MacArthur (1977)

Director:

Joseph Sargent

Writers:

Hal Barwood (written by) and
Matthew Robbins (written by)

Release Date:

July 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Daring, Defiant, Brilliant, Stubborn, Gallant, Glory-Hungry, Cold, Compassionate, Idolized, Despised, War-Lover, War-Hater, Supreme Commander, Supreme Egotist, Husband, Father. MacArthur.

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...

Plot Keywords:

Imperial Japan | Australia | Philippines | Major | Prime Minister

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Ivan Bonar	...	Lt. Gen. Richard K. Sutherland
Ward Costello	...	Gen. George C. Marshall
Nicolas Coster	...	Colonel Sidney Huff - MacArthur's aide
Marj Dusay	...	Mrs. Jean MacArthur
Ed Flanders	...	President Harry S. Truman
Art Fleming	...	The Secretary
Russell Johnson	...	Adm. Ernest J. King (as Russell D. Johnson)
Sandy Kenyon	...	Maj. Gen. / Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright
Robert Mandan	...	Rep. Martin
Allan Miller	...	Col. Legrande A. Diller (MacArthur's aide)
Dan O'Herlihy	...	President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Dick O'Neill	...	Col. Courtney Whitney (Intelligence Officer)
Addison Powell	...	Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz
Tom Rosqui	...	Gen. Sampson
G.D. Spradlin	...	Maj. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger
Kenneth Tobey	...	Adm. William 'Bull' Halsey
Garry Walberg	...	Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker
Lane Allan	...	Maj. Gen. William F. Marquat (MacArthur's staff)
Barry Coe	...	TV reporter
Everett Cooper	...	Lt. Gen. William Krueger (6th Army commander)
Charles Cyphers	...	Brig. Gen. Forest Harding (32nd Div. Commander)
Manuel DePina	...	Prettyman
Jesse Dizon	...	Pedro Castro (Filipino soldier)
Warde Donovan	...	Lt. Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., USMC
John Fujioka	...	Emperor Hirohito
Jerry Holland	...	Aide
Philip Kenneally	...	RAdm. James Doyle
John McKee	...	Adm. William D. Leahy
Walter O. Miles	...	Gen. George C. Kenney (5th Air Force Commander)
Gerald Peters	...	Gen. Sir Thomas A. Blamey (Commander, Allied Land Forces Southwest Pacific Area) (as Gerald S. Peters)
Eugene Peterson	...	Gen. Collins
Beulah Quo	...	Ah Cheu
Alex Rodine	...	Lt. Gen. Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko
Yuki Shimoda	...	Prime Minister Shidahara
Fred Stuthman	...	Gen. Omar N. Bradley
Harvey Vernon	...	RAdm. Forrest P. Sherman
William Wellman Jr.	...	Lt. John Duncan Bulkely (Commander, Motor Torpedo Squadron 3)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert V. Barron	...	POW
Shane Sinutko	...	Douglas
Klair Bybee	...	Burial detail soldier (uncredited)
Branscombe Richmond	...	Korean soldier (uncredited)
Ramon Sison	...	Lieutenant Colonel (Hospital Commander, Corregidor) (uncredited)
John Stuart West	...	Lieutenant Aames (uncredited)

Directed by
Joseph Sargent

Writing credits
Hal Barwood		(written by) and
Matthew Robbins		(written by)

Produced by
David Brown	....	executive producer
Frank McCarthy	....	producer
Richard D. Zanuck	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Jerry Goldsmith

Cinematography by
Mario Tosi		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
George Jay Nicholson

Production Design by
John J. Lloyd

Set Decoration by
Hal Gausman

Costume Design by
Larry Harmell

Makeup Department
Michael Corsentino	....	hair stylist
Frank McCoy	....	makeup artist
James Lee McCoy	....	makeup artist (as Jim McCoy)

Production Management
Ernest B. Wehmeyer	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Scott Maitland	....	first assistant director
Charles Norton	....	second assistant director
Charles Norton	....	second unit director
Candace Suerstedt	....	second assistant director
Don Zepfel	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Kurt V. Hulett	....	set dresser
Daniel Turk	....	carpenter (uncredited)

Sound Department
Robert L. Hoyt	....	sound
Don Sharpless	....	sound
James Troutman	....	sound effects editor (as Jim Troutman)
George E. Marshall Jr.	....	sound utility (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Dennis Glouner	....	matte photographer
Henry Schoessler	....	matte crew
Bill Taylor	....	matte photography
Albert Whitlock	....	special visual effects
Syd Dutton	....	assistant matte artist (uncredited)

Stunts
Joe Canutt	....	stunt coordinator
Kim Kahana	....	stunts
Peter Horak	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Minor	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jimmy Nickerson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Branscombe Richmond	....	stunts (uncredited)
Walter Robles	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Dustin Blauvelt	....	first assistant camera
Richard E. Brooks	....	camera operator: second unit
Joseph Cosko Jr.	....	second assistant camera
Joel King	....	camera operator
Michael Simpson	....	assistant camera
Tom Bookout	....	grip (uncredited)
Randall Robinson	....	first assistant camera (uncredited)

Music Department
Morrie McNaughton	....	music editor
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator
Dan Wallin	....	score mixer

Transportation Department
Frank Khoury	....	driver

Other crew
D. Clayton James	....	chief technical advisor
Adam Parfrey	....	dialogue coach

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1979) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Universal Home Entertainment (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

MacArthur, the Rebel General (UK)

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:PG | West Germany:16 | Australia:M (original rating) | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Alverno Villa, Sierra Madre, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

This film marked the second biopic of a World War II General that Jerry Goldsmith would score. The first was Patton (1970).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the exterior shot of the airplane flying MacArthur to Hawaii, the side of the airplane reads "UNITED STATES AIR FORCE". The U.S. Air Force was not created until after the war, in 1947.

Quotes:

Soldier: He's the greatest General since Sergeant York!

Movie Connections:

Features Winchester '73 (1950)

Ambiguous man

There isn't much argument that MacArthur was a good strategist and a brave man. And that's the picture you get of him in this movie. Besides a bit of vanity, only the slightest, the general seems to have no flaws. The dark side of this genius is missing.

Of course no movie, not even at 130 minutes, can capture all of a man's professional history, but the lacunae here are convenient ones. The upshot is that this is like one of those John Singer Sargent portraits of society women that made them look sexier and prettier than they probably were.

For instance, MacArthur remarks somewhere along the line that his casualties are fewer than anyone else's (or something like that) when in fact those figures have been contested. MacArthur's aching desire to invade China is turned into a kind of a joke, when he complains that he is only allowed to bomb the southern entrances to bridges across the Yalu River -- "In all my career, I've never learned how to bomb HALF A BRIDGE." Very amusing. But then his political views as a whole, which were somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun's, are skipped over. His run for president fizzled because not even the most rabid anti-communist power broker wanted a war with China, but this too is turned into a morbid joke, when MacArthur remarks to his wife about the newly elected Eisenhower -- "He'll make a great president. He was the best clerk I ever had." (Eisenhower's joke appears elsewhere -- "I spent seven years under MacArthur studying dramatics.") One last point that is glossed over. MacArthur is stuck on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines surrounded by Japanese but prepared to fight it out. He is ordered to return to Australia on PT boats. He objects strenuously but in the end obeys his orders and retreats. It's a dangerous voyage on small worn-out boats made of plywood. And for this he is awarded the medal of honor. The officers and men of that handful of boats made the same voyage -- round trip too -- and no medals of honor for them, although they were acting under the same conditions, following orders. (An aside: the bar is a little lower for high-ranking officers, which is why their dress uniforms seem to droop with decorations like some Latin American dictators'.)

But it's not a bad movie, as long as you're looking for a heroic picture of an undoubtedly heroic man. Gregory Peck exudes his usual sincerity and is a much more effective speaker than MacArthur himself who almost always sounded like a blowhard. And Peck had to do quite a good job to overcome that florid prose -- "Still, I listen with thirsty ear for the tocsin call," etc. ("Thirsty ear.") In a speech at West Point McArthur also misattribues a quote from Santayana to Plato ("only the dead have seen the end of war"), but that's carping.

The movie follows the same pattern as "Patton." Give us an admirable hero, one human enough to have a little fun poked at him. (Peck emerges from a shower draped in a couple of huge bath towels arranged like a toga, so that he resembles Caesar.) Surround him with devoted but sometimes puzzled subordinates who, when they are not courting his favor, are warning him that something he plans to do might be misinterpeted by the suits back in Washington. Just don't have him do anything seriously wrong.

Production values are good. This is an expensive picture. Supporting players more or less blend into one another -- there's only room for one Caesar in this movie.

Some things are left unexplained, unintentionally it would seem, since this is not the kind of movie that thrives on leaving anything up to the viewer. General Wainwright is left behind on Corregidor to surrender to the Japanese. Back in Australia, MacArthur fumes at such cowardice, Wainwright must be temporarily deranged. But when they meet again when Manila is liberated, MacArthur greets him like a long lost pal. What happened? And the big meeting between MacArthur and Truman that was supposed to iron out the differences between them? It's confusingly staged and scripted. Both sides seem to come away satisfied but, if that were the case, the satisfaction must have been based on some profound misunderstandings because afterward MacArthur and Truman both went merrily on their divergent ways.

I kind of enjoy watching it once in a while. The Irish Daniel O'Herlihy does a side-splitting impression of Franklin D. Roosevelt. And the action scenes are fairly well done. I do wish that the movie had been more honest with its subject. As it is, it's a flawed movie about a flawed but remarkable man.