The 1977 war bio-pic “MacARTHUR” in many ways harks back to the Golden Era of great war films made in the forties actually during WWII by such studios as Fox, RKO and MGM where the matte artist and visual effects cinematographer really had such a dominant part in the proceedings that such pictures wouldn’t have been possible without them. If you look back at sensational visual effects efforts such as “THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO”, “BATAAN” and A YANK IN THE RAF” to name but a few the entire narrative was at the beck and call of great supervisors such as Fred Sersen, Arnold Gillespie, Donald Jahraus, Vernon Walker and John Fulton. Well “MacARTHUR” is no different, even with the 35 year time gap, producer Frank McCarthy and director Joseph Sargent realised that to produce such a chronicle of events surrounding the heroic and sometimes arrogant biographical events of the titled General Douglas MacArthur on a moderate budget matte wizardry was the only answer. Thankfully the film was a Universal Studios property and as such the film makers inherited the studios’ resident master of the matte shots and trick cinematography Albert Whitlock who came to the fore with an astonishing number of superb oil painted destruction scarred battlefields, battleships at sea, post Nagasaki scenes of mass destruction and even scenes involving the White House where permission could not be granted. Director Sargent had worked previously with Whitlock on the seminal 1969 ‘what if’ thriller “COLOSSUS- THE FORBIN PROJECT” from which Whitlock truly delivered the goods, with astonishing scenes of frightening technology and fictional defence department locales…
Please Note: Now that I am all caught up with Matte & Effects Films Celebrated, I am going further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more great articles from this great site.
This blog is intended primarily as a tribute to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the craft of the matte painter during Hollywoods’ Golden Era. Some of the shots will amaze in their grandeur and epic quality while others will surprise in their ‘invisibility’ to even the sophisticated viewer. I hope this collection will serve as an appreciation of the artform and both casual visitors and those with a specialist interest may benefit, enjoy and be amazed at skills largely unknown today.
