{ "id": "epq7639qsk", "slug": "objective-burma", "title": "Objective, Burma!", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure", "label": "War action and adventure", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999", "label": "War action films released through 1999", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1934-1962", "label": "Released 1934 to 1962", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1934-1962" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Objective, Burma! is a 1945 Warner Bros. war film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Errol Flynn as Captain Nelson leading paratroopers against a Japanese radar station; withdrawn from Britain in 1945 for ignoring the British role, rereleased 1952.", "snippet": "Objective, Burma! is a 1945 Warner Bros. war film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Errol Flynn as Captain Nelson leading paratroopers against a Japanese radar station; withdrawn from Britain in 1945 for ignoring the British role, rereleased 1952.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1934-1962", "markdown": "# Objective, Burma!\n\n**Objective, Burma!** is a 1945 American World War II war film directed by Raoul Walsh for Warner Bros., in which [Errol Flynn](https://www.edgepedia.org/errol-flynn) leads a platoon of Army paratroopers dropped behind Japanese lines in Burma to destroy a radar station, and who must then fight their way out on foot when their planned pickup fails.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515) • [2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/objective-burma/) It was a box-office success and drew strong reviews in the United States, but provoked a furious reaction in Britain for portraying the [Burma campaign](https://www.edgepedia.org/burma-campaign) as an almost exclusively American operation.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | New York opening 26 January 1945; general US release 17 February 1945[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24515-OBJECTIVE-BURMA) |\n| Runtime | 141–142 minutes, black and white, RCA sound[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24515-OBJECTIVE-BURMA) |\n| Key credits | Directed by Raoul Walsh; produced by Jerry Wald; screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Lester Cole from an original story by Alvah Bessie[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515) |\n| Principal cast | Errol Flynn (Capt. Chuck Nelson), James Brown, William Prince, George Tobias, Henry Hull, Warner Anderson[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037954/fullcredits/) |\n| Academy Awards | Three nominations: Best Original Story (Alvah Bessie), Film Editing (George Amy), Score (Franz Waxman)[6](https://scottsmoviereviews.com/objective-burma-1945/) |\n| British reception | Withdrawn from British cinemas after a week of protests; rereleased there in 1952 with a conciliatory newsreel prologue[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma) |\n| Critical standing | Metascore 79 on Metacritic; 86% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/objective-burma%21/critic-reviews/) • [9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/objective_burma) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe film opens with a written quotation from General Joseph W. Stilwell: \"I claim we got a beating. We got run out of Burma and it's humiliating as hell. I'll go over the mountains into India and rake up an army.\"\n[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515) Captain Chuck Nelson (Flynn) leads a company of 36 commandos, with two Gurkha guides, dropped into the Burmese jungle to destroy a camouflaged Japanese radar station.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/objective_burma) • [4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24515-OBJECTIVE-BURMA) The mission succeeds, but when the men reach the abandoned airstrip where planes are supposed to fly them out, they find Japanese forces waiting, and Nelson must split the survivors and lead a grueling trek on foot through Japanese-held jungle.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/objective_burma) The men suffer hunger, exhaustion, and deaths in Japanese attacks, dig in on a hilltop against a final assault, and are ultimately rescued and returned to base, with the remaining eleven of Nelson's men taken back after the mission has paved the way for the invasion.[6](https://scottsmoviereviews.com/objective-burma-1945/) • [12](https://www.cinnamondb.com/movie/objective-burma-1945) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515) The film closes with a written statement that the story \"will end only when the evil forces of Japan are totally destroyed,\" followed by a dedication to the men of the American, British, Chinese, and Indian Armies.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film was produced by Jerry Wald for Warner Bros. Pictures, with cinematography by [James Wong Howe](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-wong-howe), editing by George Amy, production design by Ted Smith, and a score by Franz Waxman.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515) The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Lester Cole was based on an original story, \"Burma Objective,\" by Alvah Bessie, who was soon to be blacklisted; script records show a treatment by Bessie dated 12 January 1944 and a revised final script by MacDougall and Cole dated 22 April with revisions to 12 September 1944.[10](https://assets.cengage.com/gale/psm/2056000A.pdf)\n\n**Shooting in California.** Although set in Burma, the film was shot entirely in California, at Palm Springs, Whittier Park, Topanga Canyon, the Baldwin Estate in Santa Anita, and the Metropolitan Airport in [Van Nuys](https://www.edgepedia.org/van-nuys).[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24515-OBJECTIVE-BURMA) Errol Flynn later said the sets were built so convincingly that Burma campaign veterans leaving the theater asked which part of Burma they had just seen, and were surprised to learn it was the Santa Anita Ranch.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma) War Department records note that technical advisor Major Charles S. Galbraith had spent two and a half years with paratroopers and had seen a great deal of jungle fighting; Flynn credited a British adviser, Major Watkins, who had been through the whole British retreat, for the film's realism.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24515-OBJECTIVE-BURMA) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma)\n\n**Flynn's casting.** Casting Flynn as a war hero was controversial, since he had not served in the military. Born in Australia, he took US citizenship in 1942 and had applied repeatedly to enlist, but was rejected on health grounds that included recurring malaria, tuberculosis, and heart problems; Warner Bros. did not publicize the reason, and Flynn endured public jibing that he was a coward.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history) • [11](https://ocdviewer.com/2009/08/25/objective-burma-january-26-1945/) This was the sixth of his seven collaborations with Walsh, and reviewers have counted it among his finest performances.[2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/objective-burma/)\n\n## Historical basis and the British controversy\n\nNelson's unit is based on the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), whose 1944 operation in northern Burma was code-named Galahad and nicknamed \"Merrill's Marauders\" after its commander, [Frank Merrill](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-merrill); that unit in turn drew inspiration from [Orde Wingate](https://www.edgepedia.org/orde-wingate)'s Chindits (Wingate's long-range British-led guerrilla force in Burma), special forces drawn mostly from British, Indian, Gurkha, Chinese, and Burmese personnel.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history) The specific raid shown in the film is fictional, though it fits the unit's long-range jungle penetration mission.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history) A news item reported that the story was based on a real incident in which sixty men were dropped behind Japanese lines in Burma.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515)\n\nThe film's problem at release was not what it showed but what it left out. In reality, the majority of Allied forces in Burma were British, South African, Indian, or Chinese, and the British 14th Army there was known as the \"Forgotten Army.\"[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history) When the film reached England, the British public protested angrily, the British press attacked it, and Warner Bros. withdrew it from British cinemas after a week.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma) The campaign against it included newsprint illustrations of Flynn holding a machine gun over the grave of a British officer.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma) Warner Bros. rereleased it in Britain in 1952 with added documentary footage, including a newsreel prologue showing British troops in combat in Burma and a fleeting hat-tip to Major General Wingate.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma) A 1988 academic survey of the Burma campaign on film, by Ian Jarvie of York University, Toronto, grouped it with the documentaries *The Stilwell Road* and *Burma Victory* as the period's principal screen treatments of the campaign.[13](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01439688800260031)\n\n## Reception and assessment\n\nAmerican critics received the film warmly. The New York Times called it \"a stirring tribute to the sterling fighting men who helped to reopen Burma,\" and Variety praised the authentic detail of the paratroopers' tactics while noting that the final reels could have been edited more closely.[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/objective-burma%21/critic-reviews/) Retrospective assessments have been similarly positive on craft: the Film Society of Lincoln Center described it as Walsh at the peak of his lean, economical direction, with Howe's black-and-white cinematography and Waxman's Oscar-nominated score.[2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/objective-burma/) The Guardian's \"Reel history\" column gave it an entertainment grade of B+ and a history grade of D–, judging it a fine, engrossing war film whose technical and cultural details of military life are accurate, made as it was while the war was still on, but spoiled by how much of the Allied effort it omits.[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history)\n\nThe film has also drawn criticism for its portrayal of the Japanese. A notorious sequence has Henry Hull's character, a war correspondent, screaming that the Japanese are \"immoral, degenerate idiots\" who should be wiped off the face of the earth.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma) Because Japanese Americans were then confined in internment camps, Chinese and Filipino actors played the Japanese soldiers, and their dialogue was dubbed by apparently white actors.[14](https://www.kqek.com/dvd_reviews/n2o/2462_ObjectiveBurma.htm)\n\n## Legacy\n\nObjective, Burma! is frequently cited as one of the more realistic American war films made during World War II, unusual among wartime productions for its gritty tone and sparse dialogue rather than overt flag-waving.[6](https://scottsmoviereviews.com/objective-burma-1945/) • [9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/objective_burma) Its procedural detail, editor George Amy's seamless intercutting of documentary and real combat footage, and its pre-mission assembly sequence have been noted as influential on later films; one DVD commentary-based review argues that [James Cameron](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-cameron) adapted the troop-carrier launch scene in *Aliens* (1986) from the film's parachuting montage.[14](https://www.kqek.com/dvd_reviews/n2o/2462_ObjectiveBurma.htm) The story of [Merrill's Marauders](https://www.edgepedia.org/merrills-marauders) was dramatized again with further license in [Samuel Fuller](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-fuller)'s *Merrill's Marauders* (1962).[2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/objective-burma/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Objective, Burma! (1945), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24515)\n2. [Objective, Burma!, Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/objective-burma/)\n3. [Objective, Burma! by Scott McGee, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/25882/objective-burma)\n4. [Objective, Burma! (1945), AFI Catalog full record](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24515-OBJECTIVE-BURMA)\n5. [Objective, Burma! (1945) full cast and crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037954/fullcredits/)\n6. [Objective, Burma! (1945), Scott's Movie Reviews](https://scottsmoviereviews.com/objective-burma-1945/)\n7. [Objective, Burma! – liberating cinema from the truth, by Alex von Tunzelmann, The Guardian, 30 November 2012](https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/nov/30/objective-burma-cinema-truth-reel-history)\n8. [Objective, Burma! critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/objective-burma%21/critic-reviews/)\n9. [Objective, Burma!, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/objective_burma)\n10. [Warner Brothers Screenplays, 1930–1950, author index (Gale/Cengage)](https://assets.cengage.com/gale/psm/2056000A.pdf)\n11. [Objective, Burma! (Jan. 26, 1945), OCD Viewer](https://ocdviewer.com/2009/08/25/objective-burma-january-26-1945/)\n12. [Objective, Burma! (1945), Cinnamon DB](https://www.cinnamondb.com/movie/objective-burma-1945)\n13. [Ian Jarvie, \"The Burma Campaign on Film: 'Objective Burma' (1945), 'The Stilwell Road' (1945) and 'Burma Victory' (1945),\" Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 8, no. 1](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01439688800260031)\n14. [KQEK DVD review: Objective, Burma!](https://www.kqek.com/dvd_reviews/n2o/2462_ObjectiveBurma.htm)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1934 to 1962*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/objective-burma", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/objective-burma.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Objective, Burma!\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/objective-burma. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Objective, Burma!](https://www.edgepedia.org/objective-burma)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/objective-burma](https://www.edgepedia.org/objective-burma). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Objective, Burma!\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/objective-burma. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Objective, Burma! is a 1945 Warner Bros. war film directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Errol Flynn as Captain Nelson leading paratroopers against a Japanese radar station; withdrawn from Britain in 1945 for ignoring the British role, rereleased 1952." }