Objective, Burma!

Pretty good propaganda WW2 movie, despite its grotesque and blatant historical inaccuracy. Directed by the very competent Raoul Walsh (White Heat, High Sierra) this stars Errol Flynn in an all-American extravaganza in the Burma Campaign. Watch this, and you'd think the U.S. was actually a factor in the theatre, which was almost entirely British, Commonwealth and Chinese on the Allied side. Quibbles aside, its a fun movie, Flynn is solid as are the rest of the cast, the script is enjoyable, and the direction is up to Walsh's usual standard.

Warner Brothers encountered greater production problems on "Desperate Journey" director Raoul Walsh's "Objective, Burma" than any other battle front movie that it made during World War II. Scenarist Alvah Bessie remembers the first time that producer Jerry Wald mentioned the idea for the film. According to Bessie, Wald called him into his office and said, "I was talking to some guys at my house last night, and they told me what a wonderful job the paratroops are doing in Burma." An hour after reading everything that the Warner Brothers Research Department had about combat in Burma, Bessie realized that it was "strictly a British operation." He told Wald, "Look, Jerry, there are no American troops in Burma." Wald's response was, "So what? It's only a moving picture." Bessie argued that an American invasion of Burma would lay Warner Brothers open to ridicule of the worst kind. Dismissing Bessie's prediction, Wald said, "So, look, put in some British liaison officers and stop worrying.... Read more

This is a fantastic movie that I could not turn away from. The DVD quality is great. I am very happy with this purchase.

This film has always been one of my favorite WWII flicks and I finally got around to ordering a copy from Amazon, which I just received. I'm definitely glad I did! The photography is excellent and the DVD video and sound quality, while not top shelf, were better than I expected. The film is 1.33:1 ratio, but by playing it on "full screen" setting the picture completely filled my 16:9 ratio Panasonic's screen and the people and surroundings didn't seem unduly squat or compressed. The score for this film is also very good and creates the perfect balance of tension and bravado and blends perfectly with the action on screen. And boy oh boy is there action. Furious and frantic from start to finish, however the pace does slow often enough to flesh out the characters and allow you to care about them. There were several times I paused the film to take stock of the remaining men, to confirm who had died and who fought on. These men were well enough defined to easily have been my... Read more

To be honest, I was not expecting much from this 1945 film. While I like Errol Flynn, I thought this might be a mismatch of his typical persona with the theme of this film. He's just too slick for a war drama I thought. This is for more of a John Wayne type it seemed. But Flynn pulls it off with aplomb, and his usual suavity couples nicely with his role as mission leader Captain Nelson. But it is clear near the film of the film even his confident character is having self doubts. Despite lack of any special effects and being entirely in black and white, the film is able to maintain a remarkable ongoing level of suspense. Like the solidiers you just don't know who or what is going to pop out of the jungle or go bump in the night. The characters under his command group are also surprisingly well developed and the viewer develops empathy for their suffering. You will almost feel the jungle heat and humidity. It's not a slam-dunk that his mission will be victorious des... Read more

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.