MacArthur [HD]

"duty, honor, country"
Those that are interested in General Douglas MacArthur, and admire his qualities of courage and fortitude, will find this film fascinating; it is beautifully filmed, with marvelous re-creations of the mid 20th century, and the battle scenes are very well done.
The speeches alone are a glory to listen to, full of passion for "duty, honor, and country", and the words are so exquisitely crafted they are like the finest prose.
The film starts and ends in MacArthur's beloved West Point, on a blustery day, as he speaks to the cadets, and is among the many memorable scenes; others are the landing on Layte, and the signing of Japan's surrender, on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, which is a fabulous re-staging of the historic event.

Gregory Peck gives a monumental portrayal of MacArthur; it is nuanced and brilliant, and from the old film clips I have seen of General MacArthur, subtly captures his posture and movement, with his many different pipes. This film is one of...

Gregory Peck tries to make sense of Douglas MacArthur
The 1977 film "MacArthur" is well aware that there were two sides to the controversial military leader Douglas MacArthur, and you can almost see the makers of this film flipping a coin to decide which side Gregory Peck gets to show in the next scene. On the one hand there was the brilliant military strategist and leader who directed Allied forces in the Pacific against the Japanese in World War II and for the first half of the Koran War. On the other hand that was the vain and egotistical man who selected official photographs with as much care as he plained invasions and attacks. Most of the credit in this film goes to Peck's performance in making these two diverse sides fit together for the most part.

The contrast between the two is probably best captured in two scenes involving Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright (Sandy Kenyon), who was left behind in command of the Philippines when FDR ordered MacArthur to get to safety in Australia. Even though he promises MacArthur he...

Great Gregory Peck Perfomance Is Crippled By Poor Screenplay
The 1977 film of MacArthur is worth watching for the towering performance of Gregory Peck as General Douglas MacArthur. Peck considered this one of his favorite roles and fought with the producers over the screenplay and editing of the film -- and fought he should have because those very flaws kept this movie from being a great film.

MacArthur lead a long, dramatic and heroic life during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. As a vain and brilliant military genius who believed in his own destiny, the movie focuses on the decade 1942-1952. The film feels like MacArthur's greatest hits: the set pieces of Bataan, "I shall return", his rulership of Japan, the Inchon landing in Korea, "The Old Soldier" speech before Congress and so forth WITHOUT pulling the various scenes together into a coherent whole. According to Peck, the original three hour version fleshed out MacArthur more before it was edited down to the 130 minute commerial version.

Without prior...

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