Inchon(1982)

Plot Summary

• A disclaimer appears at the beginning of the film, acknowledging that it is fiction: "This is not a documentary of the war in Korea, but a dramatized story of the effect of war on a group of people. All persons other than those whose real names are used in this film are fictitious and any similarity between them and any persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Where dramatic license has been deemed necessary, the authors have taken advantage of this license to dramatize the subject."The film depicts the Battle of Inchon during the Korean War. The protagonist of the film is General Douglas MacArthur (Laurence Olivier), who led the United States surprise amphibious landing at Inchon on September 15, 1950. A subplot involves a young American couple who have problems in the mist of this war.Inchon begins with a depiction of North Korean soldiers moving past the 38th parallel north into South Korea on June 25, 1950. Residents of South Korea flee into the country's capital, Seoul. A United States Major's wife, named Barbara Hallsworth (Jacqueline Bisset), arrives in a village located 10 miles south of the 38th Parallel where she is attempting to buy antique furniture and items for her business as an interior decorator. She hears a bulletin over the radio saying: "The Communists are coming", and decides to leave the village.Meanwhile in Inchon, Barbara's husband, U.S. Major Frank Hallsworth (Ben Gazzara) is attempting to break off a secret affair with a young Korean woman (Karen Kahn). The woman's father Saito-san (Toshiro Mifune) is aware of his daughter's affair with Hallsworth and does not disapprove of it. Hallsworth receives word of the invasion by the North Koreans, and he travels north in an attempt to locate his wife with the assistance of army sergeant August Henderson (Richard Roundtree).Barbara is seen riding in a Plymouth limo driven by a chauffeur though Seoul and south to find safety. During a North Korean airstrike against a retreating column of refugees outside the city, Barbara's driver is killed, forcing her to take over driving. While crossing over a bridge over the Hangang river, Barbara encounters a group of five Korean children. Barbara decides to take the five Korean girls with her away to a safe haven across the country after Seoul falls to the Communists. She finds Henderson who gives her a pistol for protection just as the North Korean's attack the bridge. The bridge is blown up with many South Korean civilians still on it, but Barbara manages to drive away just in time.Meanwhile, David Feld Park (David Janssen), an American journalist in Tokyo, is waiting with other reporters for a press conference to begin which will be held by General MacArthur. Mr. Longfellow (Rex Reed), a second reporter awaiting the press conference, is generally a music critic by also reports on serious events developing in Tokyo. General MacArthur is at his residence in Tokyo with his wife, and does not appear at the press conference. He agrees with his wife that he is the only individual who can rescue South Korea from the communist invasion by the North Koreans.Back in South Korea, Barbara shoots and kills a North Korean soldier by shooting him between the eyes after he stops the car they are driving. A short time later, Henderson encounters Barbara again and helps fix her vehicle's battery. Henderson tells her that there is a safe location called the "Inn of the Sixth Happiness" located around 25 miles north of Pusan which Barbara agrees to take the five children to.Meanwhile, Henderson joins Major Hallsworth with a group of American soldiers in defending Tajeaon from the North Koreans, but the Americans are overwhelmed and forced to retreat with heavy losses.A little later, a group of North Korean soldiers are ambushed by a group of South Korean militia led by Hallsworth and Henderson in which Major Hallsworth kills the North Korean commander.At Pusan, General MacArthur arrives where he reveals to a group of military officers a daunting plan to land the 10th Corps at Inchon to cut off the North Korean army supply and route to Pusan as the North Koreans have trapped the US 8th Army and combined UN and South Korean armies in the southeast part of the country. Despite reluctance of many of the officers with the risky landing due to the natural barrier obstacles, they agree to the landing to be set on September 15.At Pusan, Barbara is finally reunited with her husband Frank Hallsworth after dropping off the five Korean children at the "Inn of the Sixth Happiness" which is actually a Catholic school convent called the St. Mary Catholic School. After rekindling their marriage, he tells her that he has been assigned to travel to Inchon to plan the impending landing for the 10th Corps.At Inchon on September 14, Major Hallsworth, Sergeant Henderson secretly land by raft where they meet up with Saito San and a group of South Korean men along with Lim, San's daughter and Hallsworth's extramarital lover to plan to take control of a lighthouse to guide the landing ships through the channel to the harbor to land at Inchon. During the night, General MacArthur leads an armada of 261 U.S. Navy ships to remain off-shore until the lighthouse is lit up to guide the ships through the channel.However, San tells Hallsworth to hold off on turning on the lighthouse because there are floating mines in the channel. As he and Hallsworth row out and place detonators on the mines, the lighthouse beacon finally turns on and the mines are detonated. A gun battle begins as North Korean soldiers attempt to take the lighthouse. Lim and several of San's men are killed in the battle and the lighthouse light is temporally shot out. San, despite being wounded, manages to re-ignite the lighthouse beacon and thus allows the armada of ships to sail through.At morning, a climatic gun battle takes place with the landing of the U.S. Marines. After a long and violent battle, the American troops drive the North Koreans out of the area and restore South Korean President Syngman Rhee (Kwang Nam Yang) to power. General MacArthur gives Rhee a hug, as people wave South Korean and American flags.In the final scene, we see MacArthur saying the Lord's Prayer in front of a large group reporters in Seoul in which Barbara, her husband, Sergeant Henderson and all of the characters are in attendance. After this scene, an actual newsreel of the real Douglas MacArthur is displayed of his 1951 speech before the U.S. Congress of his farewell address to the country of his retirement from the U.S. Army. The closing credits feature the waving flags of the UN, the USA, South Korea and all of the UN nations that partook in the 1950-1953 Korean war.

Storyline

• During the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur masterminds the amphibious invasion of Inchon in September 1950.