Merrills Marauders (1962)

"Gritty war film; a WW2 actioner...  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"...accurate in its historical details...well-written...excellent cinematography...terrific performances...  The Motion Picture Guide

Editor's Note Samuel Fuller (THE BIG RED ONE) directs this action-packed war movie about a group of grunts fighting the Japanese and building the Burma Road.

	Andrew Duggan
	Claude Akins
	Jeff Chandler
	John Hoyt
	Luz Valdez
	Peter Brown
	Ty Hardin
	Will Hutchins
	Charlton Ogburn, Jr. - Based On Book By
	Folmar Blangsted - Editor
	Howard Jackson - Original Music By
	Milton Sperling - Screenplay
	MIlton Sperling - Producer
	Samuel Fuller - Screenplay
	Samuel Fuller - Director
	William H. Clothier - Cinematographer

Senses of Cinema 8 of 10
While not necessarily considered one of Samuel Fuller's best films (or even one of his better ones) by a number of people I know, Merrill's Marauders is still a fascinating film in the director's oeuvre. While not as stylishly lurid as The Naked Kiss (1965) or as pessimistically sarcastic as Pickup on South Street (1953), it remains a fairly straightforward exploration of a theme that runs throughout Fuller's work: the relationship between the individual and the group...I said "fairly" straightforward. Compared to other Fuller films, Merrill's Marauders is straightforward...Along with all of this, Fuller is a master of editing and framing a scene. He has a knack for placing actors and items within a frame in a way that exploits every possible interpretation but doesn't endorse any of them. This talent is evident in almost all of his films. He shows just enough for the audience to get the gist of the story and pulls back from giving anything more (think of the pick-pocketing scene that opens Pickup On South Street). Merrill's Marauders is full of scenes like that. There's one where a soldier gets killed by the Japanese as he's trying to sneak to a food drop-off. Or another where the owner of a donkey dies from exhaustion after carrying the munitions his broken animal couldn't in order to save it. - Kin Ferate