BEFORE: Moving on to World War 2 - I admit I remember very little about MacArthur from history class, so I'll take this as an opportunity to brush up on military history. All I remember is his quote, "I shall return." But where was he going? And why did he leave? And when was he planning to come back? So I've got my goals for the night. Linking from "All Quiet on the Western Front", one of the actors (there were so many non-distinct ones...), Richard Alexander, was also in the 1958 film "The Big Country" with Gregory Peck (last seen in another WW2 flick, "The Guns of Navarone").
THE PLOT: The story of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander during World War II and United Nations Commander for the Korean War.
AFTER: OK, so I learned a bit about MacArthur's role in the closing days of WW2 and in the Korean War. When Japan invaded the Philippines in 1941, MacArthur's forces were forced to withdraw to Bataan, and then Australia. So when he vowed to return, it was to the Philippines, and it took about 3 years for his forces to retake the Philippines, after fighting his way back through New Guinea.
The big drawback in this film seemed to be that whenever there was a choice to be made between showing a battle or talking about it, they went with the latter. There was one notable exception, the landing of troops on the beaches of Leyte, which visually reminded me of the D-Day scenes from "Saving Private Ryan". But for the most part, this was a film that was light on the action scenes.
Unfortunately, a bunch of generals sitting around a map, discussing strategy, is not very cinematic. Nor is meeting with President Roosevelt or President Truman and discussing plans for the Pacific Theater. For that matter, neither is seeing MacArthur racked with doubt as his forces are taking Inchon. Do you see where I'm going with this? There should have been a way to work in some more battle scenes, and still remain a portrait of the man himself.
Once World War 2 ends, the problem only gets worse. MacArthur then takes on the oversight of the rebuilding of Japan, and that leads to more meetings, more planning, and more decisions to be made about Japan's new constitution. Boring, boring, boring. I mean, these are important historical events, or so I've been led to believe, but it's just all talk, and no action. If you get off on the politics of reconstruction, and land reform, then this is the film for you.
I appreciate the attempts to get into a famous general's head, but in doing so, they jettisoned all of the stuff that makes a war film interesting and exciting.
Also starring Dan O'Herlihy (last seen in "Fail-Safe"), Ed Flanders (last seen in "True Confessions"), Nicolas Coster (last seen in "The Electric Horseman"), Marj Dusay, Dick O'Neill, Addison Powell, G.D. Spradlin (last seen in "North Dallas Forty"), with cameos from Art "Jeopardy!" Fleming and Russell "The Professor" Johnson.
RATING: 4 out of 10 propaganda broadcasts
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