Canadian surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune (Donald Sutherland) journeys 1,500 miles into China to reach Mao Zedong's eighth route Army in the Wu Tai mountains where he will build hospitals, provide care, and train medics. Flashbacks narrate the earlier events of his life: a bout with tuberculosis at the Trudeau sanatorium; the self-administration of an experimental pneumothorax; the invention of operative instruments; his fascination with Socialism; a journey into medical Russia; and the founding of a mobile plasma-transfusion unit in war-torn Spain. Bethune twice married and twice divorced his wife Frances (Dame Helen Mirren), who chooses abortion over child-rearing in her unstable marriage. By 1939, Bethune had been dismissed from his Montreal Hospital for taking unconventional risks, and from his volunteer position in Spain for his chronic problems of drinking and womanizing. As his friend states: "China was all that was left." Even there, Bethune confidently ignores the advice of Chinese officials until heavy casualties make him realize his mistake and lead him to a spectacular apology.
1935年秋,红军经过长征后抵达陕北。9月末,张学良(金安歌 饰)出任西北剿匪总司令部副司令,率东北军奉命剿共,无奈战事不利,三个月内折损三师。同时陕西绥靖公署主任、后西北军领袖杨虎城(辛静 饰)厌倦连年内战,萌生退意,所部与红军呈互相观望态势。蒋介石(孙飞虎 饰)在东北军严重损耗的情况下未予及时支持,这让按蒋命令放弃东北、失土失地背负五年骂名的张学良失望莫名,张遂主动接触红军方面,并经过与杨虎城的反复试探,三方达成抗日统一战线的共识。1936年秋,蒋介石挥军北上,同时亲临西安督战,在面临剿共与分调的选择下,张、杨二人决定兵谏蒋介石抗日,此即不久后震惊中外的“西安事变”。本片获1982年中国电影金鸡奖最佳导演、最佳男配角、最佳化妆奖。1981年华表奖。