Objective, Burma! (1945)

Henry Hull: Mark Williams

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mark Williams : Your folks are gonna get quite a kick out of reading about you.

  Lt. Sid Jacobs : [Taken aback]  You mean all that stuff will be in the Schenectady paper?

  Mark Williams : Sure. You don't mind, do you?

  Lt. Sid Jacobs : Well, heck, no! What do you know, it's a small world, isn't it?

  Mark Williams : Yeah, and it's getting smaller. If only more folks back home would realize that Crane Street, Schenectady runs all the way to Burma, this would be the last war.

  Lt. Sid Jacobs : Amen.

• Mark Williams : What if my parachute doesn't open?

  Capt. Nelson : Then you'll be the first one on the ground.

• Mark Williams : [Aghast and outraged at the atrocities]  Hey, I've been a newspaperman for thirty years. I thought I'd seen or read about everything that one man can do to another from the torture chambers of the Middle Ages to the gang wars and lynchings of the day. But this... this is different! This was done in cold blood... by people who... who claim to be civilized. Civilzed? They're degenerate immoral idiots! Stinkin' little savages! Wipe 'em out, I say! Wipe 'em out! Wipe 'em off the face of the Earth! Wipe 'em off the face of the earth!

  [Walking offscreen] 

  Mark Williams : The bastards! God!

• Mark Williams : Why didn't you join the Navy?

  Capt. Nelson : I can walk better than I can swim, brother.

• Capt. Nelson : [Upon learning that Mr. Williams, an older journalist with no real military experience, will be going on the mission]  Look, Mr. Williams, it's your life, so I'll give it to you straight. This isn't a job for you. It's a young man's job.

  Mark Williams : Well, I'm not exactly decrepit.

  Capt. Nelson : Well, maybe not. Do you know how old the colonel is in there? Thirty four. Do you know how old our commanding general is? Thirty seven. Young men, all of us. We've got to be. Do you know why? I'll give you two good reasons: We jump out of planes, and guys shoot at us. This isn't exactly healthy, unless you're young enough to take it.

• Capt. Nelson : Uh, pardon my asking, but how old are you, Mr. Williams?

  Mark Williams : That's a military secret. Now, wait a minute. Let me tell you something. You know what I did before the war? I sat on a nice soft cushion in a pine-paneled office and I gave orders, and people jumped and I made a bucket of dough per week. Now I'm out here. I came out here as I wanted to be here. Because I wanted to do what I could so the people back home would know a little better what war is about. I'm making no dough, Capt. Nelson, and I may wind up with a bullet through my, uh... typewriter. I know it isn't easy. I didn't come out here expecting it to be easy. But you're not fighting this war from behind a desk, are you?

  Capt. Nelson : No.

  Mark Williams : Well, I'm not writing it from behind one, either.

  Capt. Nelson : Okay, Pop. Maybe you're a little old, but you'll do. Glad to have you with us.