Emperor (2012)

 

            “Emperor” is a historical drama directed by Peter Webber.  It was his first film in 5 years.  He needs to get a better agent.  I’m not sure what motivated him to end his hiatus to make this film.  But I am much more perplexed as to what convinced the producers to make this film.  Don’t get me wrong, the more war films the better as far as I’m concerned.  But there are so many better topics that have not gotten off the bench, I wonder how a movie with virtually no potential box office gets put in the game.  For instance, how does this movie get made and “They Marched into Sunlight” sits in developmental hell.  Come on, Tom Hanks, get off your ass!  But I digress.  Let’s see if “Emperor” is a good movie even though no one was interested in seeing it. 

 

            After the Japanese surrender, Gen. MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) arrives in Japan to begin the occupation.  He brings Brigadier General Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox) to handle the arresting of war criminals.  Fellers narrates the film and is clearly sympathetic toward the Japanese people and the Emperor in particular.  MacArthur gives him ten days to determine whether Hirohito should be charged.  Fellers interviews high Japanese officials like Tojo to see if they can provide exoneration for the Emperor.  Meanwhile, in a subplot, Fellers is trying to find out if his pre-war Japanese girl friend Aya is still alive.  Queue the flashbacks.  These two efforts interweave.  In the last reel, a mustache-twirler is thrown in who accuses Fellers of being a Jap-lover who steered a bombing raid away from Aya’s home town.  The suspense is supposed to be building towards a decision by MacArthur that anybody watching this movie would already know.

 

            I guess I’ve already telegraphed that I was not impressed with this movie.  I’m glad it was green-lit, but the script did not defy my premonition that it would be boring.  As I’ve said, any historically literate viewer already knows that Hirohito was not put on trial.  The movie tries to overcome the lack of suspense by giving us an insider’s view of how the process worked.  But even that is not suspenseful because it is clear MacArthur does not want to try the Emperor and he has appointed a man who is simpatico with that.  It is interesting to see the interviews with various Japanese officials, including Tojo, who was put on trial and executed.  However, the movie does not debate whether Hirohito was a war criminal.  Every witness exonerates him.  Perhaps this was done for Japanese box office. 

 

            The romance is there just to take up time and appeal to female moviegoers.  There is no heat as Fox gives an inexplicably wooden performance.  The flashbacks are mundane and the payoff is weak.  Jones is much better as MacArthur.  He’s got the personality down pat.  Unfortunately, he is a secondary character.  Jones does not have to do much heavy lifting as he often plays roles like MacArthur.

 

            How is the movie when it comes to accuracy?  It does not start well as it leads with footage of the bombing of Hiroshima.  Except that the footage is of “Fat Man”, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.  What follows is acceptably true to the facts.  There was a Gen. Fellers who was in charge of exonerating the Emperor.  He is an interesting figure.  In 1940, he was in Egypt with the job of reporting on British efforts in the war with Rommel.  He had some ‘splainin to do as his reports were intercepted and deciphered by the Germans.  They got heads up about British forces and their movements.  It was a intelligence disaster and possibly cost many British lives.  In his defense, he was not a double agent and he did complain about using the less secure diplomatic code instead of the military one.  The British were not thrilled to learn that he was given the Distinguished Service Medal for his reports.  He ended up in the Pacific as MacArthur’s Chief of Psychological Operations.  He wrote a series of memoranda arguing against putting Hirohito on trial.  In Operation Blacklist, MacArthur put him in charge of getting witnesses to exonerate the Emperor.  The fix was in, but the movie is more ambiguous about that.  He did such a good job that in 1971, Hirohito presented him with the Second Order of the Sacred Treasure (the equivalent of the Presidential Medal of Freedom).  Do I need to tell you that the romance was fictional? Fellers had been happily married for twenty years at the time of the movie.

 

            I can only recommend “Emperor” to history buffs who want a behind-the-scenes look at the handling of the Emperor after WWII.  Although I feel it is definitely a war movie, it is not appealing to war movie fans.  Watch “Judgment at Nuremberg” or “Downfall” instead.

 

GRADE  =  C