
During the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur masterminds the amphibious invasion of Inchon in September 1950.... (Full plot summary below)
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During the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur masterminds the amphibious invasion of Inchon in September 1950.
Leave your thoughts about Inchon.
| Washington PostGary ArnoldThe most obvious and abiding defect displayed by Inchon is a ramshackle form of story construction in which the desire to fit The Little Picture inside The Big Picture achieves only wholesale trivialization. |
| User ReviewSean CThe biggest flop in film history lives up to its shitty reputation. Olivier has never been this awful. I'm not surprised Reagan liked this crap. It feels more like a made for TV "epic." |
| User ReviewCharles PInchon: The Unification Church's Battlefield Earth. Scientology member John Travolta's epic science fiction film Battlefield Earth based on the novel of scientology founder L.Ron Hubbard, is notorious for being a bad movie and a box office flop. Battlefield Earth is said to be John Travolta's pet project to glorify L.Ron Hubbard. It was not the first time an epic film was produced with the involvement of believers of a controversial religion. In 1981 the Korean war movie Inchon was released. Directed by Terence Young it deals with the battle of Inchon, a battle that is considered to be the turning point of the Korean war. The film was financed by Sun Myung Moon of the notorious anti-communist christian organisation the Unification Church, through one of his companies One Way Productions. Moon not only financed the movie but also served as a special consultant. Inchon had budget of $ 46.000.000 and starred among others Laurence Olivier as general Douglas MacArthur and Jacqueline Bisset as a United States Major's wife who has to flee from Korean village when the communists invade while she is shopping for furniture. Although imdb doesn't state any box office revenue, the movie is considered to be a flop. Of course there are plenty of differences between Battlefield Earth and Inchon. Inchon is based on a true historical battle and Battlefield Earth is not. Also the message of Inchon is much clearer than in Scientology. Which could be because Inchon had a more direct involvement of the church than Battlefield Earth, which is more L.Ron Hubbard fanfiction than a propaganda piece. Although it lacks the gore like in movies as Men Behind The Sun, it shows the communists of North Korea clearly behaving as the bad guys. In Battlefield Earth it is not clear, what the story has to do with the specifics of the Scientology religion. Is it as bad? I have to admit that I didn't think Battlefield Earth wasn't that bad. Although I'm not a hardcore science fiction fan and/or a continuity error fundamentalist. Some aspects of Battlefield Earth were unrealistic, but it didn't matter much to the story. A science fiction film for me is a form of entertainment not something that has to be scientific accurate. As for Inchon: The entertainment factor really under the slow pace of the story. The subplot isn't intresting or enjoyable and doesn't add anything to the story. I think is supposed to be a heart warming story where an American woman safes 5 cute little asian kids. The part of the movies where General MacArthur lays out his plans are very pretentious and bombastic "The plan will succeed because God is on our side". The action scenes are alright, although it uses a lot of stock footage. But don't expect any blatant scenes like the more obvious blatant propaganda movies like Men Behind The Sun: The Rape of Nanking. As for the historic value. It still isn't clear to me how the battle of Inchon was one. Something with a white american and a black american stabbing an North Korean watch soldier to death and rigging a light house. As a propaganda piece? The movie doesn't really appeal to the emotions of the viewer. For the rest, it depicts the North Korean as the bad guys. But I would consider that most of the target audience already saw the North Koreans as the bad guys. The war crimes depicted in the movie are pretty random: north korean soldiers shooting in a crowd of civilians. Which is of course bad, but the crowd is too anonymous to feel emition about them. |
| User ReviewAlan PTerrence Young's Inchon has had the reputation of being one of the worst films ever made in the history of the medium. Is this movie as bad as its reputation suggests, it's not, but it is a mediocre war film with below average performances. The film is quite inaccurate and is dull and boring. This could have been a better film, one that should have been exciting and action packed. Inchon was a great success during the Korean War. I think this as a poor effort in telling of this legendary feat of military strategy. The acting is bland, and no one really stands out. This had the potential of being a grand war film by the likes of Patton, Saving Private Ryan and other WWII epics. Unfortunately it flopped big time, and you can clearly see why. The script is lacking of effective ideas to really make it a stand out film, and the cast seem bored with the material. The Inchon landing was impressive and the story behind Douglas MacArthur's dedication of his plan is truly legendary. In the movie, the invasion is quite exciting, and it stands out as the best thing about this film. The film overall has little to none interesting content, and it's a great shame because this should have been a classic. However it is remembered for only one thing, that it is among the biggest of cinema's flops. Inchon is a misfire, but like I said, the invasion sequence is entertaining, and the part of the movie where it picks up. However it's too little too late, and it doesn't make this one worth checking out. Go into this one expecting nothing remarkable. In the long run, this picture is forgettable. |
| User ReviewAlex KI Don't Like Critically Panned Films. |
| User ReviewMichael TI saw this last night (18/06/2010) at a friend's place; he had acquired a bootleg DVD of this film (which looked like it was copied from a VHS tape of a television broadcast of this film). The film had a brief run in the theatres back when it was released, received some of the worst reviews since HEAVEN'S GATE (1980) and quickly disappeared from movie theatres in Canada and the USA. Heck, I had forgotten seeing trailers for it on TV back in the day until author Dennis Sauter reminded me of this film's existence in his 1996 book (What Were They Thinking?) The Worst Movies Of All Time. One of the most interesting things about this film was that it was financed by two millionaires; one a Japanese financier and the other a South Korean religious leader. Yes, Reverend Sun Yun Moon sank roughly 8-10 miliion dollars into this film and made back about 2 million. No wonder the Moonies declined in the 1980s. Moon hoped to use the profits of this film to male a movie about the life of Jesus. It had a decent director in Terrance Young and good all-star cast. What went wrong? In a word, everything. Laurence Olivier portrays famous U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in a scenary-chewing performance worthy of Vincent Price. And what was the deal with his eyebrows, they look painted on like a Japanese Kabucki artist. Richard Roundtree never really gets to kick North Korean butt in his role as a combat Marine (and he seems too hip and 1970ish for a recently integrated 1950 U.S. military); David Janssen is long-winded and boring and his exposed chest hair screamed for gold chains; Ben Gazzara and Jacqueline Bisset actually try to act in this mess. Moon and many South Koreans have an affinity for Doug MacArthur; he planned the Inchon landing that cut off North Korea's army and he forced the North Koreans back across the 38th Parallel. The movie hints that the Truman administration cruelly put Doug out to pasture after he saved South Korea. What the forget to mention is that Doug was fired by Truman after he stupidly blundered too close to the Chinese border and ended up almost losing the war to Mao's forces when they entered the war...The film itself is almost laughably bad, but don't look for an official DVD release anytime soon. |
| User ReviewHarry WIn the shocking movie, General MacArthur (Laurence Olivier) takes command of the American involvement of the Korean War, while wearing makeup that makes him look like a clown. In South Korea, sporadic presence of white people (Jacqueline Bisset and Ben Gazzara) somehow make the translation barrier between the foreigners and residents very easy. The bombs are constantly exploding without any meaning throughout this renegade garbage and the Americans are considered all that. Terrible film that is both incoherent and unintentionally laughable includes abysmal script, dialogue, and special effects. Embarrassing for Olivier (who as I understand was the verge of senility during this wreck) and everyone else sucks as well (I loathed alleged hero Gazarra and actually wanted him to die). Funny there are not that many movies to show the battle front of the Korean War. Perhaps everyone was turned off by this junk. |
| User ReviewJonathan OWatching it right now! Pretty awful but its funny awful! Can't even understand what some of these characters are saying. |