Inchon (1981, Laurence Olivier, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Gazzara, Toshiro Mifune, Richard Roundtree) – Classic Movie Review 11,651

‘LOVE. DESTINY. HEROES. War Changes Everything’

Director Terence Young’s 1981 epic war film Inchon re-creates the Battle of Inchon during the Korean War and is reputedly one of the most expensive films and one of the biggest movie loss-makers of all time, at a cost of $46 million against receipts of $5 million. It stars Laurence Olivier, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Gazzara, Toshiro Mifune and Richard Roundtree.

It was financed by the Unification Church (Moonies) under its leader the Rev Sun Myung Moon, the film’s executive producer, who said he wanted to show General Douglas MacArthur’s spirituality and connection to God and the Japanese people. The film’s producer Mitsuharu Ishii, a Japanese newspaper publisher, was a senior member of the Japanese branch of the Unification Church and a friend of Moon. Though credited as Special Advisor on Korean Matters, Moon contributed $30 million to Ishii’s film production company One Way Production and the Unification Church also paid the film’s entire $11 million promotion budget.

An aged and infirm Laurence Olivier, no less, seems very uncomfortable playing General Douglas MacArthur, who is seen here as guided from above during his way to victory in the Korean War. The Rev Moon was also apparently guided from above to make the movie, and Ishii also said he was instructed by God to make the film.

In the story, MacArthur leads the US surprise amphibious landing of UN troops at Seoul’s port town of Inchon in September 1950, leading to the American victory over North Korean forces in the Battle of Inchon that saved South Korea.

There is an extremely poor script by Robin Moore and Laird Koenig, but at least the huge budget paid for impressively big battles with amazing hardware. Film critic Rex Reed co-stars as Longfellow, and Jacqueline Bisset looks even more uncomfortable than Olivier, playing Barbrara Hallsworth, the wife of US army Major Frank Hallsworth (Ben Gazzara).

Olivier was awarded the 1982 Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actor, while the film  took the 1982 Razzies for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay, and Young’s direction earned him a tie for Worst Director of 1982.

It runs 140 minutes but the cut version runs at only 105 minutes.

It was filmed in South Korea, California, Italy, Ireland and Japan.

It was beset with endless production problems, including labour issues, the US military withdrawing its support because of the film’s Unification Church connection, weather and natural disasters, including a typhoon, customs difficulties, expensive filming mistakes, the death of a cast member, and original director Andrew McLaglen quitting. When filming overran, Olivier insisted on getting his bonus salary in weekly cash payments in briefcases full of money flown to the location by helicopter.

The cast are Laurence Olivier as General Douglas MacArthur, Jacqueline Bisset as Barbara Hallsworth, Ben Gazzara as Major Frank Hallsworth, Toshiro Mifune as Saito, Richard Roundtree as Sergeant Augustus Henderson, David Janssen as David Feld, Namkoong Won as Park, Karen Kahn as Lim, Rex Reed, Gabriele Ferzetti, Sabine Sun, Dorothy James, Lydia Lei, James T Callahan, Rion Morgan, Anthony Dawson, Peter Burton, John Pochna, William Dupree, Grace Chan and Mickey Knox.

Olivier explained: ‘Nothing is beneath me if it pays well. I’ve earned the right to damn well grab whatever I can in the time I’ve got left.’ The 72-year-old Olivier, in poor health, suffered during filming in Seoul because of the summer heat.  Young recalled that Olivier lay on a cot between takes, almost immobile with pain and exhaustion, but when needed ‘he dropped 50 years and stepped forward without complaint’. Olivier had been told MacArthur’s voice sounded like W C Fields and tried to imitate it.

Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score, recorded at Rome’s Forum Studio in July 1980, and even that was troubled – the studio was not large enough for his orchestra, and room noise made by the players and their equipment affected the tracks. However, Goldsmith liked his score, a chance to ‘create interesting music out of a bad situation’.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,651

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Olivier in Love Among the Ruins.