Gregory Peck lends an air of authenticity as Gen. Douglas MacArthur in this film. "MacArthur" covers the apex of the career of one of the most famous American wartime commanders. Gen. MacArthur, like Gen. George S. Patton, was one of the few outspoken commanders in wartime whose views and comments often clashed with those of their leaders or the President. Without exception, these outspoken generals were excellent military commanders, brilliant tacticians, very well read and knowledgeable about their enemies, and insightful about the future. This film takes us from the start of World War II to Pres. Harry S. Truman's removal of Gen. MacArthur from his command during the Korean War. It's interesting that the film doesn't come right out and say that MacArthur is being sacked. Probably many of the younger generations by the end of the 20th century wouldn't know that piece of history, if they even know much about MacArthur. As a biopic, the film's focus is more on MacArthur's military strategy and political savvy, than on his wartime command. So, it has just small segments of combat here and there. On that score, it doesn't equal the military biopic, "Patton." Still, this is a very good film about one of the great military minds and leaders of America. A broadcast reporter is on the scene for the New York ticker tape parade (April 2, 1951) given for Gen. MacArthur on his return to America. The reporter says, "I've never seen anything like it. The entire city has come out to celebrate the return of America's greatest hero. Officials estimate from 7 to 10 million people are here on hand, and that surpasses Lindberg and Eisenhower's homecomings put together."A favorite scene is in the retaking of the Philippines. MacArthur is in a jeep going to check the front lines. A corporal stops him at the front lines and says the only thing ahead is a forward patrol. MacArthur tells the driver to proceed. The corporal says, "I don't believe it. That's the first I've ever seen a commander-in-chief take the point." And, another GI near him says, "Yeah, he's the greatest general since Sergeant York."In the film, MacArthur talks to the press, and he addresses the U.S. Congress and the cadets at West Point. Here are some quotes. For more, see the Quotes section on the IMDb Web page for this film.Gen. MacArthur, "How did Shakespeare put it? A general's wife is the general's general." Gen. MacArthur, "I requested permission to bomb the Yangtze bridges to keep the Chinese out of Korea. They said, 'You might bomb the southern half of the bridges only.' In my 50 years of military service, I have never learned how to bomb half a bridge."Gen. MacArthur, "For the first time in military history, a commander has been denied the use of his military power to safeguard the lives of his soldiers and the safety of the Army. It leaves me with a sense of irrepressible… shock." Gen. MacArthur, on appeasement in Korea, "This isn't war. It's half war. It's an immoral compromise with evil." In response to a question from the press about Korea, Gen. MacArthur says, "I couldn't substitute my policy for Mr. Truman's, because Mr. Truman doesn't have a policy."Gen. MacArthur, to the U.S. Congress, "But once war has been forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very objective is victory, not prolonged indecision. In war, there can be no substitute for victory. For history teaches us, with unmistakable emphasis, that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and increasingly greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only alternative." Gen. MacArthur, "The magnificence and the courage and fortitude of the Korean people defies description. They have chosen to risk death rather than slavery." Gen. MacArthur, "I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day… 'Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.'" Mrs. MacArthur on Dwight Eisenhower's GOP nomination for president in 1952, "What kind of president do you think he's gonna make?" Gen. MacArthur, "I think he'll make a fine president. He was the best clerk who ever served under me." Gen. MacArthur, to the West Point cadets, "Today marks my final roll call with you. I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the corps… and the corps… and the corps. I bid you farewell."

The movie "MacArthur" begins and ends at Gen. Douglas MacArthur's, Gregory Peck, Alma Mata the US Military Academy of West Point on the Hudson. We see a frail 82 year old Gen.MacArthur give the commencement speech to the graduating class of 1962 about what an honor it is to serve their country. The film then goes into an almost two hour long flashback on Gen. MacArthur's brilliant as well as controversial career that starts in the darkest hours of WWII on the besieged island of Corregidor in the Philippines in the early spring of 1942.Told to leave he island for Australia before the Japanese military invade it Gen. MacArthur for the very first time in his military career almost disobeys a direct order from his superior US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dan O'Herlihy. Feeling that he'll be deserting his men at their greatest hour of need MacArthur reluctantly, together with his wife and young son, did what he was told only to have it haunt him for the reminder of the war. It was that reason, his escape under fire from death or captivity by the Japanese, that drove Gen. MacArthur to use all his influence to get FDR two years later to launch a major invasion of the Philippians, instead of the island of Formosa, to back up his promise to both the Philippine people as well as the thousands of US POWS left behind. That he'll return and return with the might of the US Army & Navy to back up his pledge!In the two years up until the invasion of the Philippine Islands Gen. MacArther battered the Japanese forces in the South Pafific in a number of brilliantly conceived island hop battles that isolated and starved hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops into surrender. The General did that suffering far less US Military losses then any other allied commander in the War in the Pacific! It was in 1950/51 in the Korean War that Gen. MacArthur achieved his most brilliant victory as well as his worst military defeat. After outflanking the advancing North Korean Army in the brilliant and perfectly executed, with the invading US Marines suffering less then 100 casualties, back door or left hook invasion of Inchon Gen. MacArther feeling invincible sent the US/UN forces under his command to the very border, along the Yalu River, of Communist Red China. Told by his subordinates that he's facing the threat of a massive ground attack by Communist Chinese troops Gen. MacArthur pressed on anyway until that attack did materialized cutting the US & UN forces to ribbons. The unstoppable wave after wave of attacking Red Chinese troops forced the US/UN forces to retreat in the "Big Bug Out" of 1950 with their very lives, leaving all their equipment behind, across the North Korean border even abandoning the South Korean capital city of Seoul! This turned out to be one of the biggest military disaster in US history with the US forces losing a record, in the Korean War, 1,000 lives on the very first day-Nov. 29/30 1950-of the Communist Chinese invasion!Shocked and humiliated in what he allowed, due mostly to his own arrogance, to happened MacArthur went on the offensive not against the advancing Communist Chinese and Noth Koreans forces but his own Commander and Chief Pres. Harry S. Truman, Ed Flanders, in him not having the spin or guts to do what has to be done: Launch a full scale invasion of Communist China with nuclear weapons if necessary to prevent its troops from overrunning the Korean Peninsula! For Pres. Truman who had taken just about enough garbage from Gen. MacArthur in him running off his mouth in public in how he was mishandling the war in not going all out, like MacArthur wanted him to, against the Red Chinese this was the last straw! On April 11, 1951 Pres. Truman unceremoniously relived Gen. MacArthur from his command as Supreme Commander of the US/UN forces in Korea! Pres. Truman's brave but very unpopular decision also, by not going along with MacArthur's total war strategy, prevented a Third World War from breaking out with the Soviet Union-Communist China's ally- who at the time-like the US-had the Atomic Bomb! Pres. Truman''s controversial decision to dump the very popular Gen. MacArthur also cost him his re-election in 1952 with his polls numbers so low-in the mid 20's- that he withdrew-in March of that year- from the US Presidential Campaign!In was Gen. MacArthur's misfortune to be around when the political and military climates in the world were changing in how to conduct future wars. With the horrors of a nuclear war now, in 1950/51, a reality it would have been national suicide to go all out, like Gen. MacArthur wanted to, against the Red Chinese with it very possibly touching off a nuclear holocaust that would engulf not only the US USSR & Red China but the entire world! It was that important reality of future war that Gen. MacArthur was never taught, since the A and H Bomb weren't yet invented, in West Point.Back to 1962 we can now see that Gen. MacArthur, after finishing his commencement speech at West Point, had become both an older and wiser soldier as well as , since his retirement from the US Military, elder statesman in his feeling about war and the utter futility of it. One thing that Gen. MacArthur was taught at an early age, from his Civil War General dad Douglas MacArthur Sr, that stuck to him all his life was that to a soldier like himself war should be the very last-not first-resort in settling issues between nations. In that it's the soldiers who have to fight and die in it. It took a lifetime, with the advent of the nuclear age, for Gen. MacArthur to finally realize just how right and wise his dad a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, like himself, really was!

I looked forward to this film because Gregory Peck was a terrific actor and Douglas MacArthur was an incredibly complex and fascinating man. Unfortunately, while the movie looks very nice and Peck seemed to do a good job, the film did not seem to give that many insights into who MacArthur was nor was it a particularly thorough film about his life.The first thing that struck me was that the film started just after WWII began. In fact, the film ended up only covering the period of early 1942 until just after his dismissal in 1951 for insubordination. What about the other 74 or so years of his long and illustrious life?! Now I do understand that Peck couldn't play a younger MacArthur because he wasn't a young man when he took this role. Unfortunately, however, there were some incredibly important events that fall into this missing time period--such as when MacArthur, on his own, attacked the so-called "Bonus Army" in 1932, his service in Mexico and WWI as well as his personal life (the film shows his wife, but this was his second wife--what about the first?). Plus, following his removal from power in 1951, the man lived another 13 years--what about them? As a result, the film comes off as rather superficial and very incomplete.The other problem, and this actually was more serious for me, is that the character of MacArthur was tough to discern. Other than showing him as a bit of a publicity hound and a dedicated man, who was MacArthur? The only really good insight into him was that the film seemed to indicate that his clash with Truman appeared to be due to BOTH men being strong-willed--an interesting interpretation. Yes, you briefly saw his second wife and son and you could see that he loved them...but what else? Now these two problems make this film a relatively mediocre biopic. Sadly, the film did have some very nice aspects. Peck did a great job--as I'd expected. Also, the WWII and Korean segments were done well for the most part. I could nitpick because of the extensive use of grainy stock footage or the sailor on the deck of the USS Missouri in 1945 who is wearing very modern (circa 1977) glasses--but this is pretty unimportant.For a person who has little knowledge of MacArthur, this is a worthwhile film. For ex-history teachers and WWII buffs like myself, it was pretty much a waste of time--I could have learned a lot more from a TV show about the man. Perhaps the problem was insurmountable in a movie, however, and a mini-series would be the only way to do this amazing man's career justice. There's just too much stuff to cover for a 130 minute film.

Unlike Patton, Pershing, Grant or Eisenhower, MacArthur is a many sided character and Peck played the part as I believe MacArthur really was. The positive PR version produced by the U.S. Army in the l940's or the negative liberal press version of the l950's are very limited in their understanding of this great man. I have always believed that MacArthur was a turn of the century progressive much like Teddy Roosevelt, at the same time both imperial and caring, who lived past his time into the l960's. His tactical decisions were unmatched by any general in our history. His speeches rival those of William Jennings Bryan or Patrick Henry and I'm sure many wish we could send him and his administrative skills to Iraq to put that mess back together. In the years since his death a small cult has grown up around his memory much like Robert E.Lee and to some his words are almost mystical. He was a major player in one way or another in WWI, the depression, WWII, Korea and if you count his death-bed plea to President Johnson to get our troops out of Vietnam, even the Vietnam War. If you want to stretch things even farther, he can be tied to turn of the century imperialism and the Spanish-American War through his part in the Philippine Insurrection following the Spanish-American War and if you must, the Indian Wars which he experienced as a small boy with his parents. He has been described as a conservative, a liberal, a militant and a pacifist. How could one man be so much a part of the 19th century and believe in war only between individuals(like Custer and Crazy Horse) or as in feudal times yet advocate A-bombing China? He is always described as arrogant and overly dramatic but like Grant he wore a simple 2nd Lieutenant's uniform with five stars on the shoulder minus all the medals that the "G.I. generals" wore. I believe his love for the people of Asia was sincere and in this was he was like Alexander or Caesar. We are fortunate Gregory Peck did play MacArthur as such a complex individual. To focus only on the Five-Star General with the corn-cob pipe is to miss the the big picture. No wonder Patton is so easy to watch compared to MacArthur. I have seen the movie at least 15 times and am still moved by it.