie was filmed entirely in the Phillipines, which do not look like I imagine Burma to be.Jeff Chandler is fine as Merrill, but the script is pretty limiting. It's a shame this was his last film.Ironically, "Objective Burma", filmed entirely in California, has a much richer jungle feel than this movie. It's clear from reading about Burma that you need a machete to move about in the jungle and you see that in "Objective Burma". The Philipine terrain in "Merrill's Marauders" is much too open.