Product Description

Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) aka "Merrill's Marauders" behind Japanese lines across Burma to Myitkyina pushing beyond their limits and fighting pitched battles at every strong-point.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/MILITARY & WAR UPC: 085391188421 Manufacturer No: 118842

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2958 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-04-22
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com
The theatrical trailer included in this DVD release of Merrill's Marauders, touting its depiction of "World War II's most fabulous jungle fighters… (as) they showed the world what the American soldier can do," makes director Samuel Fuller's 1962 film sound like jingoistic propaganda, but it's considerably more than that. The year is 1944; the U.S. Army's 5307th Composite Unit, a 3000-strong outfit under the command of Brigadier General Frank Merrill (Jeff Chandler), has already been fighting the occupying Japanese forces in the wilds of Burma for several months when they're assigned to march hundreds of miles through jungles, swamps, and mountains to Myitkyina, a town of considerable strategic importance and the gateway to India, where the Allies fear the Japanese and Nazis will meet and consolidate their forces. Mission impossible? So it would seem, as the men are exhausted, disease-ridden, disheartened, and ill-equipped; his second in command, Lt. Stockton (Ty Hardin), argues that they'll never make it, but Merrill (who has a heart condition that could bring him down at any moment) refuses to let up. There are numerous combat sequences, most of them quite convincing (including a very cool scene in a concrete maze), but the film's strength lies not only in its graphic chronicling of the obvious horrors of war but in its sympathetic (but never condescending) portrayal of the more quotidian aspects of these soldiers' miserable lives, from easy banter to quarrels over food and ammunition, from the interactions with locals to the sheer hell of simply walking another step when you've already passed the limits of human endurance. Grim, gritty, intense, and realistic (Fuller was an Army vet himself), this is an effective precursor to the director's best-known movie, The Big Red One. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

jeff's last film
this was a partnership between warner brothers and a filipino film company. It starred Jeff Chandler as Brig. General Frank Merrill who's whose company were top jungle fighters during WW2 in the CBI theater of operations. Other solid names in this production were some of the Warners stock company, Ty Hardin, Claude Akins, Andrew Duggan, Will Hutchins, and Peter Brown. It's a nice war film most notable by being Jeff Chandler's last film before going in for back surgery which was horribly botched leading to Jeff's premature death at the age of forty two.

A Relative Review
I've seen this movie many times since it stated showing up on TV. The real General Frank Merrill was my grandmother's first cousin. I believe the movie to be very accurate. I wish it had shown what happened to Frank Merrill after the war. He went on to be Highway Commisioner of New Hampshire and died in 1955. He is buried at West Point and if you look directly behind his stone you will see the grave of General Stillwell, his commander during the Burma Campaign. I will be adding this movie to my collection ASAP!

Finally
I have always wanted a widescreen version of the movie and now it is finally out and is a very good presentation. For those of you who don't know, Jeff Chandler was injured while making this movie and died of complications in the operation to fix the problem.