''MacArthur'' is a 1977 American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Joseph Sargent Joseph Sargent (born Giuseppe Danielle Sorgente; July 22, 1925 – December 22, 2014) was an American film director. Though he directed many television movies, his best known feature-length works were arguably the action movie '' White Ligh ...

and starring Gregory Peck in the eponymous role as American General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.

Plot

The film portrays MacArthur's ( Gregory Peck) life from 1942, before the

Battle of Bataan The Battle of Bataan ( tl, Labanan sa Bataan; January 7 – April 9, 1942) was fought by the United States and the Philippine Commonwealth against Japan during World War II. The battle represented the most intense phase of the Japanese inva ...

in World War II, to 1952, after he had been removed from his

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

command by President

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

(

Ed Flanders Edward Paul Flanders (December 29, 1934 – February 22, 1995) was an American actor. He is best known for playing Dr. Donald Westphall in the medical drama series ''St. Elsewhere'' (1982–1988). Flanders was nominated for eight Primetime Emm ...

) for

insubordination Insubordination is the act of willfully disobeying a lawful order of one's superior. It is generally a punishable offense in hierarchical organizations such as the armed forces, which depend on people lower in the chain of command obeying ord ...

. It is recounted in flashback as MacArthur visits

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

in 1962.

Cast

* Gregory Peck as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur *

as President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

* Dan O'Herlihy as President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

Ivan Bonar Ivan Eugene Bonar (October 31, 1924 – December 8, 1988) was an American character actor whose career in Hollywood, in films and television, spanned four decades, from the mid 1950s into the 1980s. Life and career A vaunted character actor, B ...

as Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland * Ward Costello as General of the Army

George C. Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry ...

* Nicolas Coster as Colonel Sidney Huff *

Marj Dusay Marjorie Ellen Mahoney Dusay (; née Mahoney; February 20, 1936 – January 28, 2020) was an American actress known for her roles on American soap operas. She was especially known for her role as Alexandra Spaulding on ''Guiding Light'', a role ...

as Mrs.

Jean MacArthur Jean Marie MacArthur ( Faircloth; December 28, 1898 – January 22, 2000) was the second wife of U.S. Army General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. Early life and education Born Jean Marie Faircloth in Nashville, Tennessee, she was the da ...

* Art Fleming as W. Averell Harriman *

Russell Johnson Russell David Johnson (November 10, 1924 – January 16, 2014) was an American actor. He played Professor Roy Hinkley in ''Gilligan's Island'' and Marshal Gib Scott in '' Black Saddle''. Early life Johnson was born in Ashley, Pennsylvania, o ...

as Fleet Admiral

Ernest J. King Ernest Joseph King (23 November 1878 – 25 June 1956) was an American naval officer who served as Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during World War II. As COMINCH-CNO, he directed the Un ...

Sandy Kenyon Sandy Kenyon (born Sanford Klein; August 5, 1922 – February 20, 2010) was an American actor of film and television. He appeared as a guest actor on numerous television series, including a recurring role on ''The Americans''. He was also the orig ...

as Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright *

Robert Mandan Robert Mandan (February 2, 1932 – April 29, 2018) was an American actor, best known for his roles as Sam Reynolds on ''Search for Tomorrow'' (1965–1970), Chester Tate, the womanizing businessman husband of Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond ...

as Representative Martin *

Allan Miller Allan Miller is an American stage, film, and television actor. Biography Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Anna (née Diamond) and Benedict Miller. He served in the U.S. Army after World War II during the occupation of Jap ...

as Colonel LeGrande A. Diller *

Dick O'Neill Richard Francis O'Neill (August 29, 1928 – November 17, 1998) was an American stage, film and television character actor best known for playing Irish cops, fathers, judges and army generals. He began his acting career as an original company ...

as Major General

Courtney Whitney Major General Courtney Whitney (May 20, 1897 – March 21, 1969) was a lawyer and United States Army commander during World War II who later served as a senior official during the American occupation of Japan (1945–1951). He played a major r ...

* G. D. Spradlin as Major General Robert L. Eichelberger *

Addison Powell Addison Powell (February 23, 1921 – November 8, 2010) was an American actor whose numerous television, stage and film credits included ''Dark Shadows'', '' The Thomas Crown Affair'' and ''Three Days of the Condor''. He was best known for playi ...

as Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz *

Garry Walberg Gerrit Christian Walberg Jr. (June 10, 1921 – March 27, 2012) was an American character actor primarily known for his work on television. He performed in numerous TV shows from the early 1950s until the early 1990s, including ''Johnny Staccat ...

as Lieutenant General

Walton Walker Walton Harris Walker (December 3, 1889 – December 23, 1950) was a United States Army four-star general who served with distinction in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, where he commanded the Eighth United States Army before dyin ...

James Shigeta James Saburo Shigeta ( ja, 繁田三郎) (June 17, 1929 – July 28, 2014) was an American actor of Japanese descent. He was noted for his roles in '' The Crimson Kimono'' (1959), '' Walk Like a Dragon'' (1960), ''Flower Drum Song'' (1961), ...

(''

deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...

s'') as General Tomoyuki Yamashita

Production

Gregory Peck said, "I admit that I was not terribly happy with the script they gave me, or with the production they gave me which was mostly on the back lot of Universal. I thought they shortchanged the production."

Historical inaccuracies

* In a meeting in

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

between President Roosevelt, Admiral Nimitz, and MacArthur to discuss East Asian strategy, MacArthur points to Lingayen Gulf in Western Luzon, calling it Leyte Gulf and referring to it as the site of his re-entry to the Philippines. The Battle of Leyte Gulf and the

Battle of Leyte A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

, which included MacArthur's first return to Philippine soil on 20 October 1944, were in the Visayas, in

Central Philippines The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands ( Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; tl, Kabisayaan ), are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central part of the archipelago, i ...

. The

Invasion of Lingayen Gulf The Invasion of Lingayen Gulf ( fil, Paglusob sa Golpo ng Lingayen), 6–9 January 1945, was an Allies of World War II, Allied Amphibious warfare, amphibious operation in the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Philippines during World War II. In t ...

, with MacArthur making a similarly-dramatic landing in the main island of Luzon, occurred on January 9, 1945. * On the ship's stateroom wall of the Roosevelt, Nimitz, and MacArthur meeting on Pearl Harbor is a painting of the . However, it was commissioned only on 22 July 1945 and so was not used for World War II. However, it won five battle stars during the Korean War. * The uniform of the Soviet Lieutenant General Kuzma N. Derevyanko is erroneously presented with the shoulder boards of a Soviet senior lieutenant instead of a lieutenant general. * The Japanese surrender of World War II scene aboard shows the battleship's 40 mm quad guns covered (mothballed) during the movie. * When MacArthur and his aides are planning the U.N. landing at Inchon in 1950, they review a map of the Korean peninsula which shows the current armistice line dividing the two Koreas. That line was not established until 1953. Their map should have been showing the original line at the 38th parallel.

Reception

''MacArthur'' received mixed reviews, it currently holds a 63% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. The film is recognized by American Film Institute in the following lists: * 2003: AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains: **

General Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...

– Nominated Hero

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:MacArthur 1977 films 1970s biographical drama films 1970s war films American biographical drama films American war films Biographical films about military leaders 1970s English-language films Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Films directed by Joseph Sargent Films set in 1942 Films set in 1943 Films set in 1944 Films set in 1945 Films set in 1946 Films set in 1947 Films set in 1948 Films set in 1949 Films set in 1950 Films set in 1951 Films set in 1952 Films set in Japan Films set in the Philippines Films shot in California Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New York (state) Korean War films Pacific War films Films with screenplays by Matthew Robbins Universal Pictures films World War II films based on actual events Films about Douglas MacArthur Cultural depictions of Franklin D. Roosevelt Cultural depictions of Harry S. Truman 1977 drama films Japan in non-Japanese culture 1970s American films