55 days at Peking

Pékin, 1900. La révolte des Boxers prend de l'ampleur et les autorités chinoises sont divisées : le général Jung-Lu presse l'impératrice Tzu-Hsi d'arrêter les fanatiques, tandis que le prince Tuan lui conseille de les aider à chasser les étrangers. Face à la menace de conflit, les délégations étrangères organisent leur défense. Le major Matt Lewis arrive à Pékin à la tête d'un détachement chargé de protéger l'ambassade américaine. Il y rencontre la baronne Nathalie Ivanoff et l'ambassadeur britannique, Sir Arthur Robertson. Le 20 juin, le siège du quartier des ambassades commence. Il durera 55 jours; les 55 Jours de Pékin. 55 Days at Peking is a dramatization of 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. U. S. 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 Lewis and the group conserve food and water and try to save some hungry children, they await the arrival of expected reinforcements, but the wily Empress Tzu Hsi is, in the meantime, plotting with the Boxers to break the siege at the compound with the aid of Chinese troops. Eventually however, the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance arrive and lift the siege over the legations district and put down the rebellion, an event which foreshadowed the demise of the Qing Dynasty.