55 Days at Peking (1963 )

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55_Days_at_Peking



55 Days at Peking


55 Days at Peking is a dramatization of the Battle of Peking during the Boxer Rebellion which took place in 1900 China. Fed up by foreign encroachment, the Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi uses the Boxer secret societies to attack the foreigners within China, culminating in the siege of the foreign legations' compounds in Peking (now Beijing). The film concentrates on the defense of the legations from the point of view of the foreign powers, and the title refers to the length of the defense by the colonial powers of the legations district of Peking.

The foreign embassies in Peking are being held in a grip of terror as the Boxers set about massacring Christians in an anti-Christian nationalistic fever. United States Marine Corps Major Matt Lewis heads an army of multinational soldiers and Marines defending the foreign compound in Peking.

Inside the besieged compound, the British ambassador gathers the beleaguered ambassadors into a defensive formation. Included in the group of high-level dignitaries is the sultry Russian Baroness Natalie Ivanoff, who begins a romantic liaison with Lewis. As the group conserves food and water while trying to save hungry children, it awaits reinforcements, but Empress Tzu Hsi is plotting with the Boxers to break the siege at the compound with the aid of Chinese troops.

Eventually, the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance arrive to lift the siege over the legations district and put down the rebellion, an event which foreshadowed the demise of the Qing Dynasty.

The Chinese are depicted in accordance with western prejudices of the times: ridiculously long-nails, speaking in (almost) inscrutable phrases, and fundamentally inferior to westerners. Most of the Chinese, including the Empress Dowager and her Prime Minister are played by white performers. The Japanese are barely mentioned or seen, but when they are they are "civilized" and fight alongside the Europeans and Americans.