- In World War II, during the Japanese invasion of Burma, the lost remnant of a British Army Brigade HQ, led by the ruthless Captain Alan Langford, escapes through the jungle toward the British lines.
- Cut off by the Japanese advance into Burma, Captain Langford (Stanley Baker) and his exhausted British troops take over an enemy-held jungle village. Despite the protests of an elderly padre ('Guy Rolfe (I)') and of war correspondent Max Anderson (Leo McKern), Langford orders Sergeant McKenzie (Gordon Jackson) to shoot two innocent villagers, thereby "persuading" a Japanese informer to surrender vital information. When the Japanese recapture the village, their commander uses Langford's own desperate war-born tactics in a similar effort to extract information from the British.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
- A patrol of British soldiers is making its way through the Burmese jungle in the second world war. Their radio is broken, they are all tired and trying to stay quiet and out of sight of the Japanese in order to make their way back to their own lines. They are led by Captain Alan Langford [Stanley Baker] and include a war correspondent named Max [Leo McKern], a Padre [Guy Rolfe], and a couple of wounded soldiers on stretchers including their senior officer, a Brigadier [Russell Waters]. While they take a rest, Sergeant McKenzie [Gordon Jackson] and a couple of men continue to assess the area. They find a village ahead and report back. Since the village looks quiet and only occupied by civilians, they decide to go in. As they do, Japanese soldiers hiding in the huts open fire. The British suffer several fatalities but manage to out flank and shoot all the Japanese soldiers. One civilian tries to escape but is captured and brought back to the village. Among the dead Japanese soldiers in a Colonel with a map. It seems unusual and suspicious to the British soldiers that a Colonel would have been in the village and part of the ambush. The villagers are not able to tell the soldiers much other than the Japanese arrived at sunrise that day.
Langford questions the civilian [Wolfe Morris] who tried to escape. At first he pretends he does not speak English but when Langford orders one of his men to shoot him, he starts talking. He claims to be a former businessman from Rangoon who now lives nearby and knows nothing about the map, but he has a lot of money in his possession and his answers are not consistent. Langford gives him 15 minutes to start telling the truth or he will be shot.
Some of the wounded soldiers are seriously injured and Langford orders that the morphine should be saved for those soldiers who have the best chance of survival. He also orders a couple of men to repair the radio.
Shots are fired at the British from the jungle, so a few soldiers go after the Japanese soldiers. They kill one but a second Japanese soldier escapes. Langford thinks they should leave the village because the map could be highly important but he needs to understand the markings on it first. He tries to make the civilian talk again by threatening to shoot him but he refuses. Instead, Langford orders two of the villagers be placed in front of a firing squad. There is a lot of dissent from the other soldiers that this would be a war crime but Langford insists. Max and the Padre argue with Langford that it is murder but Langford argues the moral dilemma of killing civilians in war time in order to save many more other lives. Langford says he will take full responsibility for the villagers' deaths. Langford makes the civilian watch the firing squad but since he still refuses to talk, the two villagers are shot. Only then does he agree to talk. The civilian confesses to Langford that he was informing the Japanese about the positions of the British soldiers and explains the markings on the map and how the Japanese plan to attack the British.
Langford orders Sergeant McKenzie to take the civilian informer into the jungle and shoot him. He also orders that the wounded be left behind at the village because they will slow down the remaining fit men and decrease their chances of survival. The doctor [David Oxley], the Padre, and Max all argue against him and the immorality of his decision. However, the wounded Brigadier makes it into the hut and informs them that the wounded soldiers have all agreed between themselves that they should be left behind, so makes the same order as Langford.
A lookout spots a Japanese soldier in the jungle and reports back to the village. Langford orders that a few men including the Sergeant, doctor, Max and Padre, should try and make it back to the British lines with the information obtained from the informer about the map, while he and the others remain in the village. The Padre and Max argue they should stay behind because they will only slow the other soldiers down if they go. Lieutenant Paul Hastings [Richard Pasco] is nervous and wants to go but Langford orders him to stay. Langford agrees to send two other men instead. However, the men are ambushed by the Japanese shortly after leaving the village and are all killed.
The Japanese soldier reports back to his commanding officer Yamazaki [Philip Ahn] and they quickly group together to launch an attack on the British in the village. The Padre discusses the execution of the two villagers with Langford again but Langford still thinks it was right to sacrifice two lives in order to try and save many more. The lookout reports the Japanese approach so Langford quickly orders the men into action to confront the Japanese. Most of the soldiers go into the jungle to ambush the Japanese, unaware that the Japanese have made quicker progress than expected and are waiting in ambush for the British. A battle ensues in which some of the British soldiers are killed. Langford is wounded and is captured along with the other survivors, who are made to walk as a human shield in front of the Japanese soldiers as they enter the village. Langford shouts to the soldiers left behind in the huts to open fire and the British prisoners all dive to the ground. Another battle commences. There are casualties on both sides but eventually the Japanese overcome the British.
Yamazaki asks the soldiers about the Colonel who was at the village when they arrived but they won't say anything. In a reversal of the tactics used by Langford earlier, he puts Hastings in front of a firing squad but he won't talk. He questions Langford too but he claims there was no-one in the village when they arrived. Yamazaki threatens to shoot Hastings but Langford still won't talk. Eventually Yamazaki tells Langford he will kill all the other British men but leave Langford alive so that it will be on his conscience that he allowed the others to die. He tries one more time to convince Hastings to talk in front of the firing squad, but then releases him and sends him, the Padre and Max into one of the huts to try and convince Langford to talk but they still all refuse to comply. Yamazaki lines all the others apart from Langford up in front of a firing squad and gives Langford two minutes to talk. Instead, Langford tries to overpower one of the guards and is shot dead. Yamazaki says that is what he would have done too. After the two minutes have passed, the remaining British are all shot by the firing squad.
On the radio is a broadcast message from the British General about how proud he is of the spirit and fight shown by the British soldiers in Burma. The film finishes on a war memorial dedicated to those who gave their lives.
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