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intereact!Director: Raoul Walsh
Actors: Errol Flynn, James Brown (II), William Prince, George Tobias, and Henry Hull
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Retail Price (not our price): $14.98
Release Date: 2003-05-13
Theatrical Release Date: 1945-02-17
Studio: Warner Home Video
Run Time: 142 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Discs: 1
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Amazon.com
A paratroop captain (Errol Flynn) sets out with a platoon to attack a Japanese outpost in the jungle. The Americans reach their target, take out the enemy with almost balletic precision, then gear up to return home. This feels like the point when a conventional war movie would have reached its action-filled climax, but the journey has only begun. Ahead lies one of the most arduous and agonizing adventures any World War II film ever offered, brilliantly directed by that underrated old master Raoul Walsh and photographed with almost tactile realism by the great James Wong Howe. The chief rap against Objective, Burma! (of concern mainly to British observers) is that it suggests that only U.S. forces contested the Japanese in the jungles of Burma. (OK, so it's not the most accurate history lesson.) But that's small beer in view of the movie's bone-chilling portrayal of pain, sacrifice, and endurance. The jungle atmosphere is so persuasive, you'd swear it was shot on the actual locations (though in fact Walsh effectively reworked many of the same situations in Distant Drums, a sort-of Western about the Seminole War, six years later). You'll never forget the terrifying last dark night on a mountainside--or the crocodiles.... Flynn is excellent (he had given his best performance ever in Walsh's Gentleman Jim three years earlier), and he's backed by a solid cast including Henry Hull (as an aging war correspondent), James Brown, William Prince, George Tobias, and Stephen Richards (soon to change his name to Mark Stevens). Incidentally, two of the writers, Alvah Bessie and Lester Cole, were later blacklisted; see if you can spot any Commie propaganda. --Richard T. Jameson2) Description
Mission accomplished! Errol Flynn, who brought boyish bravado to The Adventures of Robin Hood, Dodge City, Gentleman Jim and other screen yarns, turns in a mature, acclaimed performance as the leader of a paratrooper patrol stranded in Burma. It's "one of the few features of which I am proud," Flynn later said. There's reason for pride. "This is one of the finest World War II films made during the war," The Movie Guide says. "One of the best war movies," Guide for the Film Fanatic's Danny Peary wrote, "and among the grimmest." Raoul Walsh directs the hard-hitting action, shot in rugged California locations so similar to Burma that veterans of that campaign refused to believe the crew hadn't somehow sneaked into Asia. DVD Features:Other:WB 1941 Short "The Tanks are Coming" WB 1943 Short "The Rear Gunner" Theatrical Trailer
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
1) Objective Burma [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Great movie in the Flynn tradition. Entertaining with plenty of action as well as a true feel for the era. If you like Movies with Errol Flynn as the leading figure you will like this one as well. I must admit that seeing it on this DVD brought me back to memories of the first time veiwed on a old black and white TV many years ago. The movie on this DVD is very well preserved and not washed out or full of artfacts like some movies of this era are.2) Objective, Burma! [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Raoul Walsh's tight, pounding "Burma" is one of the best WWII films out there, and reportedly one of Flynn's personal favorites. It should be, as the swashbuckling star turns in a gritty, first-rate performance as the intrepid Nelson, with worthy support from Hull as the aging correspondent who's clearly in over his head. Long but consistently engrossing, this unsung classic merits a wider audience.3) great war story [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This is, in my opinion, one of the best ww2 movies,be advised though that this is quite a long movie, but it is easy to keep interest in it, with lots of action, and a few quiet moments also.One thing readily apparent is that as the show starts the guys on their trek through the jungle,and for most of the way through the jungle there is very realistic and noticeable sounds of the jungle such as birds and animals and sounds you would hear while hiking a trail, there is also the constant tension of the enemy in the area and that they are being followed or tracked by the enemy.all in all, I think, one of the better war movies of the era.4) We got run out of Burma... [Rating: 5 out of 5]
... and it's as humiliating as hell. - Gen Joseph StilwellBy 1945, the year Raoul Walsh's OBJECTIVE, BURMA was released, the Allied armies would be well on their way to reclaiming Burma. The movie chronicles an operation undertaken on the eve of a massive invasion of the country. A Japanese radar station near the front line needs to be taken out of commission. The air force doesn't know exactly where the camouflaged installation is, so a small group of paratroopers, lead by Lieutenant Errol Flynn, are to be air dropped somewhere near where they believe the radar station is, destroy it, and force march themselves to a rendezvous point, where U.S. transports plane will be waiting to return them to base. Inevitably things don't go as planned, and Flynn and his small squad suddenly find themselves trapped in hostile territory. They become a `lost battalion,' deep in enemy territory, their condition and chance of rescue diminishing rapidly. Some of the best movies about World War II were made between 1945 and 1950. A certain war weariness on the home front, returning veterans, and, of all things, newsreels from the battlefield conspired to force out much of the jingoism and almost all of the martial enthusiasm that were prominent components of movies made just a couple of years earlier. Realism counts in action movies based on real events, and OBJECTIVE, BURMA is about as realistic as they come. Not convincing in terms of special effects or convincing gore - later generations of films would concentrate on stuff like that. Rather, Walsh leaves this one relatively blood free. There are scenes of violence and carnage that would tax the ingenuity of today's CGI wizards, but in those scenes Walsh simply, and cannily, pulls a tight close up on Flynn and let his subtly expressive face reflect the horror and disgust, pity and sadness we'd feel if we saw what he sees. This is a movie that works on every level. The photography, by James Wong Howe, is spectacular. Another future Oscar winner, Franz Waxman, scored this movie. More than the music, though, I was impressed by the ambient sounds of the jungle this movie was filled with. More than most thrillers this one had me on the edge of my seat throughout. It feels like it was filmed in a Burmese jungle although, after a trip to my favorite internet movie site, it appears the jungle scenes were shot in the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden. The highest recommendation for this great war movie.Also on the disk are a couple of fun shorts filmed during the war. The Tanks are Coming - George Tobias, who also has a substantial role in OBJECTIVE BURMA, stars as a "cabbie from the Bronx" in this 1941 two-reel recruitment film. There's a lot of documentary to this one. We travel along with Tobias to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to partake in a detailed look at the training of `America's first armored force.' Tobias participates in calisthenics, training in gas masks, gets to fire 37mm tank guns mounted on wobbly plates, and watch as a passel of `blitz buggies' directly imperil his carefully hidden taxi cab which, I believe, he named Betsy. A nifty little Techni-Color short that was nominated for an Academy Award. Nifty doesn't mean classic, great, or even Oscar-worthy, but patriotism was running pretty high when the Oscars were held for this one (2/26/1942) and `Tanks' lost out in its category (Best Short Subject, Two-Reel) to `Main Street on the March!' , yet another short about America gearing up for war. Rear Gunner - Burgess Meredith stars as the title character in this 1943 b/w two-reeler. Meredith is a recruit from Kansas with a clever speech impediment who begins the film, it appears, oiling the hinges on plane fuselages. Meredith's character, we're told, is one of those fellows who are `short on height, long on ambition' the armed services were constantly on the lookout for. Best of all he was good at "hittin' down crows" back ta home. Turns out he's a dead-eye killer on the skeet range, too, which lands him in gunnery school and a chance to become one of the Air Force's modern knights of fire. Pretty soon the movie has him, along with squad commander Ronald Reagan and a crew of lesser stars, heading for a place called Over There. Unlike `The Tanks are Coming,' `Rear Gunner' shows its star in (heroic) action. "Berlin and Tokyo beware!"5) compelling [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This movie is compelling and realistic. It keeps you involved the entire time. The most complete movie about a World War II episode and truly gives one a feeling of being there.