KOREA ENCOUNTERS Revisiting 'Inchon,' Hollywood’s Korean War gamble
The poster for Inchon (1981) / Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
In 1979, Hollywood came to Korea to film “Inchon,” an epic war film about Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s famous landing during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Directed by Terence Young, who had made the first two James Bond films, and written by “French Connection” author Robin Moore, it had a star-studded cast that included Laurence Olivier, Omar Sharif, Jacqueline Bisset, Richard Roundtree, David Janssen, Ben Gazzara and Toshiro Mifune, and featured music by respected film composer Jerry Goldsmith.
Filming took place in various locations, particularly Korea in the summer of 1979. Helped by the Republic of Korea Navy, which assembled a fleet of warships, troop transports and landing craft, as well as the ROK Army, which supplied extras, Young told The New York Times that he believed the film would be a commercial success, as it would “recreate the Korean conflict with documentary detail.”
Director Terence Young and actor Jacqueline Bisset, published in The Korea Times July 13, 1979. Korea Times Archive
Film locations in Korea included Incheon, the Seoul area and a farming village near Waegwan on the Nakdong River in North Gyeongsang Province that saw an actual, disused bridge blown up. Among the extras who took part in the recreated battles were foreigners who lived and worked in Korea.
In mid-1979, Paul Courtright and Ben Bryan were Peace Corps volunteers working on tuberculosis and leprosy, respectively, who had arrived in Korea six months earlier. As Bryan told The Korea Times, “Our group was gathered in Seoul for training. I think it was Paul who mentioned to us that there was a movie being filmed somewhere in the area and extras were needed.” Courtright remembered being approached by production staff while walking in Itaewon, and that they were sent to a film site that weekend that “was in hilly country,” which Bryan remembered being a 20-minute drive from Seoul.
Ben Bryan, center, and Paul Courtright, right, in costume on the set of "Inchon" in 1979 / Courtesy of Paul Courtright
“Our friend Rob, Paul and I went together to the site, and were greeted by the film crew who provided us with a military uniform, boots, dog tags and an M-1 rifle with blanks," he continued.
As Courtright remembered, “No one gave us any information about how the clothes should look or how we should carry the rifle, let alone shoot it. We stood around not knowing what to do, without any direction.” This was because “no one seemed to be in charge. Different people were giving different instructions — people were being told to go here, do this, go there, do that.”
Finally, according to Bryan, they were “instructed to first lay down on the ground in a certain direction with our rifles in a shooting pose. Once the director said 'action,' we were instructed to jump up out of our foxhole and run with our rifles firing.”
Courtright added, “We were to run up this hill with our guns, jump into the foxholes that had been dug into the hillside and then shoot down at our attackers pursuing us up the hill. We started to run up the hill, within a few steps realizing that the nonchalant way of wearing the helmet without the strap was a mistake. My helmet was bouncing on my head, and I had to use the other hand to hold it in place as I ran.”
Bryan remembered a rather conspicuous omission from those in charge: “We weren’t told that there would be huge explosions taking place near and around us. I recall initially freaking out as several explosions went off around me, but kept running likely out of pure panic as I was firing my rifle. After about two shots, my rifle jammed, so I pretended to be shooting.”
Courtright added, “Ben’s gun jammed after a few shots and I could hear him saying, ‘bang, bang,’ which made us want to laugh. I think Rob’s gun was the next to jam — this was not going to end well.” They continued until someone shouted ‘Cut!’
As Bryan put it, “I believe we did this twice, but much of the day was spent at the site sitting idly around waiting and looking for a glimpse of Ms. Bisset. We probably spent about three or four hours there that day, and never got to see any of the big stars or actors slated for the movie.”
As it turns out, the easiest place to find the film’s cast and crew members may have been Sportsman’s Club in Itaewon. Opened only a few years earlier by Tom Casey, who had been managing U.S. military on-base sports facilities since 1968, Sportsman’s had become the hippest club in the neighborhood. Inspired by a bar of the same name Casey had seen in Philadelphia, the club offered good food, reasonably priced drinks and dancing to the latest American music played by a DJ, attracting high-ranking military personnel, diplomats and businessmen.
The cast of the film, who were staying at the Hyatt Hotel, quickly learned about the nearby club, and, as Casey told The Korea Times, “I’d have four or five at a time” visiting his establishment. He had wondered how friendly these well-known actors would be when they first found his club, but soon realized that they were “very nice …They're just like me and you.”
Tom Casey plays a soldier in a scene from "Inchon." Screenshot from YouTube
Speaking of the star of the TV show “The Fugitive,” Casey said, “All my life I wanted to meet David Janssen. He was my hero when I was in high school.”
They got to know each other, and he became acquainted with Janssen’s well-recorded habit of drinking heavily.
According to Casey, “I said, ‘David, you drink too much.’ He was drinking gin, a whole bottle every night.”
Janssen would die of a heart attack the next year, at the age of 48.
Little remembered is the fact that Aubrey Hepburn’s son, Sean, was a crew member, as was Marlon Brando’s son, Miko, who served as a production assistant. As Casey remembers of Miko, “He was a nice kid … He said ‘If my father comes out, you can have dinner with my dad.’ I said, ‘Wow.’ But he never did.”
He was also impressed by Bisset, of whom he said years ago, “She was amazing; she would effortlessly speak Italian to Gazzara one moment, French to Hepburn’s son the next, then German to somebody, then English to me,” he said. “And she was so at ease with everyone she met, foreigners and Koreans alike.”
Another regular visitor was Richard Roundtree, of “Shaft” fame, who he remembers as a “regular guy” who would “sit there all night long talking to you.” They became close enough that Roundtree invited him to his wedding the next year. “I didn’t go, but I sent him a present.”
One cast member who never visited the club was Olivier, but they did meet eventually. “You know where I met him? At the Blue House. They had a scene at the Blue House and everybody said, ‘You haven't met him yet, have you?’” Olivier was ill, as he was for much of the shoot. “He was sitting down when I shook his hand. He couldn't get up.”
Laurence Olivier appears on set during filming of the movie "Inchon," published in The Korea Times Sept. 14, 1979. Korea Times Archive
To repay Casey for hosting them, the cast arranged for him to play a small role in the movie. “I said, 'I don't need to be — for what?' They said, 'No, everyone wants you to do it,’” so he agreed. The role involved a brief conversation with Roundtree while he sat in a foxhole, though his voice was dubbed by someone with a Southern accent. As he recalled, his mother’s reaction was, “Hey, that's not Tom. Tommy didn't change that much in 15 years!”
Though production staff denied it during filming, the film had been conceived of and financed by Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. It went wildly over budget and the full, 140-minute version of the film was only shown once, at a special screening in Washington, D.C. Though then-President Ronald Reagan enjoyed the film, when it was released in September 1982, with 35 minutes cut, it was a critical and box office failure. As a result, it lost over $44 million, making it one of the biggest flops in film history.
It suffered from the same script and production issues as “Northeast of Seoul,” filmed in Korea in 1970, and the 1988 film “Ten Zan: The Ultimate Mission,” shot in North Korea. Ultimately, a few more decades would have to pass before any Hollywood hits would be filmed in Korea.
The former location of Sportsman’s Club, along with many other places in Itaewon, will be visited and stories about Itaewon’s history will be shared this coming Saturday in an excursion by Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea. Participation costs 30,000 won, or 25,000 won for RAS Korea members. Visit raskb.com for more information.
Matt VanVolkenburg has a master's degree in Korean studies from the University of Washington. He is the blogger behind populargusts.blogspot.kr, and co-author of "Called by Another Name: A Memoir of the Gwangju Uprising."