70's Universal Tells A Soldier's Story

Gregory Peck as MacArthur (1977)

Vietnam was far enough behind for Universal to manage a forbearing bio-pic of a general anti-warriors loved to hate. MacArthur's opponents, presidential and otherwise, come off as straw men in the face of Gregory Peck's commanding perf, maybe the actor's last true hurrah before "just fading away" as does his subject here (in Peck's case, from strong leads). Universal was living in a past what with this and The Sting, Gable and Lombard, W.C. Fields and Me, others using earlier 20th century setting and dress. MacArthur looks a most expensive of these, despite being US-shot with a TV director and lower-case support cast. It is mostly talk and strategy; the general's temper a barometer of conflict throughout. Roosevelt and Truman shrink before the dynamo that is Peck, his persona making MacArthur seem a natural fit. There were comparisons with Patton at the time, and more had gone to see that, maybe because it was less rote than by-the-numbers history Universal told here. I wonder if hindsight made them wish MacArthur had been done as a TV-movie instead of theatrical, it having faint air of 70's work done for the tube.