Inchon (sometimes stylized as Inchon!) is a 1981 war film about the Battle of Inchon, considered to be the turning point of the Korean War. Directed by Terence Young and financed by Unification movement founder Sun Myung Moon, the film stars Laurence Olivier as General Douglas MacArthur, who planned the surprise amphibious landing at Incheon, South Korea, in 1950, with Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Gazzara, Toshiro Mifune and Richard Roundtree.
Inchons plot includes both military action and human drama. The film concludes with the United Nations victory over North Korean forces in the Battle of Inchon, which is considered to have saved South Korea.
Costing $46 million, with filming taking place in South Korea, California, Italy, Ireland and Japan, the production encountered many problems, including a typhoon and the death of cast member David Janssen. Both the Unification movement and the United States military provided extras during the filming.
After premiering in May 1981, the film was not released theatrically in the United States and Canada until September 1982, and was quickly withdrawn due to its critical and box office failure. It never received a home video release, but has occasionally been broadcast on television. It incurred the greatest financial loss of any film released in 1982, earning less than $2 million against its lofty budget, resulting in a deficit of around $41 million. Reviews at the time were consistently negative, and later commentators, including Newsweek, TV Guide and The Canadian Press, have classed Inchon among the worst films of all time.
Plot The film depicts the Battle of Inchon during the Korean War, which took place from September 15 to 19, 1950, and is considered the turning point of the war. The protagonist of the film is General Douglas MacArthur, who led the United States surprise amphibious landing at Incheon in 1950.
North Korean soldiers are moving past the 38th parallel north into South Korea in June 1950. People flee to Seoul. One of the displaced people is Barbara Hallsworth, a U.S. Army major's wife who lives in a village on the 38th parallel. She is chauffeured to Seoul in a limousine, picking up five South Korean children along the way. After her chauffeur is killed, she drives them to a safe location called the Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Along the way, she shoots a North Korean soldier.
Meanwhile, Barbara's husband, Frank Hallsworth, is attempting to break off an affair with a young South Korean woman, Lim. Her father Saito is aware of his daughter's affair with Frank and does not disapprove. Frank receives word of the invasion by the North Koreans, and he travels north in an attempt to locate Barbara with the assistance of army sergeant August Henderson. August encounters Barbara and fixes her vehicle's battery, and then reunites her with Frank.
Journalists David Feld, Park, and Longfellow are attending a press conference held by MacArthur in Tokyo. MacArthur, however, does not show. He agrees with his wife Jean MacArthur that he is the only person who can rescue South Korea from the invasion by the North Koreans.
Hallsworth and Lim succeed in turning on a lighthouse to signal 261 U.S. ships, and Saito activates mines in the channel. Lim dies during the ensuing battle. The U.S. troops drive out the North Korean forces and the cheering people wave South Korean and American flags. The film proper ends with MacArthur reciting the Lord's Prayer; after this scene, a newsreel of MacArthur is shown.
Cast 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 as Longfellow Gabriele Ferzetti as Turkish Brigadier Sabine Sun as Marguerite Dorothy James as Jean MacArthur
Production Financing Sun Myung Moon formed One Way Productions in 1974, with Japanese newspaper publisher Mitsuharu Ishii as its head. Before deciding on making a war film, Moon and Ishii considered making biopics of Jesus or Elvis Presley. In 1978, psychic Jeane Dixon was consulted to communicate with the spirit of General Douglas MacArthur, and Dixon said that MacArthur's spirit endorsed the production of the film. Dixon also helped choose Terence Young, known for the James Bond films Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball to direct the film.
Inchon was financed by Moon and Ishii. Moon was involved with the film's production from the very beginning. Ishii, a member of the Unification movement in Japan and a friend of Moon, served as the film's producer; and Moon, although credited as "Special Advisor on Korean Matters", contributed $30 million to One Way Productions. Moon initially did not want the public to know that he was behind the financing of the film and its production; however, upon the film's U.S. release, Moon was identified in newspaper ads as the film's "special advisor". Ishii said he was instructed by God to make the film. Additional funding was provided by Robert Standard, the associate producer and a member of the Unification Church of the United States.
Ishii said he was a member of the Unification movement "just like a Catholic is a member of the Catholic Church and I believe Rev. Moon is very sincere about doing the Lord's work". Ishii was president of the World Daily News, which is published by Moon's media conglomerate News World Communications which also published other newspapers, including The Washington Times in the United States.
Inchon was initially budgeted at $18 million, but cost $46 million to produce. Attempts to solicit funding from Japanese banks fell through, and so the entire project was funded by Moon and the Unification Church.
In his book Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America, author and scholar of religion J. Gordon Melton noted that "Moon has attempted to project his ideas into all areas of American society" and cited Inchon as an example. Moon later said in a talk to movement members: "Why did we put so much effort into the movie Inchon? No matter what the result the motivation was for people to understand about MacArthur. I wanted to show how MacArthur loved God and loved people. MacArthur came to Japan after World War II and put the nation back together. He really respected and loved the people. He also loved God very much and fought with great strength against tyranny and communism. That is what I want the people to understand."Ocean Church and America Sun Myung Moon, 1982
Writing Ishii was inspired to write a film with an international cast after watching a South Korean dramatization of the war. He wanted the film to be an "entertaining action film", but also said he was "very interested in depicting MacArthur as a human being and I want the world to know how miserable the war was for the Korean people."
Moore commented on the writing process: "The theme I had to deal with in Inchon was too big for a movie that was less than two hours. When Toho was originally involved, they wanted a love story between an American boy and a Korean girl. My technique is to research and then fictionalize, a technique I used successfully in French Connection. But I had to fictionalize the real landing at Inchon, making it seem that a lighthouse was a pivotal factor when in fact it wasn't. I couldn't do that, which is why other writers were brought in."
Ishii instructed Moore to include an emphasis on General MacArthur's spiritualism and faith in divine guidance. He told Moore to include three separate love stories in the film, "one between two Americans, one between two Koreans, and one between an American and a Korean". Moore explained that "the love stories were supposed to tell the story of the tragedy of Korea, the tragedy of the Korean War". Ishii stated to Moore that he did not wish for the movie to turn into an "anti-Communist tract". Before the completion of the film's screenplay, the film's producers encountered difficulties obtaining an affiliation with a movie studio. Ishii said that North Korea placed pressure on Toho Studios through labor unions in Japan, requesting that the studio pulled out of its affiliation with Inchon. The labor unions criticized the film's production, saying that it was influenced by Moon and his Unification movement, in addition to the Korean CIA and was part of an effort to support the president of South Korea. Because of this criticism, Toho Studios canceled its participation in the Inchon project.
Casting Laurence Olivier was paid $1 million to play General Douglas MacArthur in the film. He was contracted for six weeks of filming, and received a payment of $250,000 upon signing the contract and the remainder was given in four subsequent installments. His salary came out to $50,000 per day. In addition to this fee, Olivier also received $2,500 per week for his expenses. Olivier was interviewed during the film's production and explained why he agreed to be part of its cast: "People ask me why I'm playing in this picture. The answer is simple. Money, dear boy. I'm like a vintage wine. You have to drink me quickly before I turn sour. I'm almost used up now and I can feel the end coming. That's why I'm taking money now. I've got nothing to leave my family but the money I can make from films. 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."
Olivier researched the role by traveling to Norfolk, Virginia to visit the MacArthur Museum, and speaking with Alexander Haig, who had served as aide-de-camp to MacArthur. Haig told Olivier that MacArthur's voice sounded like W.C. Fields, and Olivier tried to imitate this. He enjoyed working with accents and obtained recordings of MacArthur's voice. He was interested in various inconsistencies in these recordings, and especially in the difference in vowel sounds made by MacArthur. During filming, the makeup process for Olivier took two and a half hours, but after it was complete, he thought he neither looked like himself nor like General MacArthur.
The 72-year-old Olivier, who had been in poor health for years, suffered during filming in Seoul because of the summer heat. Director Terence Young recalled that between takes Olivier lay on a cot, virtually immobile with pain and exhaustion, but that when needed "he dropped fifty years and stepped forward without complaint".Laurence Olivier: A Biography, Donald Spoto, Cooper Square Press, 2001, p.393.
Richard Roundtree, known for the title role John Shaft in the film Shaft, portrayed the character of Staff Sgt. Augustus Henderson in the film. David Janssen, known for his role in television series The Fugitive, accepted a part as journalist David Feld to work with Laurence Olivier. Actress Karen Kahn portrayed Lim, the young Korean lover of Major Frank Hallsworth (Ben Gazzara) in the film. In a subsequent interview with The Press Democrat, Kahn said of the film: "It was supposed to be this Gone with the Wind. And it was the worst movie. It's in some of those worst-films-of-all-time books. After that movie I quit. I just couldn't take L.A. I was really thin-skinned. So I just got out."
Young was paid $1.8 million, Jacqueline Bisset was paid $1.65 million, Gazzara was paid $750,000, Janssen was paid $300,000, Roundtree was paid $200,000, and Rex Reed was paid $6,000 per week. Prior to Gazzara receiving the role for Frank Hallsworth, it was offered to Nick Nolte for $1.5 million. Olivier and Young later sued One Way Productions for $1 million each citing overtime.
Filming Shooting took place in Hollywood, Rome, Ireland, Tokyo and Seoul. The involvement of Moon was "adamantly denied". Moon recommended editing and reshooting changes to the film's script, which "caused the production to return to South Korea three times, Rome twice and Los Angeles twice."