At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This probably was not Sam Fuller's lowest budget movie. In fact, if the information here on IMDb is correct, it had a fairly decent budget. But I suspect that makes no difference at all to his style or the movie that he made. There is no CGI, no jump cuts and no shaky-cam. He got his actors to act and made effective use of pyrotechnics and extras to put realistic and horrifying battle on film.I am not a prolific reviewer, in fact I probably average 2 or 3 reviews a year. That's because I normally only bother when a movie makes me feel something (or it really makes me mad). It might be laughter or it might be horror but to me a worthwhile movie has to make you react. And this movie certainly does that. The story is worth telling but like most of Fuller's work the focus is really on the people and not on glory. The acting is superb and supremely believable. The actors in this movie aren't really known for award quality work but they really impress here. Samuel Fuller ignores the usual formulaic tropes and tells the story his way. There's an unneeded intro and a bombastic outro that I suspect were added by the studio but it starts where it starts and ends where it ends. No attempts to make a neat little package.The story is gripping and Fuller makes you feel like you have a personal interest in the outcome. His writing is top notch and tight with no filler. There is no obligatory love interest in this movie and no cheesy flashbacks either. It's relentless and often grim but always effective. I'm not a historian but I feel that it captures the essence of the real life battles.His direction is masterful. From the claustrophobic to the panoramic he makes the land itself an important character in the film. And he gets amazingly good performances from his actors. You can feel their pain and exhaustion.Jeff Chandler is more believable than in any other role that I can think of him playing. Most people have likely forgotten that he was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Cochise in Broken Arrow. That was over-shadowed by the the fact that most of his roles were in B and C-grade pictures. Personally I would rate most of his work as competent but not impressive. However I was very impressed by his portrayal of General Merrill. Sadly this was his last film. He died of complications from back surgery before it was released.One other stand out was Claude Akins. A very competent character actor who really shines in his role as Sergeant Kolowicz. There is a scene with him and a young native boy and an old woman that blew me away. Not a word of dialogue but he makes you feel his pain and it made me tear up in sympathy.The only bad part about this movie is the knowledge that we will never see it's like again. Give one of today's hotshot directors 500 times the budget and he will probably spend 200 million on CGI that will be impressive as heck but won't really make you feel anything at a visceral level. I suspect that it's a difference in life experience. Sam Fuller and most of the actors in this movie actually lived and fought through the Second World War.

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¨.

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

Sam Fuller's "Merrill's Marauders" (1962) is a realistic account of U.S. Army soldiers fighting the Japanese in the jungles of Burma during World War II. Starring Jeff Chandler as General Frank Merrill, the movie captures the sheer exhaustion of these men as they battle typhoid, malaria, and the perils of jungle warfare under the worst conditions possible. Along for the ride are plenty of stock players from the Warner Brothers roster of the early 1960s including Will Hutchins, Peter Brown and Ty Hardin. Claude Akins also has a prominent role in the cast as does Andrew Duggan as the unit's top M.D. Pushing his men to the extreme, Merrill is soon scorned as a "butcher." What they don't know is that the General is practically dead on his feet himself. Obsessed with completing his mission and following his superior's orders, Merrill finally collapses in a heap. In the final reel, his men march by his outstretched body to go off and fight another brutal battle. Duggan mouths off some unnecessary patriotic nonsense at the end while cradling the stricken General in his arms. Luckily, it doesn't detract from the overall proceedings.Director Sam Fuller, a combat soldier from World War II himself, knows something about war and he instills enough realism in this film for viewers to feel the jungle sweat on their own faces. He later went on to make a movie about his own unit (1980's "The Big Red One"), but this film certainly ranks with his best work. The real Frank Merrill survived the war but died from a heart attack in the mid-1950s. Jeff Chandler didn't last long after this movie either, succumbing to a botched operation at the age of 42.