OBJECTIVE BURMA!: Blu-ray (Warner Bros., 1945) Warner Archive
Okay…let us usher the proverbial elephant out of the
room on producer, Jerry Wald’s lengthy, but exhilarating war drama/actioner, Objective, Burma! (1945) – a titanic hit for Warner Bros. that, nevertheless, managed
to ruffle more than few critical feathers on its way to immortality. First off,
the picture, directed by Hollywood veteran, Raoul Walsh, stars Errol Flynn who –
due to credible health problems - never actually served in the United States Armed
Forces and therefore was, likely, the wrong fellow to be promoted to the head
of the line as everybody’s all-American war hero…especially since he was born
in Tasmania!!! Indeed, Flynn had suffered a mild heart attack while boxing on
the set of 1942’s Gentleman Jim; the incident, like another from that
same year, quietly glossed over by Warner publicity to suggest a mere bout of
exhaustion. More to the point, Warner Bros. was not about to reveal their
biggest box office he-man was ailing from any physical shortcoming.
Thus, this, and Flynn’s earlier scrapes with reoccurring weakness brought on by
his contracting malaria before he became a film star, were quietly hushed. The
public was never meant to know, and, for some time thereafter, didn’t!
In his prime, which is what Mr. Flynn was in 1945, the
Hollywood heartthrob could do no wrong, as his exoneration on a charge of raping
two underage B-girls this same year left Errol’s reputation as a lady’s man
virtually unscathed, if to forever live down the sly signifier, “In like
Flynn!” As his public reputation had not suffered an iota from any of this
negative publicity, the fault and fallout from Objective, Burma! – 3-years
removed from both circumstances – was squarely to rest on screenwriters, Randal
MacDougall and Lester Cole who, cribbing from a story by Alvah Bessie, could
not resist rewriting history under the guise of a bit of flag-waving patriotism,
essentially to transform a British operation into an American show using the
actual Merrill’s Marauders as their template. This was a news flash to most Brits
attending the London premiere, who took umbrage to the line “We should head
north. I hear there might be a few Brits somewhere over there” and left the
theater booing in droves. Prime Minister
Winston Churchill was also unimpressed. He had a point. The actual ‘objective’
in Burma was carried out almost entirely by a 1-million-strong contingent of
British patriots hailing from their native soil, as well as Indian infantry
fighting under the Commonwealth. A few Brits, indeed!
However, if one could – and should – set aside
all of this backstage misdirection, since movies ought never be taken seriously
for their historical accuracy (they are, or rather should be an
entertainment – period!) it was quite possible to sit back and enjoy Objective, Burma! for what it was, a grand, ole-time patriotic salute to another Allied
triumph in the Far East. Jerry Wald’s
passion for the project was fueled by the timeliness in its plot. If not to
hurry the picture along, the events as they were actually unfolding, might
surpass the movie’s release, thereby rendering the whole point of it moot. Indeed,
by the time filming began, the Allied campaign in Burma was already well
underway, leaving Wald with a post-script picture instead of a preemptive one. Meanwhile
Raoul Walsh clashed with Wald over his strict adherence to the script. Walsh,
who had begun his career in the picture-making biz as an actor in 1914, was by
1943 one of the industry’s most respected directors. Irrefutably, his most prolific
period was begun with a move from Paramount to Warner Bros. in 1939 and the
release of The Roaring Twenties, a prohibition melodrama to costar two
of the studio’s biggest box office draws: James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Other
memorable outings from Walsh included They Drive By Night (1940), High
Sierra (1941), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), The
Strawberry Blonde (1941), and, White Heat (1949). Walsh could be crusty
to a fault, and his contempt for the writers was well noted on the set.
If Objective, Burma! left much to be reconsidered
in terms of its re-imagining of actual events, as far as production values were
concerned, the picture was first-rate. Assembling an enviable collection of
WWII props, to include aircraft and gliders, and, to spare himself the angst of
having to contend with plagiarism criticisms, the proactive Wald was quick to draw
his own parallels between the over-all flavor of his piece and 1940’s Northwest
Passage. Yet, perhaps best of all, Wald and Walsh had caught Errol Flynn on
his best behavior. Intent on penning his memoirs during down time on the set,
Flynn indulged his well-known predilection for booze only slightly, keeping a
sober and keen mind to commit his thoughts to paper, and, in good spirits, was wholly
invested in his performance when the cameras began to roll. To lend an air of the tropics, virtually all
of the exteriors were shot at L.A. County’s Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Walsh
going 40-days over schedule due to a particularly lousy spate of bad weather,
but also to satisfy his chronic tinkering with the screenplay. For further
authenticity, Wald obtained permission to use real combat footage filmed by the
U.S. Army Signal Corps during the actual conflict in China, Burma, India and
New Guinea. Nevertheless, the UK officially banned the picture at the strenuous
behest of their military establishment. Even more ironic, Cole – who had
invested everything in the American slant to hew a patriotic flag-waver – would
later be branded as one of the infamous Hollywood ‘ten’ - a communist sympathizer
by HUAC.
Like most Warner product from its vintage, Objective, Burma! opens quick and dirty, with Capt. Chuck Nelson’s (Errol Flynn) crisis
– assigned to destroy a Burmese radar station hidden somewhere deep in the plushily
padded jungle terrain. Nelson is head of operations but gets amiable assistance
from Lieutenant Sidney Jacobs (William Prince) and two Gurkha guides. A company
of paratroopers, accompanied by reporter, Mark Williams (Henry Hull) is
assigned to parachute into the thick of things, destroy the outpost, then
advance to an abandoned airstrip. The first half of the mission comes off without
a hitch. The men descend from on high into the dense jungle foliage and, without
much effort, successfully locate and destroy the radar station. Alas, with this
victory the men have made their position known to the Japanese. Escape,
therefore, proves difficult. As the men arrive at the prearranged landing
strip, the Japanese set up their stronghold, making rescue by plane quite
impossible. Via radio, Nelson arranges for his men to be retrieved elsewhere.
Now, splitting into two groups, one led by Nelson, the other by Jacobs, the
platoon trudges on to their new rendezvous. Alas, while a reconnaissance plane
is able to drop badly needed supplies to sustain them, Nelson is informed the Japanese
have since seized the nearby airfields. There is no escape. Nelson makes the
daring decision to have his men move deeper into the jungle, heading for the
border. Tragically, only two men from Jacob’s group arrive on time, informing Nelson
the rest have fallen to the Japanese.
Unable to remain where they are any longer, Nelson
orders his men to move out. They come across the decimated Burmese village
where the remains of their fellow soldiers, mutilated and tortured to death,
are discovered. Mercifully, Jacobs has survived. But he is in great pain, pleading
with Nelson to put an end to his suffrage. Before Nelson can make this terrible
decision, Jacobs dies. Now, the Japanese mercilessly attack. Nelson and his few
stragglers barely escape the deluge and head for their next drop off. Regrettably,
Nelson’s orders are to return to the Burmese interior. Another ambush and Nelson’s
radio is destroyed. He and his men are forced to move on without supplies and
are assumed lost after they fail to radio in their whereabouts. As hope
dwindles, Williams, already ailing, quietly dies. However, as fate would have
it, an American plane is spotted overhead. Nelson signals with his mirror and reinforcements
are dropped to stave off their starvation. Under the cover of darkness, the
Japanese launch another attack. But as dawn hastens across the horizon, Nelson
discovers the enemy has fled. Having accomplished their mission, to deflect the
focus of the Japanese so the actual Burmese invasion by the Allies can begin, Nelson
and his remaining eleven men make their way back to base.
Objective, Burma! benefited
greatly from the participation of the real Merrill’s Marauders, who served as
technical advisers on the picture. Throughout the shoot, Flynn would have liked
nothing better than to admit he had tried, without success, to enlist in
virtually every branch of the U.S. Armed Services, rejected outright for his
heart condition, a touch of tuberculosis, and reoccurring bouts of malaria,
plus a chronic back problem. To counteract the negative publicity endured while
he remained silent about the real reasons for his lack of war-time participation,
especially since fellow actors like James Stewart, Tyrone Power and Clark Gable
went off to do their part, Warner Bros. put Flynn into a series of rousing war
pics, designed to promote the cause: Edge of Darkness (1943), Northern
Pursuit (1943), Dive Bomber (1941) and Uncertain Glory (1944)
– all of them, real/reel crowd pleasers that kept Flynn’s reputation as a
Hollywood hunk Teflon-coated. Yet, Flynn always considered Objective, Burma!
the finest of these contributions and was supremely disappointed to learn of
the controversy surrounding its release. In hindsight, and removed from all the
hype and criticism, Walsh’s direction does keep the pace invigorated, while the
McDougall/Cole screenplay has some expertly written dialogue – unusual for an
actioner – that really helps us get under the skin of these characters. So, does Objective, Burma! rank among
the ‘best’ war movies ever made? Some critics think so.
I, however, am not among them. While the film is expertly crafted and well-acted
throughout, it does tend to have its ‘peaks’ and ‘valley’ in terms of plotting.
It also runs just a bit long to keep its dramatic punch riding high. Several
scenes merely repurpose elements of the plot that both the audience and the
characters are already well aware. If only these moments either could have been
tightened or entirely pruned from the scenario, it would have made for a much
better film – undeniably, a much more succinct one. Nevertheless, the virtues of
its storytelling far outweigh its sins, leaving Objective, Burma! as a ‘good
show’ for those not expecting ‘truth’ from their cinema-going experiences. Both
domestically and internationally, the picture was a smash, earning a whopping $2,117,000
in the U.S. alone, and another $1,844,000 from the foreign markets, making it
Warner’s 6th highest-grossing flick of the year, right after Hollywood
Canteen, To Have and Have Not, Arsenic and Old Lace, God Is My Co-Pilot and
Christmas in Connecticut.
Objective, Burma! arrives on
Blu-ray via the Warner Archive, and like most everything WAC achieves, this one
rates a level of perfection surely to please even the most discerning cinephile.
Shot in glorious B&W by legendary cinematographer, James Wong Howe, this
one really lets the pores sweat – the 1080p image capturing all of the intense
heat and sun-filtered exoticism coupled with the grit of war. Contrast is
superb and fine detail abounds. The 1.0 DTS mono audio is exceptionally nuanced
and sounds fantastic. I always seem to be offering redundant praise when
reviewing WAC’s efforts. But seriously, the work here and elsewhere represents
a high-water mark of excellence alas, that no other asset management program
being instituted at any of the rival studios – save Sony – can compete. There is a distinction to be made between
Warner and Sony; chiefly, that while Sony’s asset management program has been
largely invested in restoring and remastering a back-catalog never entirely
given its due (working from less than stellar archives, often without the
benefit of original elements), Warner has undertaken their mammoth effort, not
only to maintain and manage their own illustrious history, but also that of MGM,
RKO, Selznick and Monogram; also, to invest in ground-up restorations, often
cribbing from protection materials created with care under previous regimes in
charge of maintaining this titanic repository of cinema history. So, the work
is not only commendable, but in fact, a bit awe-inspiring. I pray, in light of
the more recent shifts in management at WB, such a high level of care will go
forth in perpetuity. We’ll see. Bottom line: Objective, Burma! is a fine
film with a few minor hiccups that should not impact your viewing enjoyment.
The Blu-ray is a pluperfect example of what is possible when time, money and
effort are poured into the proper preservation of our collective cultural
history on celluloid. Bravo – again – still – and again, bravo!
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the
best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
5+
EXTRAS
1
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