Product Details

• Language: English, Japanese
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302224438
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #157,248 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

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. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Errol on DVD !, May 28, 2003

By	peterfromkanata (Kanata, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Objective Burma (DVD)

Finally--the great Errol Flynn is becoming available on DVD. One can only hope that Warner Bros. will be releasing more classic Flynn titles in the near future. Except for late in his career, when Errol's excessive lifestyle took its toll, we are looking at one of the most exciting stars to ever grace the "silver screen".

As other reviews will tell you, this is a truly memorable World War II drama about American soldiers successfully accomplishing a dangerous mission against the Japanese in the jungles of Burma, only to face the daunting task of returning to home base alive. The film is exciting, touching, sad and uplifting--and if ever there was an actor that men might follow even through the gates of hell, it is Errol Flynn. I agree that this is one of his best performances. At first, we get the famous Flynn bravado, but as the story progresses, we see more desperate human qualities and ultimately a world-weary resignation. The scene where he discovers that one of his men has been tortured to death does not really show the victim--it doesn't have to--the horror and disbelief on Flynn's face says it all.

The film is long--but even when there is no action taking place, the combination of suspense and sharply-drawn characters keeps a firm grip on your attention. You can feel that oppressive heat--the dense jungle--the biting insects--and the constant threat of a ruthless enemy. In many ways the atmosphere foreshadows another nasty war for Americans, in another Asian jungle, some twenty years later.

The DVD is excellent--the picture is very clear and stable for a 58-year old film.

I know that this movie was vilified in the UK for ignoring the huge role played by British troops in this theatre of the war. I don't pass historical judgments--I simply review the film. As such, "Objective Burma" is a powerful statement, and an excellent vehicle for a truly great star.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superior WWII combat film... very suspenseful!, March 18, 2003

By	Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Objective Burma [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Raoul Walsh directed this gruelling, gritty, compelling war story, produced during World War Two, as the fight in the Pacific was still in full swing. Errol Flynn, in one of his least glamorous roles, stars as a hard-bitten Captain in charge of an American paratrooper unit that gets sent on a commando mission into Japanese-occupied Burma. They easily achieve their goal of destroying a strategic radar post, but are decimated while trying to return from enemy territory. The film is remorselessly well paced, tense, and manages to transcend the conventions of Hollywood's WWII combat melodramas: it is propagandistic and uses certain formulas, but it is also earthy and anxiety-provoking in a way that the grade-B war films of the era were not. The predicament of the soldiers -- stranded behind enemy lines and cut off from their support -- is made visceral in a way which few movies manage to convey, making this film a clear precursor to "Platoon" and "Black Hawk Down." It's bleak tone and realistic portrayal of the foot soldiers, with their dark humor and fatalistic resolve, all rings true. Highly recommended.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars muted grace, July 3, 2003

By	Lakan Kildap (Miami, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Objective Burma (DVD)

OK, so it does give an impression that only Americans fought the Japanese in Burma. (The British most certainly fought there, too, especially since Burma was THEIR colony, part of the Indian Empire.) I personally don't mind that at all, after all, this was a story about ONE company of paratroopers taking out ONE Japanese radar station. They did not even represent the entire American presence in that front. So I have no problem with that.

But when you consider the time this movie was made, you cannot help but admire the no-nonsense, straightforward manner it was told. Not an ounce of excess fat (OK, maybe a little, but forgivable). This movie simply means business. The language is spot on. The other reviewer's remark about salt tablets was right on the mark. (Who would have thought salt, which terrifies some people today, was so vital to some people, once upon a time?) Equipment checks, last minute reminders, "hook up", "stand in the door", the burying of parachutes, tactics, the positioning and pulling out of machineguns, you'll have to make a great leap forward, to "Band of Brothers" in the 21st century, to find something this sound, this honest. I don't know how technically authentic it was, but I know it just feels so authentic.

No superheroes. Even the lead character, Capt. Nelson, is your average (G.I.) Joe. The only thing that makes him special is his ability to focus on the mission and to put the welfare of his men above all things. Yes, during the scene where they were ambushed after supplies were dropped, you wish Nelson had been more active in saving those stricken men. But when you really think about it, what he actually did, saving those who can still be saved, avoiding an engagement when they were poorly positioned and low on ammunition (they did not get the supplies, remember), is what YOU would have done. No blind, heroic charges against entrenched enemies. No unnecessary displays of gung-ho. Even without all those, you still feel their peril.

(And thankfully, no silly encounters with snakes, scorpions or - God Almighty - rhinos as in most "jungle" war movies. I don't know where the crocodiles in the Editorial review came from, though. Never saw one.)

Obviously, the audio will not match that of modern war movies, such as "Saving Private Ryan", the current standard. Some of the props are poorly done, such as the TNT, which look like wooden blocks painted over. On the other hand, you get a war movie that is nothing short of a breath of fresh air in a world choked by the smoke of "Windtalkers", one that does not rely on special effects to hold you in its grip. Highly recommended.