They've killed a lot, bled a
lot. Their guts are
wracked, their nerves are mauled. An inch is a mile and an
hour is forever. But the war for them has just begun because
they are Merrill's Marauders.
The place: Burma. The mission: drive a fatal wedge between
an enemy linkup. The troops: the 5307th Composite Unit, led by
Brig. Gen. Frank Merrill (Jeff Chandler) and manned by Stock
(Ty Hardin), Chowhound (Will Hutchins), Kolowicz (Claude
Akins) and other young dogfaces who after a few weeks of basic
training had the world's fate
loaded on their backs.
Director Samuel Fuller,
whose later film The Big Red
One is a benchmark work about
Gls in World War II's
European theater, turned to the
war in the Pacific for Merrill's
Marauders. Few moviemakers
capture life among the grunts
as well as Fuller. He brings you
up close and personal to the
intense, gritty heroics of our
combat veterans.