Merrill's Marauders

1962 US Samuel Fuller
✰✰ 1/2

Samuel Fuller's war films are all worth watching, but this one won't top any lists. It's about a stubborn, courageous U.S. Army commander who leads his men on a bushwhack through WWII-era Burma, cleaning out the Japanese. There are a lot of characters, not a lot of time to get to know them. War is shown as exhaustion, the winner being the one able to stretch himself the thinnest without snapping. Action itself is thick, 95 minutes without relaxation. One of the best sequences (there are several amazing ones) shows the effects of war by showing a handful of spots twice: once clean, before combat; once after, with bodies and destruction strewn all around. Interactions between foreign soldiers and native villagers are touching. Unfortunately, these highlights occur on an ordinary backdrop: film is workmanlike, for the most part. Fuller's toughness is here, but not quite his talent, his heart. Still, it's interesting to consider '62 and think of the film as sensing Vietnam.