Goofs

MacArthur begins his "I have returned" speech on the beach with the radio receiver/transmitter next to his right ear. After the camera angle changes, the receiver is now next to his left ear.

When MacArthur is leaving the Philippines he is below deck on a PT Boat. His trench coat is totally buttoned up to his neck. The boat slows down and he immediately goes on deck. As he is shown coming on deck, his trench coat is now now open at the neck with the lapels folded back.

Shortly after MacArthur's escape from the Philippines in the spring of 1942, he complains that the President and the Chiefs of Staff are not sending him enough troops, supplies, and equipment to carry on his war against the Japanese. He says that priorities are instead being given to commanders in other theaters, including Gen Patton in North Africa. However, Patton's troops did not arrive in Africa until November 1942.

The film clip of the atomic bomb exploding in the film is obviously meant to represent either the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki (or perhaps even the first bomb test at Alamogordo). Yet the film clip used shows a United States bomb test over the ocean and these US ocean tests did not take place until well after WWII had ended.

In the invasion scene of the return to the Phillipines, the soldiers storming the beach are dressed as U.S. Marines were in WWII in the South Pacific. The invasion was an all Army show and soldiers did not routinely wear camouflage helmet covers nor leggings. This was probably done to match up actual combat footage since the Navy and Marine Corps filmed a great deal of combat footage in color.

President Truman's VC-118 aircraft (the Independence) is shown with no tail number. In fact, the number 6-505 should appear on both sides.

During the 1945 combat scenes in the Philippine Islands, several American M1 Carbines can be seen with bayonet lugs mounted under their barrels. In actuality, these lugs were not added until the Carbines were overhauled by government armories after World War II ended.

When informed of the existence of the atomic bomb MacArthur states that the news was delivered to him by an "Air Force officer". The US Army Air Corps was renamed the Army Air Force in July 1941, five months before the United States' entry into World War II, and the term "Air Force officer" was commonly used in the same context as "Infantry officer" or "Armor officer" throughout the war and long before the Air Force separated from the Army.

In the command bunker on Corregidor, MacArthur's aide, Sid Huff, knocks on the door to MacArthur's office and Ah Cheu, Arthur MacArthur's Nanny (Her name was Loh Chiu until General MacArthur changed it in her documentation to Ah Cheu - she was listed on the passenger manifest for PT 41, the boat on which the MacArthurs fled Corregidor), answers the door and incorrectly refers to Huff as "Major." At the time Huff was a Lt. Colonel and is wearing the silver oak leaves denoting that rank, and Ah Cheu immediately corrects herself and says "Colonel." This was likely written into the script to emphasize the fact that Huff had been promoted.

In the beginning of the film (and also in a briefer moment later), there are Japanese planes bombing soldiers on the field. However, you can see no bombs carried under the planes, nor being dropped from them - just a swoop of the plane and an explosion on the ground to coincide.

General George C. Kenney, MacArthur's new air commander, arrives in a B-17 bomber which is painted in a camouflage pattern never used by American aircraft during World War II.

When MacArthur has his car stop to let the Soviet military officer out, the rear projection footage behind suddenly stops moving, so that leaves on a bush which had been visibly blowing in the breeze abruptly freeze in place.

Although the film spans 20 years in General MacArthur's career (1942 to 1962), neither he nor his wife Jean show any signs of aging.

When MacArthur is talking to the Russian officer in the back of the car and the car pulls up it is obviously a projected backdrop which is made even more obvious when, just before the Russian leaves the car, the projection featuring leaves blowing in the wind suddenly stops as if someone has paused the projection.

As the mechanized troops are landing at Luzon, MacArthur clearly identifies them as the 5th Cavalry. After walking ashore and while making is radio address on the beach a red flag can be seen behind him signifying the 5th Cavalry. While clearly displaying a 5, the flag is mounted upside down so that it somewhat resembles a 2.

In the opening scene of the bombardment of the 1950 amphibious landing at Inchon, an air strike is depicted where clearly the silhouette of an F4 Phantom is shown, an aircraft that didn't enter service until 1960.

The map used MacArthur's 1950 invasion of Korea was a post-Korean War map showing the 1953 Demarcation line vs. the 38th parallel line that separated the two Koreas.

When Gen. MacArthur first meets Gen. Kenney at the airfield, the aircraft in the background are F4U Corsairs, which did not enter service until February 1943 (Gen. Kenney assumed command of Fifth Air Force in July 1942.) The national insignia on the Corsairs also dates from mid-1943.

In the exterior shot of the airplane flying MacArthur to Hawaii, the side of the airplane reads "UNITED STATES AIR FORCE". The U.S. Air Force was not created until after the war, in 1947.

When the general is going to the PT boat, the jeep he is riding in is a M38. This jeep was not used until 1949-1952.

While the credits are rolling the crew can clearly be seen running behind the marching cadets to get in place for the shots from behind that come immediately after the shot in which they are seen.

The general proposes landing at Leyte Beach "on the island of Luzon" in the movie. Leyte Beach, where the general made his famous landing in 1944, is not on Luzon but on the southern island of Leyte, some 500 miles southeast of the point the general indicates on the map. In fact, he is pointing to Lingayen Gulf, which is on Luzon, but is not where his first attack will be. It is where the Japanese staged their amphibious landing in December, 1941 (that eventually pushed down the island to Bataan, Manila, and Corregidor Island), and is where the U.S. forces came ashore in early January, 1945, after the first landings on Leyte in October, 1944.

At the conference in Hawaii, MacArthur says that the plans to land at "Leyte Beach on Luzon." He incorrectly points to Lingayen Gulf and calls it Leyte Beach. However, the first landings in the Philippines did occur on Leyte Island, not beach, which is five hundred miles from the Luzon landing beaches. The landings on Leyte Island began on October 17, 1944. The landings at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon Island began on January 9, 1945.

When MacArthur is awarded the Medal of Honor, he incorrectly refers to it as the "Congressional" Medal of Honor. Although that error is common among civilians, as a General and as the son of a Medal of Honor recipient, he should have known better.

In the strategy meeting between Pres. Roosevelt, Gen. MacArthur, and Adm. Nimitz, the General addresses the President by his first name. Even if they were old friends, as the film implies, he would never have called FDR anything other than Mr. President, especially in a formal meeting.