Peck delivers another grand performance in “MacArthur” 4K UHD
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Legendary actor Gregory Peck plays the controversial General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur, one of the few individuals to achieve a five-star rank, notably served in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. On September 2, 1945, MacArthur, as the Supreme Allied Commander, sealed the Japanese surrender during the ceremony on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
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“MACARTHUR”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray; 1977; PG for profanity and violence
Best extra: Commentary by filmmaker/historian Steve Mitchell and author Steven Jay Rubin
AFTER THE success of the World War II classic “Patton” (1970) starring George C. Scott as ‘Old Blood and Guts,’ producers Richard D. Zanuck and Frank McCarthy, a West Point graduate and an executive officer for General George Marshall, began the hunt for their next military biopic.
They found it in Norfolk, Virginia.
Fifteen years earlier, Norfolk officials presented General Douglas MacArthur with the idea of creating a museum and repository of the General’s papers and memorabilia. The Tidewater city, the port of the U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet, had been his mother’s hometown, the place his parents were married, and where his two older brothers were born. The MacArthur Memorial would be housed in the downtown, century-old courthouse and city hall building, with a granite front and a six-column Tuscan portico and cupola. But the city had one condition; the General and his wife Jean would need to be buried in the Rotunda of the building.
Everyone agreed, and today it houses 5,000 volumes of MacArthur’s original collection, two-million documents, 86,000 photographs, 111 motion picture films, sound records, newspapers, rare books, scrapbooks, microfilms, and is visited annually by 120,000 patrons.
(1) MacArthur delivers his “Duty, Honor, Country” address on May 12, 1962, to the Corps of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point). (2-5) Flashback: MacArthur's final days in the Philippines as Japanese forces take control. (6&7) Jean MacArthur (Marj Dusay) tells Douglas that she and their youngest son, Arthur IV, are staying with him. MacArthur says goodbye to a composite/fictionalized Filipino soldier, Castro (Jesse Dizon), before his departure on a U.S. Navy PT Boat. (8) President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dan O’Herlihy) ordered MacArthur to evacuate the Philippines in February 1942, to prevent his capture by the Japanese forces.
The motion picture “MacArthur” chronicles the five-star general’s exodus from Corregidor during the early days of WWII, return to the Philippines, Japan’s surrender, the battle plan for Korea, President Truman’s firing of MacArthur, and his famous “old soldiers never die, they just fade away,” address to the U.S. Congress.
MacArthur attended the U.S. Academy in 1899, graduated in 1903, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His first duty was in the Philippines, where his father had been military governor. In 1905, he accompanied his father, a Major General, on an official tour of Asia, visiting Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. He returned to the U.S. and served as an aide to President Theodore Roosevelt.
When the U.S. joined the fight during World War I, he was made Chief of Staff of the 42nd Division in France, and took part in some of the fiercest battles fought by the U.S. After the war, he was named superintendent at the U.S. Military Academy and is considered the father of modern West Point.
Gregory Peck gives a valiant performance as MacArthur, but the uneven filmmaking keeps the film from the glory of the seven Oscar-winning “Patton.”
Peck’s career contains a number of memorable roles including a man fighting anti-Semitism in “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), Captain Ahab in Moby Dick” (1956), and the heartfelt lawyer in “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), for which he won his only Oscar.
(1-3) MacArthur arrives in Australia in March 1942, and gives his “I came through; I shall return” speech. (4&5) MacArthur orders the New Guinea campaign to halt Japanese expansion and secure a launching point for reclaiming the Philippines. (6) In July 1944, MacArthur meets with President Roosevelt, Admiral Nimitz, and Admiral Leahy in Hawaii to determine the final strategy of the Pacific War.
During a “MacArthur” press tour interview with the New York Times, Peck said, “In a picture like this, there is a gamble and risk.” He read everything he could on the General, and talked with legendary actor Laurence Olivier, who asked him about his breathing. Olivier knew that MacArthur “wrote with flair and spoke in grand, rotund phrases. In that kind of speech, you have to have the breath to carry through to the end of the phrase. You just can’t gasp for breath in the middle.” The following year, Peck and Olivier would co-star in the post-WWII thriller “The Boys from Brazil” (1978).
In Vincent Canby’s NYT review, he wrote “MacArthur,” scripted by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, and directed by Joseph Sargent, “covers too much ground too quickly.” But gave Peck high marks, “who is remarkably good. He not only looks and sounds like a general, but he also makes the character disgracefully appealing, even when he is being his most outrageous.”
EXTRAS
The ported-over commentary with filmmaker/historian Steve Mitchell and author Steven Jay Rubin - is a great companion to the film. Originally recorded in 2021 for a UK Blu-ray by Indicator, the duo has become the go-to guys for tracks related to WWII. As Rubin says, “It’s always nice to be in the foxhole with you again.” They have plenty of stories and background on the production and MacArthur’s life.
Mitchell admits he hadn’t seen “MacArthur” since its opening in the summer of 1977. But he was excited to “revisit and discover” the film. “I still have mixed feelings [about it] but now have a certain admiration for it today.” The two mention that Peck wasn’t the producers’ first choice to play MacArthur. John Wayne was Universal’s first choice, then George C. Scott, and Henry Fonda.
(1&2) On October 20, 1944, MacArthur addressed the Filipino people by radio from a beach on the island of Leyte. (3) General MacArthur was promoted to the five-star rank of General of the Army on December 18, 1944. (4&5) On January 26, 1945, he visited the Camp O’Donnell Prisoner of War Enclosure in Capas, Tarlac. MacArthur reunites with Filipino soldier Castro.
VIDEO
Director of Photography Mario Tosi (“Carrie,” “Sybil”) captured much of the cinematography in a handheld, documentary style, mounted with filters to create a wartime haze that softened the image. Surprisingly, most of the movie was filmed in California, except for the scenes at West Point and on the deck of the USS Missouri, docked at the Navy Yard in Bremerton, Wash.
Universal Pictures handled the 4K scan of the 35mm camera negative, preserving a heavy dose of natural film grain and offering a nice resolution upgrade over the previous UK Blu-ray. There is a slight resolution drop during composite titles and dissolve sequences. The new HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading is toned slightly darker with much better highlight control than the enclosed Blu-ray, also sourced from the 4K master. Overall, the earthy colors are desaturated throughout on the 4K disc and Blu-ray.
AUDIO
The original Mono soundtrack has been remastered, as Kino/Universal ports over the six-channel DTS-HD upgrade that was originally assembled for the 2017 Universal Blu-ray. Jerry Goldsmith’s (“Planet of the Apes,” “Chinatown”) rousing orchestral score is mostly front and center. Explosions have plenty of punch.
This Kino Lorber 4K of “MacArthur” is an obvious upgrade for WWII film buffs and a good history lesson for others.
Daring, Defiant, Brilliant, Stubborn, Gallant, Glory-Hungry, Cold, Compassionate, Idolized, Despised, War-Lover, War-Hater, Supreme Commander, Supreme Egotist, Husband, Father. MacArthur — The orginial one-sheet movie poster
— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
(1&2) On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman (Ed Flanders) ordered U.S. air and naval forces to intervene in South Korea to help repel the invasion by North Korea. MacArthur led the United Nations Command during the Korean War. (3) He orchestrated the high-risk and successful amphibious landing at Inchon, which turned the tide of the war and drove North Korean forces back across the 38th parallel. (4) President Truman evidently relieved Gen. MacArthur of his command on April 15, 1951, after MacArthur sent a letter to House Minority Leader Joseph W. Martin, criticizing Truman’s decision not to expand the war into China. (5) On April 19, 1951, MacArthur delivered his famous farewell address to a Joint Meeting of Congress. “‘Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.’ And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away—an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.”
SPECS:
100 GB disc
TRUE 4K mastering
Captured on 35mm color negative film stock with spherical lens in the open matte ratio, but matted in this presentation to match the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Video bitrate: Averages in the upper 60 Megabits per second range, with a running time of 130 minutes.
Box Office: The production budget was around $9 million, and its box office topped around $16 million. The top box office film of the year was “Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope,” No. 2 was “Smokey and the Bandit,” and No. 3 was “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
HDR10 maximum light level: 2472 nit
Max frame average light level: 1395 nit
Awards: Golden Globes - nominated for Best Actor: Gregory Peck.
Rotten Tomatoes: Top Critics: 50 percent, Audiences: 58 percent.
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