Midway

Rating:
Summary: The Pivitol Battle of the Pacific War
Review: In June, 1942, the United States uncovered Japanese plans to invade the island of Midway, located only 1100 miles from the Hawaiian islands. This fine film brings this great battle to life.

An all-star cast, including Charlton Heston (Capt. Matt Garth), Henry Fonda (Admiral Chester Nimitz), Glenn Ford (Admiral Raymond Spruance), Hal Holbrook (Commander Joseph Rochefort) and Robert Webber (Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher) turn in fine performances as the men who would ultimately win the battle and turn the tide against the Japanese. The Japanese actors do a fine job as well portraying such officers as Admiral Yamamoto and Admiral Nagumo.

The battle scenes, especially the American dive and torpedo attacks against the Japanese fleet, are excellent. Real battle footage is also included, and if you watch close enough, you may even see some scenes from "Tora Tora Tora" in the footage.

One part of the film that I didn't care very much for was the love relationship between Matt Garth's son Tom and a Japanese/American girl. I felt that this was unnecessary and didn't really contribute anything to the movie. Overall, however, I thought this was an excellent film. The battle scenes are top notch, and the attention paid to historical fact is evident throughout the film, right down to Joe Rochefort's smoking jacket and bedroom slippers.

I've seen this movie several times on VHS, but this was the first time I saw it on DVD. The widescreen format made me feel like I was in the theater. I highly recommend this fine war film. Watch this film and experience the turning of the tide in the Pacific.

Rating:
Summary: falls short
Review: Midway is awesome in scope. What director Jack Smight and the producers tried to do is a grand movie about the turning point in our battle for the Pacific in WWII. It has an impressive cast: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Edward Albert, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshirô Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Tom Selleck, Pat Morita, and James Ingersoll, all backed by a John Williams score. But the writing was weak--there was no suspense at all in the film. They hit a side story or two, but keep them uncompelling and unresolved. They tried to show the Battle from both the Japanese and U.S. point of view, but doesn't do it as successfully as Tora! Tora! Tora!. And the spliced in actual documentary footage of dogfights and crashes, but these are obvious splices (or poor quality) and detracts from the experience of viewing the film. Great idea, awesome in scope, doesn't live up to potential.

Rating:
Summary: Warning! YOU ARE NOT SERVED IN SURROUND! Nor Stereo...
Review: This review is directed to both "Midway" and "Battle of Britain" DVD releases:

1. I own both the VHS and the LaserDisc versions of these movies.

2. Midway is good, but could have been better. Battle of Britain is exceptional.

3. The DVD image quality is crystal clear, their sound is dreadful.

Now, having specified all this, you may understand why I rated them 2 stars.

I will skip the image side of the movies for the time being, and just jump to the sound quality, which is abismal to say the least.

In Midway's case, they call it "Collector's Edition" and indeed, just an undiscriminating collector, such as I, could have fallen for such a scam.

I won't even mention the VHS version, but instead concentrate to compare the DVD release and its LaserDisc counterpart.
The LD was released about eight years ago, and despite its grainy and at times "washed-out" images, it was a far superior product than the DVD version.
Besides, what's the use to have a perfectly clear image, if many aerial battle scenes were anyway taken from actual war footage?
Some of it is shaky in nature (well understandable, not being produced by Hollywood moviemakers), and for once, an overall unsharp picture of the movie (although shown in its original widescreen scope), was helpful to hide the "war-footage" imperfections and "cut-ins".
Also, many may know that this movie was the second "Sensurround" blockbuster of all times, the first being "Earthquake".
Now, why on earth does one have to own this movie in a Monaural version, when he could ask its Sensurround counterpart?
Not only is the monaural sound flat, but it also takes away one of the main reasons to watch this movie.
Same fate was reserved to "Battle of Britain" on an MGM DVD.
While I may understand that the industry may be in financial difficulties nowadays, I may not condone such an unprofessional sloppiness.
These are not "disappearing" movies, and I am convinced that if the producers of such DVDs ("Midway" AND "Battle of Britain") had really done their jobs and researched, as they should have, they would have come across a pristine copy of a Sensurround counterpart of "Midway" and a fully stereophonic copy of "Battle of Britain".
But they did not.
And this is shameful and shabby.
This shows you how little the studios care about their customers nowadays, and by what kind of people they are run today.
Certainly not by great and wise men as Mr. Mayer, Mr. Warner and Mr. Zanuck were.
It is true that it is an industry and it is also true that it is a business, but industry and business CAN be creative and can deliver wonderful products to sell.
But today all we get is mediocrity and insufficient will to do something good.
Is the industry tired?
You bet, and it shows!
Is the business running?
Yes, but with what kind of products?
Is there a lack of imagination?
Absolutely and it is getting worse.
Perhaps then, considerations should be made to substitute "money-grabbers", with talented and creative people, who are also willing to risk their necks for this industry, if we want it to survive as such.
All I can say about many recent releases of DVDs, especially those of movies pre-dating the '80s is, that many do not compare with their theatrical counterparts in way, fashion or taste.
I am not one who complains when special features are lacking, but I do STRONGLY complain when the movie presented is not in its TRUE theatrical presentation.
This ought to stop.
And it is not much use either, to know that there will be, maybe some day, a special edition, a director's cut or a deluxe version of the same.
Fact remains that it is all a scam to slip your hard-earned money out of your pockets. In jurisprudence, it is plainly called theft and as such it should be considered.
If the studios can't manage to stay afloat, then they should have the decency to relinquish power to someone who has their interests at heart.
In other words, if Universal, MGM or others, can't make it anymore, they should smell the coffee and sell their rights and their products to industries who have, not only the means, but also some solid common sense, to pick up the glorious past of theirs and make it shine once again.
The name doesn't count so much, if you are losing ground with the people you are meant to serve.
MGM at least has followed suit in this and having some titles transferred to Warners might have been a wise move, but even Warner Bros. is not able to always satisfy its reputation.
So what will be next?
A poorly reedited version of "From Here to Eternity"?
The only studio brand that seemed to care so far about its own products is 20th Century-Fox.
Their war movies have been edited for DVD in an impeccable way so far and are worth collecting.
But Universal's Collector's Edition of "Midway" is a pale comaprison to its theatrical counterpart and is absolutely not acceptable as a "collector's" item. Think again!
"Battle of Britain" was originally produced by United Artists, and this is probably why MGM, although for many years holder of their rights, may have only had the rights to the monaural version of this movie.
Now, if some talented person would come across and decide to pick up both movies from the dust and make them shine again,
perhaps with some digital imaging cleanup and a true stereophonic and surround sound, we may all be far more satisfied and probably more willing to pay a couple of bucks more to have them reinstated where they belong: in the classic section of movie making.
I come to think about ARTISAN or even a CRITERION version.
Would people in both companies be so good as to give it a try?

In any case, and after my long rambling, if you had the intention to buy these DVDs, think again.
If you are a die-hard fan of war movies and you never watched them before, then you may have fun buying them.
But, if you own the VHS versions or even better, the LaserDisc versions, hang on to them. They are far better than these DVDs.
In the VHS owner's case, I would only recommend these DVDs if you absolutely must have a Widescreen version, but don't count on better sound.
In the LaserDisc owner's interest. Keep watching your LaserDiscs and totally forget these DVDs.

I am sorry not to sound more enthusiastic about them, but I had to say the truth, having watched them when they were first released and again being the owner of these items in other formats.
Comparisons can be highly destructive, especially when one has a filmic memory as I have.

Rating:
Summary: History soured by romantic mush!
Review: This should have been a straight historical film, along the lines of Tora Tora Tora, The Longest Day, Gettysburg , and Of Gods and Generals, to make it the DEFINITIVE film on Midway. Unfortunately, the romantic side story and the use of the English language by the Japanese participants, turn this movie into another war-romance feature. A lot of stock footages from Tora Tora Tora were used (shades of the B westerns!). As to how Universal got access to these from Twentieth-Fox puzzles me. The use of actual battle color footages is distracting as the grainy quality and the different camera angles are obviously out of whack with the cinematographic structure of the presentation. Editing out the romantic side story would make this more palatable historically. That would make the film tighter as, as is, the film is already long winded.

Rating:
Summary: Very impressive account of the battle of Midway
Review: An all time classic! In presenting and explaining the actions of both sides, Midway succeeds to an extraordinary degree. Minor errors not withstanding, the film gives a very good feel of the battle that was the turning point of the Pacific war. Historically, the move is very accurate and fair. Pity they don't make them like that anymore...

Rating:
Summary: One of the better historical WWII movies
Review:

A good friend of mine (and a contemporary) rode in the backseat of a dive bomber at the battle of midway. He's dead now, like three quarters of the men who fought in World War Two. Can you imagine riding backwards in a dive while the people below are doing their best to kill you? Unless you've been there, probably not.

This is, historically, one of the most accurate portrayals of the war. One critic complained that "the writing was weak. There was no suspense at all in the film." Perhaps there'd have been enough suspense if he'd been there, like Bill. But Bill survived the battle and died of old age, so I can't ask him about whether he felt any suspense, although we talked a lot about the battle of Midway.

In the film, they used top notch actors. For "Bull" Halsey they used Mitchum. Not a look alike, but of course Bull's dead, too, and Mitchum did a good job. Heston, of course, represented a fictional character (Matt Garth), but virtually all of the names of people in the film were real men who fought a real battle, and it was the turning point of the war. After Midway, we took a lot of lumps, but they were on the run from that point on.

Of course Hollywood took some liberties, and since they used a lot of actual combat shots, some of the aircraft used were out of place (F6F "Hellcats" for F4F "Wildcats" several times, and the ditching scene where Ensign George Gay went in showed a "Hellcat" instead of the TBD Douglas torpedo bomber that he actually flew. And the shot of the "Hellcat" being torn apart on the carrier's island was well-known footage from the technicolor documentary, The Fighting Lady, which was shot on the old Enterprise during battle, with narration by Lt. Robert Montgomery (qv). Garth's (Heston's) fictional son was supposed to be flying it in the film, but it was an actual crash on board the "Big E", in an actual battle. "Hellcats" (F6F) were Grumman fighter planes (the big brother of the "Wildcat" (F4F) which was obsolescent when the war started, but in use at the Battle of Midway--as was the old Brewster "Buffalo") and the F6F never saw combat until late 1943 (on my birthday, as a matter of fact.) The battle of Midway was in June of 1942, six months after Pearl Harbor.

It helps when you know a little history. For instance, Ensign George Gay actually did ride out the battle in the water, after he ditched, and was debriefed personally by the commander-in-chief, pacific fleet (CINCPAC), Admiral Chester Nimitz. He was the only survivor of his torpedo squadron, VT-8 (torpedo squadron 8).

Altogether, when you see this picture, you are watching history (as near as Hollywood will ever get to it), and many of the people who died to entertain today's movie audiences are named in the movie.

So, try to overlook the lack of a plot, at least in the battle sequences. History wrote them, not Hollywood script writers.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

Rating:
Summary: All-Star Cast. Ultimate invasion of Midway Island.
Review: This story is set in June 1942, six months after the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. Includes the all-star cast of: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Ed Nelson, Monte Markham, David Macklin, Christopher George, Robert Webber, Kevin Dobson, Edward Albert, Pat Morita, Dabney Coleman, Erik Estrada, Tom Selleck, Robert Ito, Steve Kanaly, Kip Niven, Clint Ritchie (ABC serial "One Life To Live"), Frank Parker (NBC serial "Days Of Our Lives"). The main cast can be seen acting with stock footage from THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO and some old Japanese war films. However, some actual wartime footage of the real combat is incorporated into this film. The actual war footage was filmed in color by navy photographers and by the cameras mounted on fighter planes in 1942.
Filmed in the same manner as EARTHQUAKE (1974) and ROLLERCOASTER (1977) and in "Sensurround". "Sensurround" was a new sound system set up for specific films only that would make the sounds in the film seem realistic to you. The sound was balanced and came at you all around. You would hear the sound of an earthquake, riding a rollercoaster or being in the middle of a battle. Very few films were made in "Sensurround" and was only a gimmick in the 1970's. Small theaters benefited the most. Nowadays, we have sound systems in our own modern homes that come at us from behind and the sides. Disneyland rides use a sound system similar to "Sensurround".
A special television version runs four hours with commercials. It includes new scenes NOT shown on video or in the theatres. It includes new scenes with an additional cast NOT seen in the original version, Susan Sullivan, Richard Sanders, Noel Conlon, Don Dolan, Richard Sarradet, Alec Smight, Miiko Taka and William Wellman Jr. The extended tv version includes a Charlton Heston-Susan Sullivan romance and the scenes of the Coral Sea battle is played out. At the end of the television extended version, Susan Sullivan and Christine Kukobo are both shown waiting at dockside.
I think this film was meant to be a tribute to those Americans who served.

Rating:
Summary: Just slightly over-edited
Review: Our USMC squad went to the 'World Premier' at Luneta Theatre, Manila, Philippines. Midway WAS a Full-length FEATURE movie-then. It was near 5 hours long. Our sixes burned from seating.
>These days the once good, and quite long Midway has been edited-down from it's feature film status, a 5, to the new 2+ hour typical 'Hollyweird' shortened edition, a true waste of unreplaceable WWII Pacific footage, though actually faked. According to The NAVY, there were NO USN photojournalists with color motion-picture cameras at or near Midway, and actual Naval Aviators names were changed, and most colorized motion picture photography was filmed at The Battle For Leyte Gulf.
>Some carrier shots depict the ESSEX-class carriers designed POST Midway, and produced in 1943. "Universal" left-out several hours of video footage. Midway should be near 4-5 hours.

Rating:
Summary: "Admiral Yamamoto, Tokyo has been bombed."
Review: This movie is extremely historicly accurate, all the way down to the American servicemens' harsh, coarse language.
I love to study World War II, and am considered by many to be a amatuer historian, though one thing I always have trouble with is the extremely foul talk of the American soldiers. A good soldier should be able to speak his mind without spewing unwholesome words.
In the entire movie, I dared not count the number of cuss words spoken by the Americans, though, on the other end is the fact that throughout the entire movie, only ONE swear word was spoken by a Japanese soldier.
Other than the exessive swearing, it is a highly entertaining movie, with fast paced dogfights and slower times when top officers try to determine where the enemy is going to strike and where to feint his own ships. Their is also a smaller story being devoloped in that Charlton Heston's character's son falls in love with a Japanese-American woman, and the FBI arrest her on the charge of being a spy. Overall, this is a well done movie with the usual down-falls of exessive dirty talk. If you have a swear-word censor, this would be a good movie to get, but keep in mind that it will only work on dvds, as the videos do not have subtitles for the censor to read.

For hilarious bloopers in this movie, go to www.moviemistakes.com
and click on the 'search' button then type 'midway' into the title bar.

Rating:
Summary: Not good movie making..but a guilty pleasure....
Review: After reading some of the reviews posted here I had to sound off a little.
I saw this movie for the first time in its original thatrical release, when I was 10-11, and yes I was impressed. It was super loud it was bloody ( for its time based on what I had seen at that point) and it had a few dirty words in it, but most of all it had tremendous performances from some of the finest actors.
As I got older and began to see other films ( Tora Tora Tora, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo..) with which to compare Midway I quickly realised that this was a pretty lousy attempt at telling one of the great stories of WWII.
Most of the shots (not all,but most)have a T.V. feel and it comes across that the studio either spent all their money on the cast, or just didnt spend that much at all. Another reviewer said "if you look close enough" you might see a couple of shots from "Tora,Tora Tora". Come on 90% of the shots during the actual assault on Midway either came from "Tora...", or was actual war footage shot by John Ford. Which brings us to the "idea" of using combat camara footage in place of expensive sfx.Actual footage has never meshed with modern day film. This is why Ron Howard, and Tom Hanks never used any in their respective space program films.It only looks good if its being used as a news reel style footage.The first 15 min. of the movie is "30 Seconds Over Tokyo",which by the is a film I highly recommend.
As far as detail goes, well there are uniform faux pas all through. And thank god Hollywood in later years would learn to cut the performers hair to the proper length, because they sure didnt in the 70s.
All this brings us to the only redeeming quality in the movie...the wonderful perfomances. No one could ever play Nemitz like Henry Fonda, and I could go on, and on. Suffice to say I give this movie a guarded recommendation