Midway, released in the United Kingdom as Battle of Midway, is a 1976 American war film that tells the story of the Battle of Midway, an important event in the Pacific War of World War II. The film was directed by Jack Smight and produced by Walter Mirisch. It was written by Donald S. Sanford and features Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda in leading roles. Other actors in the film include James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Ed Nelson, Hal Holbrook, Robert Webber, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Pat Morita, Dabney Coleman, Erik Estrada, and Tom Selleck.
The film was made using Technicolor, a special color film process. Its soundtrack used Sensurround, a special sound effect technology that made the sounds of engines, explosions, crashes, and gunfire feel more intense. Although some people had mixed opinions about the film, especially its use of pre-recorded film clips and a love story that was not needed, the music by John Williams and the way the film was shot by Harry Stradling Jr. were praised. This praise is shown by the fact that Midway was the tenth most popular movie at the box office in 1976.
Plot
On April 18, 1942, a surprising bomb attack on Tokyo shocks the Japanese. Admiral Yamamoto, leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy, convinces Japanese leaders to approve an invasion of Midway Island because he believes the American Pacific Fleet poses a threat to Japan. At Pearl Harbor, Captain Matt Garth is assigned to monitor American efforts to gather information about Japan. Commander Joseph Rochefort’s team partially deciphers Japanese Navy messages and discovers the next target is labeled "AF." Yamamoto plans the attack on Midway, with Admirals Nagumo and Yamaguchi leading the Japanese carrier forces and Admiral Kondo overseeing the invasion force.
In another part of the story, Garth helps his son, Ensign Tom Garth, a naval pilot, rescue his girlfriend, Haruko Sakura, who is being held in an internment camp. Garth uses his connections to arrange the rescue, but this action causes tension between him and his son, as Tom is transferred to a different squadron.
After the uncertain Battle of the Coral Sea, Rochefort uses a clever trick to confirm that "AF" refers to Midway. Admiral Nimitz orders the American carriers USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, along with the repaired USS Yorktown, to move to a location north of Midway called "Point Luck" and wait for the enemy.
On June 4, American planes take off when scouts spot the Japanese fleet. Nagumo’s carrier planes attack Midway without knowing the American carriers are nearby, damaging the island but leaving the airstrip usable. Nagumo orders his planes to switch to bombs for a second attack on the airfield, but after learning Yorktown is nearby, he changes the bombs to anti-ship torpedoes. American torpedo bombers attack without fighter support and are destroyed by the Japanese air defense group, with only one survivor, George H. Gay Jr. When American fighters protect another wave of torpedo bombers, Tom is seriously injured and burned. Japanese fighters are forced to fly low by the torpedo planes, allowing American dive-bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown to locate the Japanese fleet by chance. As the Japanese prepare for their second attack, the American bombers strike without opposition from Japanese fighters above, sinking three Japanese carriers—Kaga, Sōryū, and Akagi.
Japanese planes from the remaining carrier, Hiryū, attack Yorktown, damaging it severely. Below deck, Matt Garth reconciles with his wounded son. Due to a shortage of pilots, Matt joins a counterattack against Hiryū, but its planes have already launched. Yorktown is abandoned, and Hiryū is destroyed. Yamamoto orders the Japanese to retreat. Matt Garth is killed when his damaged plane crashes on Enterprise. At Pearl Harbor, Haruko watches Tom being taken off the ship, while Nimitz and Rochefort reflect on the battle. Nimitz suggests Yamamoto "had everything going for him" and asks, "Were we better than the Japanese, or just luckier?" Spruance and Browning arrive, and Nimitz gives them a firm salute.
Production
John Guillermin was reportedly hired to direct the film but was replaced by Jack Smight before filming began. Naval aviator Lieutenant Richard "Dick" Best and Joseph Rochefort served as advisors; George Gay, the only person who lived through Torpedo Squadron 8, visited during filming. Toshiro Mifune sent his script to Minoru Genda and to Yamamoto's son, so they could check if the story was accurate. It was reported that Mifune had been scheduled to play Yamamoto in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) but withdrew when director Akira Kurosawa left the project. The filmmakers wanted to show both the Japanese and Americans fairly and treat them as equals. Principal photography was scheduled to end around July 20, 1975. Filming at sea took three weeks, which included shooting on the USS Lexington, the last World War II ship in service at that time. Robert Mitchum chose to film his scenes while lying in bed. Modern crew members of the Lexington were asked to cut their hair and shave to match World War II Navy rules after watching the filming. Fonda learned that Yamamoto and Nimitz had lost fingers in accidents and adjusted his acting by folding back his finger throughout his performance. Mifune had his uniforms and gloves made to be as accurate as possible. In the original script, Garth survived.
The film was shot at Terminal Island Naval Base in Los Angeles, California; the U.S. Naval Station in Long Beach, California; Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida; and San Diego, California. On-board scenes were filmed in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the USS Lexington, an Essex-class aircraft carrier that was the last World War II-era carrier in service at the time, even though it was completed after the battle. The ship is now a museum in 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." A Consolidated PBY-6A Catalina aircraft, N16KL, from the Commemorative Air Force, was used for all search and rescue mission scenes.
The film was the second of only four films released with a Sensurround sound mix, which required special speakers in movie theaters. Other Sensurround films included Earthquake (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), and Battlestar Galactica (1978). The regular soundtrack (dialogue, background, and music) was monaural; a second optical track was used for low-frequency rumble during battles and when characters were near unmuffled military engines.
Many action scenes used footage from earlier films: most sequences of the Japanese air raids on Midway were taken from 20th Century Fox’s Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Some scenes are from the Japanese Toho film Hawaii Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi (1960) (which also stars Mifune). Several action scenes, including one where a Mitsubishi A6M Zero crashes 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).
The U.S. Navy Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Lexington played the part of both American and Japanese carriers for shipboard scenes.
Shortly after its theatrical debut, additional material was filmed in standard 4:3 ratio for a TV version of the film, which aired on NBC. The TV version was 45 minutes longer than the theatrical film and aired over two nights. In the TV version, Susan Sullivan played Ann, the girlfriend of Captain Garth, to explain more about his past. A cut scene was restored to clarify that Garth suffered a hand injury during the Pearl Harbor attack, which kept him from flying. Ann is seen in the final scene as the Hornet docks at Pearl Harbor.
The TV version also added scenes from the Battle of the Coral Sea to help the plot build up to the decisive engagement at Midway. Mitchell Ryan played Rear Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch aboard the USS Lexington, and Jim Ishida played Takeo Koda, a Japanese pilot and old friend of Nagumo. After the raid on Tokyo, Koda met Nagumo to express doubts about Japan’s ability to win the war. Koda was killed
Reception
The movie Midway was very popular with audiences and opened at number one in the United States box office. It earned $4,356,666 during its first weekend from 311 theaters. Overall, it made over $43 million in the United States and became the tenth most popular movie of 1976. The film earned $20,300,000 in theatrical rentals. Internationally, it made $57 million, for a total worldwide gross of $100 million.
Critics did not give the film positive reviews.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four. He wrote that the movie could be seen as a visual experience, but it lacked clear direction to connect special effects to the story or explain the battle or the American victory. Vincent Canby of The New York Times said the film used old footage and clichés, and the actors gave weak performances. Arthur D. Murphy of Variety described the film as more of a theme-park experience than a quality action story. He criticized the script for being overwhelmed by action effects. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars and noted that the battle scenes were inconsistent. He praised Henry Fonda’s performance but criticized the unnecessary subplot about a sailor and a Japanese-American girl. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called the film a "tired combat epic" and said it failed to properly portray the bravery of soldiers. Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it a "disaster film" but noted that the battle scenes were clear and suspenseful. He also criticized the romance subplot. Janet Maslin of Newsweek said the film confused the meaning of war and reduced the battle to nonsense.
Robert Niemi, author of History in the Media: Film and Television, said the film used clichéd dialogue and old footage, giving it a tired feel. He called it a final attempt to recreate World War II stories in a time when such themes no longer fit.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 39% score based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9 out of 10.
Historical accuracy
More flag officers were involved in making decisions and planning before the battle, not only Nimitz, Fletcher, and Spruance. The staffs of the commanding officers were usually larger than the one or two people shown in the movie. Admiral Ernest King, who was the commander-in-chief of the navy, approved the Midway battle plan that Nimitz proposed. The two commanders regularly communicated, so there was no need to include a fictional character, Captain Vinton Maddox, to consult Nimitz. The failure of Midway-based aircraft attacks on Japanese fleets led Japanese commanders to believe they were unbeatable and that the US military was not competent.
During the American torpedo attacks, Admiral Nagumo reportedly said, "They sacrifice themselves like samurai, these Americans." However, there is no proof that Nagumo made this statement, similar to the fictional quote about the "sleeping giant" from the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! When the Akagi was bombed, Nagumo suffered a concussion and was helped by Genda. In reality, witnesses said Nagumo stood near the ship’s compass, watching the destruction.
The film does not show that the Japanese destroyer Arashi, which accidentally led US dive bombers to the carriers, had previously attacked the US submarine Nautilus, which had tried to attack the battleship Kirishima.
Later studies by Japanese and American military historians question certain scenes, such as the dive-bombing attack that damaged the first three Japanese carriers. In the movie, American pilots report that Japanese carriers had no fighter planes and their decks were filled with ammunition. However, according to Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully in Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway (2005), aerial photos showed nearly empty decks. Japanese carriers stored weapons below the flight deck, unlike American carriers shown earlier in the film. The damage to the Akagi was more severe because a closed hangar full of weapons was hit by bombs, rather than planes or other equipment on an open deck. During the attack on the Japanese carriers, an American pilot said, "Scratch one flat top!" This phrase is famous but was used earlier during the Battle of the Coral Sea by Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Dixon after his squadron sank the Japanese carrier Shōhō.
Most characters in the film are based on real people, but some are fictional but inspired by actual individuals. Captain Matt Garth and his son, Ensign Thomas Garth, are fictional. Garth’s role in planning the battle is loosely based on the work of Lieutenant-Commander Edwin Layton, who was a Pacific fleet intelligence officer, spoke Japanese, and helped translate coded messages into useful intelligence for Nimitz and his staff. Layton was a friend of Joseph Rochefort. Matt Garth’s other actions were entirely fictional and resembled the deeds of two other individuals: an intelligence officer on Fletcher’s Task Force 17 staff and the leader of the final attack by dive bombers from the USS Yorktown, led by LCDR Maxwell Leslie.
The film contains many inaccuracies in its use of historical combat footage and recreations. Most of the original footage shows events that happened later or were different, including planes and ships that were not used during the battle. For example, the first aircraft shown taking off to defend Midway are two Army P-40 Warhawks, but only Marine F4F Wildcats and F2A-3 Buffalos were stationed there. In the second air attack on the Yorktown, the movie shows two Japanese "kamikazes" crashing into the carrier, but no planes crashed into ships during this battle. Instead, the Yorktown was damaged and sunk by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine that broke through the destroyer screen. A nearby destroyer, USS Hammann, was also attacked, killing more than 100 men and sinking in four minutes. One of the most obvious errors is the collision scene at the end of the movie, which uses footage of a Grumman F9F Panther jet plane crash that actually occurred on USS Midway in 1951.
Like the USS Lexington used in filming, the USS Midway is also preserved as a museum.