Sam Fuller had combat experience and always wanted a more gritty portrayal of war which had little to do with jingoism but plenty to do with the human toll of fighting a battle.Merrill's Marauders has no big stars but several character actors such as Claude Akins. It also uses stock footage from other war films to keep it economical even though location filming took place in the Philippines.The film is based on a non fiction book, The Marauders written by a soldier who served on the missions in Burma. To help the British troops who themselves are exhausted after many years fighting the Japanese in Burma. General Merrill and his soldiers first objective is to take the town of Walawbum. Tired from jungle warfare, some of the soldiers suffering from fatigue or disease Merrill and his men are ordered in no uncertain terms on another objective, to take the strategic airstrip at Myitkyina. Even though the men seem to be in no fit condition to march further up the jungle and take part in more combat, General Merrill has to reluctantly get them to follow orders.Although Fuller was a war veteran because of a low budget and censorship the combat scenes are rather uninteresting and bloodless. In fact some of the acting of the soldiers falling down is rather flaky and should had been better staged.Where the film is good at are the smaller scenes that make more of an impression. Weary soldiers collapsing as other watch and continue to march or climb. The man who refuses to let his donkey get shot. At a Burmese village a boy gives Claude Akins some food who breaks down from such an act of kindness.Fuller would continue with the theme of warfare many years later in 'The Big Red One.' This is a mixed bag, lacking in tension, poor battle sequences but has it some fine character moments.

Merrill's Marauders is directed by Samuel Fuller, who also co-adapts the screenplay with Milton Sperling from the book, The Marauders, written by Charlton Ogburn Jr. It stars Jeff Chandler, Ty Hardin, Andrew Duggan, Claude Akins, Peter brown, Will Hutchins and John Hoyt. A Cinemascope/Technicolor production with music by Howard Jackson and cinematography by William H. Clothier.Cracker-jack war movie, packed to the rafters with blood, sweat and tears, and best of all, gritty realism. Story is about the warfare unit led by Frank Merrill (Chandler) during the Burmese campaign in 1944. Their mission was to destroy Japanese bases to avert the Japanese from making their way into India and onto a rendezvous with Hitler's forces. Their efforts was a success but it came at great cost of lives.Fuller, an ex-soldier himself, isn't interested in glorifying war for entertainment purpose, he wants to keep the focus on the men and what the mission does to them, both physically and mentally. The mission was only meant to be a short sharp shocker, but they keep getting "requested" to push on further beyond what was originally required, pushed to their limits by their leader who asked they follow his lead.In turn the men suffer through lack of food whilst some of them fall to typhus and malaria, inhospitable conditions take their toll, like trekking through miles and miles of swampy terrain, and of course they encounter the enemy on several nerve shredding occasions.As comrades fall and heart breaking letters are written to families, Fuller peppers the picture with haunting moments. A sweep of the aftermath of a battle finds dead bodies from both sides strewn about the place, the surviving Marauders too exhausted to lift themselves off the soil. A soldier breaking down crying, another willing to carry his donkey's load so it will not be shot for holding up the trek and on it goes, a whole ream of memorable instances designed to give us some idea of what the war is hell statement actually means.Filmed on location in the Philippines, it seems a little weird to say that the photography is beautiful given that so much emotional hardship and misery is being portrayed, but Clothier really brings everything to life with his superb use of colour, the great lens-man the ideal fit for Fuller's keen eye for lingering details.Performances are across the board on the good side of good, with Chandler - in what sadly would be his last film before his premature death aged 42 – turning in his best ever work. He puts his all into portraying Merrill, giving him great personality whilst hitting the mark for the various emotional beats required for a leader of men. A leader who himself carries a secret that he doesn't want his men to know about.Stock footage usage from another movie and musical lifts from two more, hint at the economical restraints on the production, but neither affects the all round quality of the picture. Free of cliché's or extraneous pap, this is one excellent – exciting - haunting war movie. 9/10

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?.

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.