Midway (1976 film)
| Midway | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Jack Smight |
| Written by | Donald S. Sanford |
| Produced by | Walter Mirisch |
| Starring | Charlton Heston Henry Fonda Glenn Ford James Coburn Hal Holbrook Toshiro Mifune Robert Mitchum |
| Cinematography | Harry Stradling Jr. |
| Edited by | Robert Swink Frank J. Urioste |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Distributed by | Universal |
Release dates |  June 18, 1976 |
Running time | 132 min. |
| Language | English |
Midway is a 1976 war film made by the Mirisch Corporation and released by Universal Pictures . It was directed by Jack Smight and produced by Walter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford. The music score was by John Williams and the cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr.
The film stars Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Pat Morita, Robert Mitchum, Toshiro Mifune, Cliff Robertson and Robert Wagner.
Plot
The film chronicles two battles in the Pacific during World War II, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway, which decided the war in the Pacific. The Japanese Imperial Navy had been undefeated until that time and out-numbered the American naval forces by four to one.
Their chief strategist Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (played by Mifune) creates a complicated battle plan in order to ambush the few remaining American aircraft carriers after the Coral Sea battle. 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 (played by Fonda), places a gigantic bet by sending his last remaining carriers to Midway before the Japanese to set up his own ambush.
The film accurately shows how intelligence, audacity, skill and luck won the day for the Americans. A sub-plot involves an American fighter pilot and his Nisei Japanese American girlfriend, whose family has been placed in internment during the war. 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.
Background and production
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 on the USS Lexington. The Lexington, decommissioned in 1991, was the longest serving carrier in history. It is now a museum ship at Corpus Christi, Texas.
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 others being Earthquake (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), and Battlestar Galactica (1978).
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 movie "太平洋风暴 Hawai Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi" (1960). 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 Dolittle's Tokyo raid at the beginning of the film are from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). In addition, most dogfight sequences come from 1942 newsreels.
Authenticity of the combat footage
The U.S. carrier fighter-planes in the Battle of Midway and throughout 1942 were Grumman F4F "Wildcats", commonly identified by their distinct landing-gear configuration. There are numerous scenes of carrier landings in the movie and every single one depicts the Grumman F6F "Hellcat", distinguished by a different, more stable landing-gear configuration (fuselage and numerous other features are very similar to the appearance of the older F4F). The F6F was not available until 1943. There are, however, some Grumman F4F "Wildcats" planes flying in the air during the attacks on Japanese carriers that probably come from real footage scenes. During the fight over Midway the Brewster F2A is mentioned but never seen in any footage even though the F2A comprised 21 of the 28 marine fighter aircraft defending the island.
According to Robert Osborne, the host of the Turner Classic Movies channel, the film relied heavily on colored combat footage which is more likely to have been shot by the U.S. Navy after the battle (most probably between 1944 and 1945, when the F6F was the primary USN fighter in the Pacific theatre). One SBD Dauntless dive bomber (flown by Charlton Heston's character) shown to be involved in an accident with the aircraft carrier's ramp was actually shot in part during the Korean War (and was featured in "Men of the Fighting Lady". (The scene shows an SB2C "Helldiver" striking the ramp before turning into an F9F "Panther" jet fighter bomber as it explodes. The latter accident was non-fatal in real life and involved Cdr Duncan of CV-41, USS Midway, 23 July 1951.)
The 18 minute John Ford documentary, The Battle of Midway, made in 1942 does contain authentic color combat footage of the May 1942 battle; this documentary is in the public domain; but Ford's combat footage was all from the island of Midway and thus offered no F4F Wildcat carrier landings for re-use by the 1976 film editors.
There is even a short scene showing a Bf 109 shot down and falling into the sea (have to watch this scene in slow motion). The Bf 109 (Me 109) was a German World War Two fighter plane, and neither the Americans nor the Japanese had this plane at Midway; besides, the Bf 109 had a rather short range and would not be suited to this kind of action. Another strictly German warplane, the He 111 twin-engine bomber, may be seen very briefly before being consumed in a fireball as a stand-in meant to represent a Japanese or American plane. This is likely the result of using stock footage from another famous WW-II movie, Battle of Britain.[citation needed]
Ensign George H. Gay's (played by Kevin Dobson) plane was a three-seater torpedo bomber plane of Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) which crashed into the ocean during one of the unsuccessful attacks on the Japanese fleet. The movie used footage of a single-seater fighter plane crashing into the ocean for this scene; in fact the torpedo bombers in the movie were all supposed to be Douglas TBD-1 Devastators but were instead portrayed by SB2U Vindicator dive bombers in all the torpedo scenes.
Another point was the fact that Lieutenant Toranaga of the Japanese Forces, ended his life by crashing his plane into an American warship, in a kamikaze attack. The famed suicide tactic was not initiated until 1944, two years after Midway. The footage used was from a documented scene in the Battle of Okinawa.[citation needed]
These gaffes and other compromises had to be made primarily due to various limitations, namely upon the technology available and the forced reliance on WW-II color stock footage, which was both rare and absent from filming actual WW-II events as they happened. As previously mentioned, stock footage from other films was used to help make up the difference namely from the aforementioned Battle of Britain and Tora! Tora! Tora!
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (June 2007) |
- In television edits, the Battle of the Coral Sea footage is left out to accommodate time constraints; this version was then used for subsequent VHS and DVD releases.
- The final scene of the movie shows the USS Yorktown afloat in Pearl Harbor even though it was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the battle.
- Most of the footage of the Japanese air raid on Midway Island was from the footage of the Japanese bombing of Wheeler and Hickam airfields shot in the film Tora! Tora! Tora!.
- Prior to the Air raid on Midway, it was stated that Midway's defending airplaines were 6 F4F Wildcats and 15 F2A Brewster Buffaloes. However, two Curtiss P 40 Warhawks can be seen taking off to meet the Japanese planes.
Cast in alphabetical order
