Product: MacArthur (1977)
Rating: 5.0
Excellent bio pic about a complex person
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) was one of America's greatest generals. He was the youngest person ever appointed as a Major General, held positions as Superintendent of West Point (1919-22), Chief of Staff for the Army (1930-35), Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (1945-51), and Commander in Chief U.N. Command in Korea (1950-1), and was 7 times Silver Star recipient, and a Medal of Honor winner. He was so popular among the people that he was strongly uyrged to run for President in 1952, but he refused.A personality as big as MacArthur needed a star as big to portray him. Up until 1977 MacArthur had been played by Dayton Lummis (1955) and Henry Fonda (1976), and subsequently by Laurence Olivier (1981) and Daniel von Bargen (1995). But it was only Gregory Peck who did the job right.Gregory Peck is a film icon, ranked #12 on the AFI list of Greatest Male Actors. He won an Oscar for "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) and was nominated 4 more times ("Twelve O'clock High", "Gentleman's Agreement", "The Yearling", "The Keys of the Kingdom"). He was nominated for an Emmy in 1998 for the TV film "Moby Dick" for which he won the Golden Globe. He had two other Golden Globe nominations ("The Boys from Brazil", "MacArthur"). He made 57 films, starting in 1944.Nicolas Coster (1933) plays MacArthur's aide. Coster works mostly on TV and is probably best known as the Chancellor from "3rd Rock from the Sun" (1998-9). He had a recurring role on "Santa Barbara" (1984-93) along with Marj Dusay who plays MacArthur's wife in this film.Marj Dusay (1936) is primarily a TV performer, Dusay was nominated twice for an Emmy ("All My Children" and "Guiding Light").Ed Flanders (1934-95) plays President Truman. Flanders played Truman in a 1976 TV special and won the Emmy. Flanders was nominated 7 times for an Emmy and won 3 times, for this film, "A Moon for the Misbegotten" (1975) and "St Elsewhere" (1982).Dan O'Herlihy (1919-2005) plays President Roosevelt. O'Herlihy received an Oscar nomination for "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1954). He moved easily between TV ("Twin Peaks", "Colditz") and films ("RoboCop", "The Last Starfighter").The film is directed by Joseph Sargent (1925). Sargent has 8 DGA nominations for his work on TV and won 3 times ("Kojak", "Something the Lord Made", and "Warm Springs"). He also had 9 Emmy nominations and 4 wins. Sargent has made nearly 100 films, but mostly TV movies. For the big screen he made less than a dozen films, including this film and "Jaws: The Revenge" (1987).Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004) provides an excellent musical score. Goldsmith was nominated for an Oscar 18 times and won once ("The Omen"), and for an Emmy 7 times with 5 wins ("Star Trek:Voyager", "Masada", "Babe", "QB VII", "The Red Pony").He was responsible for 252 compositions over 50+ years.Producer Frank McCarthy (1912-86) did only 6 films, but they included "Patton" (1970) for which he won an Oscar. McCarthy was a retired Brigadier General who worked as an aide to General Marshall in WW 2.The big block busters in 1977 were "Star Wars", "Close Encounters", "The Rescuers", "Saturday Night Fever", and "The Goodbye Girl". "Annie Hall" picked up 3 Oscars (Picture, Director, Actress) and "Julia" picked up two (Supporting Actor, Actress). Other notable films that year were "Equus", "Eraserhead", "New York. New York", and "Smokey and the Bandit". Several war films came out in 1977 - "A Bridge Too Far", "Soldier of Orange", and Peckinpah's "Cross of Iron" focused on WW 2 and "Twilight's Last Gleaming" , "The Spy Who Loved Me", and "Telefon" were the spy films.One can't help but compare the two generals - Patton and MacArthur as well as the two films. Both men were Generals, served in WW 1 and WW 2, held commanding positions in their respective theatres of war, ruled their conquered territories after the war, and were known for great strategic maneuvers. Both were controversial and both ultimately were removed from command at some point for their differences with their commanders. The films, however, are much different with Patton clearly focused on the General's personality and MacArthur attempting a much more ambitious biography."Patton" won 7 Oscars (Actor, Picture, Director, Sound, Art Direction, Editing, Writing) and was nominated for 3 more. George C. Scott also won a Golden Globe. "MacArthur" received no Oscar nominations and Peck was nominated for a Golden Globe but lost to Richard Burton. "Patton" was #4 in the box office with $28,000,000 and "MacArthur" at $16,000,000 was not in the top 10."MacArthur" is clearly one of the best film biographies of famous American military figures. Included in my own list of top picks would be "Patton", Burgess Meredith's portrayal of Ernie Pyle in "The Story of GI Joe" (1945), John Wayne's portrait of Spig Wead in "Wings of Eagles" (1957), "Sergeant York" (1941), Errol Flynn's portrait of Custer in "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941), Spencer Tracy's portrait of Robert Rogers in "Northwest Passage" (1940).This is an excellent film, wonderfully photographed, with a great musical score. Peck manages to capture the many sides of a complex character, and this is one of our finest portraits of a military leader.