“Emperor”
The true story of General Douglas MacArthur (Tommy Lee Jones) as Supreme Commander of Japan shortly after its surrender in World War 2 and his top aid General Bonner Fellers (Matthew Fox aka “Lost” ) who is specifically charged by MacArthur to covertly investigate and bring evidence to the looming question (as America rebuilds devastated Japan) all those criminally complicit of war crimes including if the evidence shows it Japanese Emperor Hirohito's, who is worshiped by his people with reverential unquestioning God like loyalty.
So, should the Emperor be punished or saved is the prevailing plot point throughout the film, with a passionate back story of General Feller’s secret search for a mysterious Japanese school teacher he fell in love with just before the war’s start.
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The historical aspects of this story and film are fascinating, but the telling of it played out largely through the scenes of Fox’s character General Fellers falls unfortunately flat mostly because Fox seemed ill-equipped into carrying this film on his back as a leading man in my estimation.
While Tommy Lee Jones is always great at what he does, this film could of – maybe have been a bit better with a better written script and a better known counter weight Hollywood actor to play Feller against Jones’s MacArthur.
2-1/2 Stars
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