General Douglas MacArthur (Gregory Peck) is giving a speech to the cadets at West Point in 1962. Then the movie flashes back to Corregidor in 1942 Phillipines. It follows him through the war into Korean and his forced retirement by President Truman.
This is a very sincere old fashion Hollywood telling of a complex man. Gregory Peck plays him as a sensitive, commanding and resolute man with daddy issues. Historians can quibble about its accuracy but it seems to be very Peck-like. The production skimps on the budget and this is no Patton. The action is lacking and there is a lot of old footage used. They don't even use the right A-bomb footage. More troubling is the fact that the movie stops before he goes into politics. The "Old soldiers never die" speech and Eisenhower's nomination pretty much end the movie. That's the part where his name literally becomes an ism. This is strictly a beginner's guide to MacArthur probably good for a substitute teacher in high school history class to play.
This is a very sincere old fashion Hollywood telling of a complex man. Gregory Peck plays him as a sensitive, commanding and resolute man with daddy issues. Historians can quibble about its accuracy but it seems to be very Peck-like. The production skimps on the budget and this is no Patton. The action is lacking and there is a lot of old footage used. They don't even use the right A-bomb footage. More troubling is the fact that the movie stops before he goes into politics. The "Old soldiers never die" speech and Eisenhower's nomination pretty much end the movie. That's the part where his name literally becomes an ism. This is strictly a beginner's guide to MacArthur probably good for a substitute teacher in high school history class to play.