MacArthur: The American Experience (DVD)
WGBH
APPROX. 240 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1999 - MPA RATING: NR
" Does a good job of capturing both the ups and downs and presenting both the admirable and less-than-praiseworthy sides of MacArthur.
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Say what you will, but WWII was an era of celebrity military leaders—personalities that captured people's imaginations and hearts every bit as much as they captured territories. And the three who captured the most press were Field Marshall Erwin "The Desert Fox" Rommel, Gen. George S. Patton, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur, son of a Medal of Honor-winning general, was first in his class at West Point, the most decorated American soldier of WWI, and the Army's youngest officer to make Major General. But he's known to us mostly for three newsreel clips and headlines from WWII and the Korean conflict: Promising some 70,000 American soldiers and Filipinos he was forced to abandon, "I shall return"; wading ashore with his trademark corn-cob pipe to liberate the Philippines; and, after Truman fired him for his handling of the Korean War, returning to a bigger ticker-tape parade and hero's welcome than Ike got.
As a youth, I loved history, but I always thought the textbooks skimped on photos. The producers of the PBS "American Experience" apparently felt the same way. Shows like "MacArthur" are driven by a nonstop parade of vintage clips, not talking heads. And the storylines juxtapose odd and interesting facts that add an exclamation point to historical events.
This two part, two-disc, 240-minute biography begins with one of those fascinating facts that comes full circle later in the film. MacArthur's earliest childhood memory was hearing the bugles at Fort Sultan, New Mexico, where his father had been sent to launch a counterattack against Geronimo. Later, when we hear how MacArthur's son, Arthur, spent his first four years in Manila and considered it home, we can't help but think back to four-year-old Douglas growing up in a western fort commanded by his father. And when we hear how the President was ordering a haughty and arrogant Gen. MacArthur home from the Philippines, we can't help but think back to his father experiencing the same thing and for the same reasons. History does repeat itself, whether it's a pair of Bush's and a pair of Iraq wars, or a pair of MacArthurs and two separate stints as chief military representatives in the same Asian nation.
What's fascinating is that this biography subtly probes the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Do people achieve greatness because of their personalities, or does the call to greatness shape those personalities so they can rise to the occasion? We're told that every night before Douglas was tucked in bed, his mother told him he was "destined for greatness." No wonder he continued to live with Mom, even into his fifties. But the closeness to his mother isn't laid out on the table like a folded hand of cards. The facts (and the vintage photos and film clips) are presented pretty matter-of-factly, leaving us to make some of the connections. Other connections and insights are provided by historians (chief among them Stephen Ambrose) and people close to the general, including several of his aides who confirm MacArthur's arrogance and self-interest.
More than other documentaries, those in the American Experience series seem to come up with more facts that surprise you—offering a history behind the history books. As much as I've read and watched about WWII, I don't ever recall learning that the Army that MacArthur commanded at the start of WWII wasn't much of an Army at all—ranked 16th in the world, behind Greece and Portugal. I also don't recall hearing much about how MacArthur, who was backed by the right wing of the Republican party, was responsible for burning the tents and shelters and repelling the WWI veterans who were protesting that they hadn't been given the bonuses they were promised. I don't recall ever having read that FDR called MacArthur "one of the most dangerous men in America," and I certainly don't recall that Republicans were the driving force that kept MacArthur in power, even after his entire air force was caught unaware the day after Pearl Harbor and destroyed while still on the ground. Any other man would have been replaced, but he was the great Republican hope who was being groomed for the Presidency . . . with the biggest irony (and hardest pill to swallow) that a man who never led a charge, a man who served under him as his aide would instead get the nod: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
