History Film / FiftyFiveDaysAtPeking

1963 EpicMovie about the Siege of the International Legations during the Boxer Rebellion in the waning days of ImperialChina. The movie primarily focuses on three fictional characters -- U.S. major Matt Lewis (Creator/CharltonHeston), British minister Sir Arthur Robertson (Creator/DavidNiven), and Russian baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Creator/AvaGardner) -- as they struggle to hold out against the Boxers and have various personal issues.

!!Tropes:

1963 EpicMovie about the Siege of the International Legations during the Boxer Rebellion in the waning days of ImperialChina. The movie primarily focuses on three fictional characters -- U.S. major Matt Lewis (Creator/CharltonHeston), British minister Sir Arthur Robertson (Creator/DavidNiven), and Russian baroness Natalie Ivanoff (Ava Gardner) -- as they struggle to hold out against the Boxers and have various personal issues.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Modern Spanish viewers often see the presence of a Spanish ambassador and legation in the film as the movie makers [[ExecutiveMeddling pandering to]] UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco for [[BackedByThePentagon logistical support]]. While there was ''some'' of that, it is true, however, that there was a Spanish legation among the besieged, and that Spain was one of the signatories of the peace treaty with China as a result,[[note]]In fact, the treaty itself was written by Spanish ambassador Bernardo Cólogan, because he was the eldest among the foreign ambassadors[[/note]] even though Spain wasn't in a position to send troops to China right after losing the Philippines in the SpanishAmericanWar.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The movie loosely follows the real history of the Siege of the International Legations. Heston's character is loosely based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Twiggs_Myers John Twiggs Myers]] and Niven's on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Maxwell_MacDonald Claude Maxwell MacDonald]]. Perhaps the most notable deviation from the real story is the portrayal of the western powers (plus Japan) actively choosing to stay at the International Legations in order to make some kind of principled stand. In real life, they were more than willing to get the hell out of there, but couldn't because the countryside was swarming with Boxers.

The movie was a TroubledProduction and an almost literal CreatorKiller. Director Nicholas Ray (he who gave us ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'') collapsed on the set and had to be replaced, first by Andrew Marton (co-director of ''Film/TheLongestDay'') and later Guy Green. Ray's career never recovered. Charlton Heston hated Ava Gardner, later describing her as ThePrimaDonna who showed up on-set drunk, constantly demanded rewrites and argued with Ray and the other directors. Heston worked with her again in ''{{Film/Earthquake}}'' anyway. The script was constantly being rewritten during filming, with some of the stars bringing in ''their own screenwriters'' to rework their scenes.

To top it all off, the film was a BoxOfficeBomb, which was very bad because, as you'll know if you've seen the totally epic action sequences, this movie was ''freakin' expensive''. Perhaps this was karma for the film's deplorable use of {{Yellowface}} for basically every Chinese character with lines. Nevertheless, the film has [[VindicatedByCable found a life on cable]].

The movie was a TroubledProduction and an almost literal CreatorKiller. Director Nicholas Ray (he who gave us ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'') collapsed on the set and had to be replaced. His career never recovered. Charlton Heston hated Ava Gardner, later describing her as ThePrimaDonna. He worked with her again in ''{{Film/Earthquake}}'' anyway. To top it all off, the film was a BoxOfficeBomb, which was very bad because, as you'll know if you've seen the totally epic action sequences, this movie was ''freakin' expensive''. Perhaps this was karma for the film's deplorable use of {{Yellowface}} for basically every Chinese character with lines. Nevertheless, the film has [[VindicatedByCable found a life on cable]].

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Eight-Nation Alliance, natch. The movie tries oh so hard to pretend putting down the Boxer Rebellion wasn't ''really'' about imperialism. Instead, it was about honor or... maintaining peace or... something. Whatever, it sounds credible when you say it in a RousingSpeech with David Niven's accent.

* NationalAnthem: At the beginning, the camera pans around the foreign compound to establish all the countries present by showing them raising their flags, each with a band playing the accompanying anthem. Notably, the raising of the American flag is set to "To the Colors", accurately reflecting the fact that "The Star-Spangled Banner" had not yet been adopted as the national anthem. We also hear the old "God Save the Tsar!" anthem as the Russian tricolor is raised. [[BookEnds A similar scene occurs at the end]], showing how the atmosphere of international unity has disappeared without the Boxers providing a common enemy.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Modern Spanish viewers often see the presence of a Spanish ambassador and legation in the film as the movie makers [[ExecutiveMeddling pandering to]] FranciscoFranco for [[BackedByThePentagon logistical support]]. While there was ''some'' of that, it is true, however, that there was a Spanish legation among the besieged, and that Spain was one of the signatories of the peace treaty with China as a result,[[note]]In fact, the treaty itself was written by Spanish ambassador Bernardo Cólogan, because he was the eldest among the foreign ambassadors[[/note]] even though Spain wasn't in a position to send troops to China right after losing the Philippines in the SpanishAmericanWar.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: Modern Spanish viewers often see the presence of a Spanish ambassador and legation in the film as the movie makers [[ExecutiveMeddling sucking up to]] FranciscoFranco for [[BackedByThePentagon logistics support]]. While there was ''some'' of that, it is true, however, that there was a Spanish legation among the besieged, and that Spain was one of the signatories of the peace treaty with China as a result,[[note]]In fact, the treaty itself was written by Spanish ambassador Bernardo Cólogan, because he was the eldest among the foreign ambassadors[[/note]] even though Spain wasn't in a position to send troops to China right after losing the Philippines in the SpanishAmericanWar.

And yes, Peking is Beijing. See WhyMaoChangedHisName to find out why this movie wasn't called "''55 Days at Beijing''".

* TranslationConvention: Near the beginning of the film, Major Lewis teaches his Marines to say a few words in Chinese. This appears to have been a waste of time since all the Chinese characters speak English anyway, even when no westerners are present. It's a similar case with the Russians, Germans, Japanese, Italians, French, and Austrians.

* TranslationConvention: Near the beginning of the film, Major Lewis teaches his Marines to say a few words in Chinese. This appears to have been a waste of time since all the Chinese characters speak English anyway. The same goes for the Russians, Germans, Japanese, Italians, etc.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The movie loosely follows the real history of the Siege of the International Legations. Heston's character is loosely based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Twiggs_Myers John Twiggs Myers]] and Niven's on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Maxwell_MacDonald Claude Maxwell MacDonald]]. Perhaps the most notable deviation from the real story is the portrayal of the western powers (plus Japan) choosing to stay at the International Legations in order to make some kind of principled stand. In real life, they wanted to get the hell out of there, but couldn't because the countryside was swarming with Boxers.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The movie loosely follows the real history of the Siege of the International Legations. Heston's character is loosely based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Twiggs_Myers John Twiggs Myers]] and Niven's on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Maxwell_MacDonald Claude Maxwell MacDonald]].

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Technically averted, as the Boxers really did carry out the sort of attacks on civilians shown in the film. However, the whitewashing given to the other side makes them look worse in comparison.

The movie was a TroubledProduction and an almost literal CreatorKiller. Director Nicholas Ray (he who gave us ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'') collapsed on the set and had to be replaced. His career never recovered. Charlton Heston hated Ava Gardner, later describing her as ThePrimaDonna. He worked with her again in ''{{Film/Earthquake}}'' anyway. To top it all off, the film was a BoxOfficeBomb, which was very bad because, as you'll know if you've seen the totally epic action sequences, the movie was ''freakin' expensive''. Perhaps this was karma for the film's deplorable use of {{Yellowface}} for basically every Chinese character with lines. Nevertheless, the film has [[VindicatedByCable found a life on cable]].

* SensualSlavs: Baroness Natalie Ivanoff

The movie was a TroubledProduction and an almost literal CreatorKiller. Director Nicholas Ray (he who gave us ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'') collapsed on the set and had to be replaced. His career never recovered. Charlton Heston hated Ava Gardner, who was ThePrimaDonna according to him. To top it all off, the film was a BoxOfficeBomb, which was very bad because, as you'll know if you've seen the totally epic action sequences, the movie was ''freakin' expensive''. Perhaps this was karma for the film's deplorable use of {{Yellowface}} for basically every Chinese character with lines. Nevertheless, the film has [[VindicatedByCable found a life on cable]].

The movie was TroubledProduction and an almost literal CreatorKiller. Director Nicholas Ray (he who gave us ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'') collapsed on the set and had to be replaced. His career never recovered. Charlton Heston hated Ava Gardner, who was ThePrimaDonna according to him. To top it all off, the film was a BoxOfficeBomb, which was very bad because, as you'll know if you've seen the totally epic action sequences, the movie was ''freakin' expensive''. Perhaps this was karma for the film's deplorable use of {{Yellowface}} for basically every Chinese character with lines. Nevertheless, the film has [[VindicatedByCable found a life on cable]].

The movie was Troubled Production and an almost literal CreatorKiller. Director Nicholas Ray (he who gave us ''Film/RebelWithoutACause'') collapsed on the set and had to be replaced. His career never recovered. Charlton Heston hated Ava Gardner, who was ThePrimaDonna according to him. To top it all off, the film was a BoxOfficeBomb, which was very bad because, as you'll know if you've seen the totally epic action sequences, the movie was ''freakin' expensive''. Perhaps this was karma for the film's deplorable use of {{Yellowface}} for basically every Chinese character with lines. Nevertheless, the film has [[VindicatedByCable found a life on cable]].