Inchon Reviews

One of the worst films of all time, this recounting of the Inchon landing during the Korean War comprises mostly mismatched action shots. Amidst tanks, troops, and explosions, Laurence Olivier essays the role of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in a cheap wig, latex chin, and putty nose, using a W.C. Fields-like speech pattern (recommended by one-time secretary of state Alexander Haig, who claimed MacArthur sounded like the great comedian). Not surprisingly, the story behind the making of INCHON is infinitely more interesting than the film. Determined to finance a movie, Unification Church leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Japanese newspaper publisher Mitsuharu Ishii considered the lives of Jesus and Elvis Presley as suitable subjects before settling on the Inchon landing. Using psychic Jeanne Dixon as an intermediary, Ishii then endeavored to consult MacArthur himself and was assured that the late general was behind the project 100 percent. Dixon also chose the film's director, Terence Young (DR. NO; FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE; THUNDERBALL). Shot on location, the film was beset with myriad problems, from bad weather to Jacqueline Bisset's laryngitis to political difficulties between the Korean government and the Unification Church. Later participants in the project stampeded to disavow any knowledge of the "Moonie" money that was behind the $50 million film, which took in only about $1.9 million in the US and Canada.