Sean and Cody return to China and the widescreen, stereophonic, you-definitely-can’t-see-this-on-TV epic cinema of the early 1960s as they delve into this Nicholas Ray-directed 1963 spectacle about the Yihetuan uprising of the late 19th century, known by imperialists as the Boxer Rebellion. In 55 Days at Peking, an enclave of colonial sahibs led by the dapper Sir Arthur (David Niven) and grizzled U.S. Marine Matt Lewis (Charlton Heston) seem bewildered to find themselves under siege by the 100 million or so Chinese who have inexplicably grown tired of Western powers stealing everything in their country that isn’t nailed down. When a Chinese fundamentalist sect in groovy red turbans attacks the foreign compound in Beijing, the Westerners fight desperately to win the day, and the eyeballs of viewers who might otherwise be home watching I Love Lucy. Environmental issues discussed include the ecological collapse of China in the late 1800s, the worst flood in recorded history, the environmental impact of Confucian family planning, and the awareness—or obliviousness—of Westerners to the environmental havoc they create when adventuring in faraway lands.
What was the so-called “Boxer Rebellion” and why is everything Westerners think know about it, including its name, a distortion? How can a movie whose plot is entirely based on an environmental disaster manage to avoid mentioning the environment for its entire 2½ hour run time? Why was the British East India Company the most evil corporation in history? What were the Opium Wars about, and why were they even worse than their name suggests? How did Confucius manage to screw up China’s environment centuries after he was dead? What were the contents of Charlton Heston’s pithy “note to self” that he wrote after making this film? Why did filmmakers always go to Spain in the 1950s and ‘60s to make big-budget historical epics? How did director Nicholas Ray become the most egregious victim of bisexual erasure in Hollywood? What 1964 picture is Ridley Scott’s Gladiator an uncredited remake of, and was the original better than the remake? Why would a remake of 55 Days at Peking/Beijing be the biggest picture of all time, Titanic for a new generation, and why hasn’t Hollywood (and Beijing) jumped on it? All these questions are ready to storm the walls of the Legations in this big budget epic episode of Green Screen.
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