Midway (1976)

Six months after the Japanese destroyed the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Americans discovered the Japanese were planning to seize the Naval base at Midway Island--a perfect staging point for invading Hawaii or the mainland. Outnumbered four to one, the Americans won a surprise victory and shattered the backbone of the Japanese Imperial Navy. This 1976 film feels more like a history lesson than a drama, but World War II buffs will appreciate the attention to historical fact (especially the way in which fate and a few bad decisions turned the tide), as well as the generous use of actual battle footage. The all-star cast includes Robert Mitchum, James Coburn, and Cliff Robertson in cameos and a whole slew of familiar TV faces in supporting roles. Hal Holbrook is fun as an oddball intelligence officer. --Geof Miller Amazon.com

WWII Movie

Movie arrived promptly and in excellent shape. All time great movie.classic movie, world war ii July 15, 2008

Midway was quite some ride!

WW2 movies abound. They vary in worth from considerable to worthless, in as far as historical value goes.

Some score high marks for entertainment value, while others stick more to the truth. I suppose which is more worthy of acclaim, depends upon what the viewer wants.

Personally, I want truthful movies, when they purport to be such. THIS IS ONE SUCH MOVIE, in my opinion. Bearing in mind that a movie that is 100% accurate is virtually impossible, this movie does exceedingly well in the truth stakes. Sadly, a few scenes are not as clear to the viewer, as might be thought desireable. These are few - happily. By paying full attention, most of the action - and the reason for it - can be followed.

One picayune point, caused by the inclusion of actual war-time film footage, is that some shots of the action are seen which have appeared in other movies. In particular are some shots shown, also, in the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! However, maybe not everyone notes such things, when they view movies.

MIDWAY was a pivotal sea battle. Of this there is no doubt. Had the Americans lost it, it is more than likely that the war in the Pacific would have lasted much, much, longer. American production capabilities, at the time, would have assured the eventual winning of the war, but that would have taken time - much time!

The movie MIDWAY does much, to show exactly how and why this battle was so pivotal. It also doesn't shirk the fact that, like almost all pivotal battles on land and sea, luck plays an important and unforeseen part - one way or another! However, it was men who made the various decisions and many of these decisions were critical to the successful outcome - for the Americans. This movie tells the story very well indeed.

In my humble view, this movie ranks in the top twenty of war movies of all time. July 5, 2008

Not a great film, but it tells the story of the battle pretty well

I watched this movie with my teenage son in order to give him a bit of history about WWII. We first watched "Tora, tora, tora" and then this film to see our response to the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is a good film, but not as good as "Tora, tora, tora".

Every movie must make choices and distort history, but the best do their best to try and tell the real story or at least give the impression of it. This movie does that and I commend them for it. However, the whole Charton Heston - Edward Albert relationship seems sort of stuck into the movie. Yes, it was good to get a statement against the Japanese Internment in (Edward Albert's character is trying to marry an American girl of Japanese descent. She and her parents are picked up and being ready for transport to a camp on the mainland.), but it just seems out of place in the battle film. I think "Tora, tora, tora's" focus on the war is a much better and stronger approach.

While most of these WWII films used newsreel footage from the war (and that makes sense), I did not like using footage from other movies. That scene of the jeep smashing into a building after a bomb goes off is obviously from "Tora, tora, tora" and is kind of embarrassing.

"Tora, tora, tora" was a joint film with Japan and used Japanese actors. Here the Japanese actors are really American and speak with American accents and that is fine. However, they also brought in Toshiro Mifune as Admiral Yamomoto. If you look at his lips, he is trying to speak English, but I suppose his accent was so out of place with all the other American accents that they had Paul Frees dub his voice. So, why have Mifune? I mean the role of an officer is one where he just looks stern, troubled, and makes decisions. I am sure there was a Japanese-American actor who could have done that role without dubbing.

But the story of the chess game, the code breaking, and the way the Yorktown was sent to sea without repairs after the battle of Coral Sea is told quite well. And for this the movie is very much worth seeing. Just overlook its flaws as much as you can and take away its strengths.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
June 24, 2008

One of my favorite movies

Movie showed up on time and in perfect condition. As much as I enjoy this movie (and have for years), the producers comments about the making of the movie were even more enjoyable and interesting then the movie itself. I will not give away any of what I learned. Also the comments were quite substantial. So I spent one evening watching the comments and another night watching the movie. June 13, 2008

A Classic WWII Movie

This movie is the best one out there to tell the story of Midway. Using real footage from the attack when possible, and some real footage that doesn't match in others and really bugs me, this movie is great overall and I recommend it to anyone. May 29, 2008

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