Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

ChanFamous 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.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

andrewglencross65 I'm not going to write a review of this remarkable film but just want to share and echo some thoughts.Yes, the bookends are awful.The(I believe 101st Airborne)on parade at the end of the film is horribly jarring with MM's gritty, malarial jungle tone--but the film remains a favourite from childhood and into my mid 40's.Jeff Chandler, for me, was never better---bit like Gregory Peck being never being better than he was as General Frank Savage in "12 o'clock High" And if THAT film was all about the USAAF's "Maxiumum Effort" THIS is the army's version of it,and Sam Fuller imbues it with the eye of the combat GI.As others have said the battle at Shaduzup is particularly affecting: claustrophobic and just plain hellish.I reckon this sequence is easily Fuller's greatest pure war movie making in the film--and just bloody unforgettable. As others have noted "Stock" walking between the concrete blocks at the battle's end is haunting.Sam Fuller who fought in North Africa/Europe might just have also made the best film about the US Army in the Asia/Pacific theatre here. A theatre of operations that popular imagination tends to be dominated by the USMC.Yeah, there's a cheesy( but appreciated)representation of the Brits in Burma, but Merrill's Marauder's is a war film that never fails to inspire, and demands a DVD release.A remake would be nice too I suppose without the "Battle Cry" footage and cobbled together music, but would it draw you in to the jungle and its ever present Japanese threat in the way that Sam Fuller did? I don't think so.Myktina, Walawbum and Shaduzup.Is it just me or are those names forever locked in your memory?.

MisterWhiplash Samuel Fuller knew war, experienced it first hand, and it became apart of who he was artistically as well as impacting him from knowing those he fought alongside that may or may not have come back alive as part of the "Big Red One." This sets apart a film like Merrill's Marauders, which in more commercial hands or those of a hack-for-hire could be fun or exciting in a conventional sense but could also be entirely forgettable as a programmer on a double feature. For Fuller there's a need to tell the stories of such brave soldiers like the Marauders who kept going on and on past all common sense or reasonable action. How much it's truly based on fact would depend, be it on the research of the battle(s) or on the book itself the film is based upon. But what it lacks in fine tuning it makes up for with guts, lots of it, like an endless reservoir.This is indeed what sets apart all of Samuel Fuller's war movies, and he made some truly great ones from Korea (The Steel Helmet) to Germany (nearly lost Verboten!) to his own personal tale with the epic The Big Red One itself. With this story, which tells of Frank Merrill's trials and tribulations getting his troops across swamps and mountains and over hundreds of miles in Burma to stop an invading force of Japanese entering into India, Fuller may not always get the best actors for the job (some are alright, such as Jeff Chanlder, who sadly died shortly after filming ended but went out with a bang, while others are just contract players whom aren't remembered today for a reason of being by definition character actors), and once or twice his pacing goes off or the music doesn't quite click or gets schmaltzy.But damn it all to hell, it's still a Sam Fuller picture, which means there's plenty of truly gripping scenes of war violence, and plenty of small moments that make it stand out. I liked the attachment the one soldier had with his mule, so much so that he would carry what the mule had on its back so it could still walk along the mountains. I liked the little bit where the Philippino soldier refused to tuck in his shirt just because he was told to. I especially liked that calm interlude where the soldiers, for only a seeming moments time, get a respite in a small village where the villagers come to help the beat soldiers who are resting as much as they can before pressing on (with the one assumedly very tough soldier breaking down in tears from the kindness, or just utter frustration or exhaustion). There's also a camaraderie with the soldiers that Fuller knows like the back of his hand - this is where, at the least, it feels and is totally authentic, at least compared to its programmers.What also makes Merrill's Marauders worth watching is that despite the exterior appearance of being about perseverance in the face of all odds, overwhelmingly stacked it would seem, it's really an anti-war picture, or at the very least one that questions such missions as these. I almost wonder if Fuller had been able to make the film years after 1962, where he might have had more freedom to show more grit, more bloodshed, more of the reality that he knew so well and pumped into the soldier experience on the whole. It may be a story of courage, maybe an absurd one with its straight-faced veneer, but it doesn't feel like a true story's tale - it's more about the struggle, the sense that hope could be lost at any second, which is mortifying. It's a B-movie that for all its minor flaws has its heart more than in the right place but the exact one; an antidote for all of those bubble-gum Gung-Ho John Wayne pictures.

MartinHafer This film is about a unit that fought hard and suffered horrific attrition rates while fighting in Burma during World War II. It specifically focuses on the grueling and exhausting struggle they made to complete the objective against all odds.MERRILL'S MARAUDERS is a decent war film, though it's hardly one that stands above the genre. While it does receive high marks for not being overly sensational or adding unnecessary story elements, the film also seems a tad sterile and unsatisfying when all is said and done. Now perhaps I might not have felt this so strongly had the film not been directed by Sam Fuller--a guy very capable of making better war films (my personal favorite of his is STEEL HELMET--a very realistic and gritty Korean War film made on a minuscule budget). Fuller did well in not over-glamorizing the soldiers but because he didn't provide much in the way of character development, you really don't particularly care who wins or dies. This is really evident near the end when the general (Jeff Chandler) falls to the ground--does he have a fatal heart attack or is he okay? The film never even bothers to tell! And that is very telling about the soul of this film--very competent but not especially involving.

bkoganbing Just as Clark Gable died from the strain of doing those roping scenes with wild horses in The Misfits, Jeff Chandler died because of the work required in the Phillipines location for Merrill's Marauders. What a terrible tragedy and a terrible waste at the same time. The story of Jeff Chandler's death could almost be the subject of a black comedy. He was injured while participating in a pick up baseball game among the cast and crew. According to Marilyn Kirk's biography of him, while playing first base he stretched for a throw to his position and pulled his back out. With about six weeks of shooting left and not wanting to either run up the cost while on hiatus or having the film shelved altogether, Chandler continued in pain as his back got worse and worse. When the film wrapped he went for a needed operation and that was botched.Chandler had just finally got free of his Universal contract and had signed a multi-picture deal with Warner Brothers of which Merrill's Marauders was to be the first. It was an important film to him. Maybe under other circumstances, he might have tended to health issues first.Too bad he didn't live to see it because as Brigadier General Frank Merrill he gives one of his best screen performances. In fact in a crazy way the pain he was enduring in real life probably helped his performance because Chandler in the film is supposed to be under a physical and mental strain.Merrill's Marauders was a picked group of GIs from the Pacific Theater who were on a volunteer mission to be a part of the retaking of Burma. The bulk of the fighting done in the China-Burma-India Theater was done by British and Commonwealth forces. The Commander of the Theater was Lord Louis Mountbatten, but the military genius over all was a very unsung British hero named General William Slim. Joseph Stilwell, the American General in China, is played here by John Hoyt. Stilwell may have been Merrill's commander, but Slim was running the show.Warner Brothers provided a trio of their TV cowboys, Ty Hardin, Peter Brown and Will Hutchins in support of Chandler. And he got good support from Claude Akins and Andrew Duggan as well.Merrill's Marauders is a fine film, but I'm not sure it was worth Jeff Chandler's life.