All nations have their heroes, but few of them are of interest to residents of other countries, and such is the case with General MacArthur. The name's familiar, but the details of his life are not, and to be honest I still don't know a lot more about the man MacArthur than I did before watching this over-long drama, which focuses on only a decade or so of his life. Peck plays the General in his usual wooden style, when you'd expect the man to be a little more larger than life. He's depicted as a supreme strategist who clashes with his President during the Korean war, and while the film appears to sympathise with him, it also portrays him as something of an egotist, obliquely comparing himself to the likes of Alexander, Napoleon and Caesar (at one point we actually see him wrapped in towels, toga-style). We learn virtually nothing of his personal life, nor of the earlier events in his life which surely must have shaped him into becoming the finished article we see on the screen.
Review of MacArthur
