Midway is a 1976 Technicolor war film directed by Jack Smight and produced by Walter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford.^[2][3] The music score was by John Williams and the cinematography by Harry Stradling, Jr. The film features an international cast of superstars including Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshirō Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, James Shigeta, Pat Morita, Robert Ito and Christina Kokubo, among others.

The soundtrack used Sensurround to augment the physical sensation of engine noise, explosions, crashes and gunfire.

Plot[link]

The film chronicles the Battle of Midway, a turning point in World War II in the Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Navy had been undefeated until that time and out-numbered the American naval forces by four to one.

The film follows two threads, one centered around the Japanese chief strategist Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Toshirō Mifune), and the other around fictional characters, Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston), an American naval officer who is involved in various phases of the US planning and execution of the battle and Garth's son (also a pilot involved in the battle) is romantically involved with Haruko Sakura (Christina Kokubo), an American-born daughter of Japanese immigrants, who has been interned with her parents. Garth calls in all of his favors with a long-time friend to investigate the charges against the Sakuras (apparently with success, as Haruko is free and at dockside when the injured younger Garth is carried off the ship at the end of the film)

The film starts with the Doolittle raid, and so takes place before the Battle of the Coral Sea (which is only mentioned). It depicts the creation of a complicated battle plan. Unknown to the Japanese, American signals intelligence has broken the Japanese Naval encryption codes and know ahead of time that the ambush will take place at Midway Island. American Admiral Chester Nimitz (Henry Fonda), plays a desperate gamble by sending his last remaining aircraft carriers to Midway before the Japanese to set up his own ambush.

Successful in saving Midway, but at a heavy cost, Nimitz reflects that Yamamoto "had everything going for him", asking "were we better than the Japanese, or just luckier?"

Background and production[link]

The film was shot at the Terminal Island Naval Base, Los Angeles, California, the U.S. Naval Station, Long Beach, California and Pensacola, Florida. The on-board scenes were filmed in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the USS Lexington. The Lexington, an Essex-class aircraft carrier, was the last WW2-era carrier left in service at that point, although the ship was completed after the battle. She is now a museum ship at Corpus Christi, Texas.

Scenes depicting Midway Island were filmed at Point Mugu, California. "Point Mugu has sand dunes, just like Midway. We built an airstrip, a tower, some barricades, things like that," said Jack Smight. "We did a lot of strafing and bombing there."^[4]

A PBY-6A Catalina BuNo 63998, N16KL, of the Confederate Air Force, was used in depicting all the search and rescue mission scenes.

It was the second of only four films released with a Sensurround sound mix which required special speakers to be installed in movie theatres. The other Sensurround films were Earthquake (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), and Battlestar Galactica (1978). The regular soundtrack (dialog, background and music) was monaural; a second optical track was devoted to low frequency rumble added to battle scenes and when characters were near unmuffled military engines.

Many of the action sequences used footage from earlier films: most sequences of the Japanese air raids on Midway are stock shots from 20th Century Fox's Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Some scenes are from the Japanese Toho film Hawai Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi (1960) (which also stars Mifune). Several action scenes, including the one where an A6M Zero slams into the Yorktown's bridge, were taken from Away All Boats (1956); scenes of Doolittle's Tokyo raid at the beginning of the film are from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). In addition, most dogfight sequences come from wartime gun camera footage or from the film Battle of Britain (1969).

Interestingly, cast member Henry Fonda (Admiral Nimitz) had been one of the narrators of the 1942 John Ford documentary The Battle of Midway, some footage from which was used in the 1976 film. Also appearing in the original film was Susan Sullivan, who plays Matt Garth's girl friend. Parts revolving around Heston and Sullivan were kept and added on for TV and Video. Then later movie versions dropped Sullivan to emphasize the all male cast and wartime action. The only woman who would appear in the film was Christina Kobuko as Horuko.

As with many "carrier films" produced around this time, the US Navy Essex class aircraft carrier USS Lexington played the parts of both American and Japanese flattops for shipboard scenes.

Authenticity of the combat footage[link]

The film uses real combat footage, but not necessarily of the actions portrayed. The U.S. carrier fighter-planes in the Battle of Midway were Grumman F4F Wildcats, and the film does use footage of Wildcats, flying in formation. Mention is made of the Brewster F2A Buffalo, which was employed extensively in the real battle, but no aircraft of this type are seen in the film. However, several scenes of combat action and carrier landings in the movie show the later era and visibly distinct F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair. On the Wildcat, the wings are straight and mounted midway through the fuselage. The Hellcat is very similar, but with the wings mounted much lower (under the fuselage), another distinctive feature is the F6F's 'Smile', while the Corsair, in contrast, has inverted gull-wings. In combat, stock Spitfire and Hurricane images from Battle of Britain were used to make up for the Wildcats and Buffaloes.

All the scenes of American single-engined bombers flying in formation are of SB2U Vindicators (actually in use at that time), so that the famous attack by Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8), made in Douglas TBD-1 Devastators, is depicted by Vindicators in formation, but with SBD Dauntlesses making the actual attack. The sole survivor, ensign George H. Gay, Jr., is then seen crashing into the ocean, using footage of a single-seater Hellcat fighter. A little later, an attack by Dauntless dive bombers is portrayed by the same Vindicators in formation, but with Dauntless's making the actual attack, with a Corsair mixed in.

According to Robert Osborne, the host of the Turner Classic Movies channel, the film relied heavily on combat footage shot on color film stock which is more likely to have been shot by the U.S. Navy after the battle.^[5][6]

Other scenes include footage of German Bf 109 and He 111 aircraft which did not participate in the actual battle, possibly the result of using stock footage from the film Battle of Britain.^{[citation needed]} The film does not depict the first air attacks launched by B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-26 Marauders, and TBF Avengers. In at least one scene, an aircraft carrier is shown to have an "angled" deck, an innovation developed after the war. World War II era carriers had straight-decks.

These inaccurate depictions resulted from various limitations, including the desire to make use of contemporary color film footage, which was both rare and mostly absent with regards to the actual events being portrayed in the film. The 18-minute John Ford documentary, The Battle of Midway, was shot during the battle in color, though the footage was all shot from the island of Midway and thus offered no footage of aerial combat or naval operations. Stock footage from other theatrical films was used to augment the available wartime footage, namely from Battle of Britain and Tora! Tora! Tora! (U.S. Navy battleship masts, of which there were none in this action, are visible in certain attack scenes, borrowed from Tora! Tora! Tora!).

TV version[link]

Shortly after its successful theatrical debut, additional material was assembled and shot in standard 1.33:1 ratio for a TV version of the film. A major character was added: Susan Sullivan played Ann, the girlfriend of Captain Garth, adding depth to his reason for previously divorcing Ensign Garth's mother, and bringing further emotional impact to the fate of Captain Garth. The TV version also has Coral Sea battle scenes to help the plot build up to the decisive engagement at Midway. The TV version was 33 minutes longer than the film and was aired as a two-part special.

Part of this additional footage is available as a bonus feature on the Universal Pictures Home Entertainment DVD of Midway.

Reception[link]

Robert Niemi, author of History in the Media: Film and Television, stated that Midway's "clichéd dialogue" and an overuse of stock footage lead the film to have a "shopworn quality that signalled the end of the heroic era of American-made World War II epics." He described the film as a "final, anachronistic attempt to recapture World War II glories in a radically altered geopolitical era, when the old good-versus-evil dichotomies no longer made sense."^[7]

Cast[link]

See also[link]

• List of historical drama films
• List of historical drama films of Asia

References[link]

External links[link]

• Midway at the Internet Movie Database
• Midway at the TCM Movie Database
• Midway at AllRovi