Midway

Rating:
Summary: YAWN
Review: I fell asleep during this one, watched again, drank much coffee, then wished I had fallen asleep instead of watching it. Young men fought and died at Midway, not tired old actors. I wonder what they could do with it today, with better acting and realistic younger actors in the parts?

Rating:
Summary: WWII BUFF
Review: In response to Mr. Neal's review, the U.S. Navy did show poorly until well after Midway. U.S. pilots became notorious for being poorly trained in flight, target identification and damage assessment. Errors were made on both sides, particularly before during and immediately after Midway. Luck was on our side. As Nimitz well new, Washington feared and the film portrayed, this battle could have gone very badly. Fortunately, we won and gained the momentum and morale. The film shows, in two hours, the Japanese arrogance, U.S. good fortune and even touches (perhaps too dramatically) into issues such as Japanese internment. It's not perfect cinematography, but does a good job of representing one of the most important battles in U.S. history.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad but...
Review: I haven't seen this version yet (since it has not yet been released) but I can tell it is the edited version (by the length of the film--only 132 minutes). When are they going to turn out the full length version with the footage of Charlton Heston's girlfriend and the Coral Sea footage? Too bad since that's a big part of this film.

Rating:
Summary: History Trivialized
Review: The battle of Midway was one of the greatest, most incredible, and most crucial naval victories of all time. This movie trivializes it. The film totally fails to capture the drama and the meaning of the battle, in large part because of its silly soap-opera sequences that repeatedly interrupt the story of the battle and badly detract from what little historical significance the film might have had. Someday perhaps someone will make a movie that presents the battle of Midway properly, but this one doesn't, and it is an insult to the brave men who fought and died to turn the tide of the war in the Pacific.

Rating:
Summary: Midway
Review: The only problem is why in the world did the studio use Mono sound on the DVD ?
The movie was in sensoround multi channel and they could use it to produce 5.1 digital. hope the new collector edition is in 5.1 and I would buy it

Rating:
Summary: Midway and the Coral Sea
Review: The original movie looked into the Coral Sea battle first then Midway.
It was the Coral Sea battle, that showed the US Navy was ready to fight a long war. We repaired the carrier USS Yorktown and replaced her wounded and slain crew members within 10 days, to be ready for Midway. As good as the US Navy is today I dought if that could be accomplished in the same time frame. Well if this version has both battles then I highly reccommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Historical Perspective
Review: This film offers an interesting historical look at a very decisive victory in WWII from both an American and a Japanese perspective. The use of actual footage from the battle and an attempt to get into the heads of our Japanese adversaries makes this a must see for history buffs. From what I know of the battle, this film gives a fairly good account of the action and tries to explain some of the mistakes the Japanese made. Mistakes that gave our American troops a decisive victory despite being heavily outnumbered. A treat for film and TV buffs is the number of budding personalities that have appearances. The most notable are Erik Estrada ("CHiPs") and Tom Selleck ("Magnum P.I."). I have to say, however, from a cinematography perspective this film is a relic from earlier days of film making. While this film was made in the mid 1970's, it plays as if it were made 20 years earlier in the 1950's. The endless blue screen shots of flight decks and air battles are flat and uninspired, reminding me of the 1942 John Wayne film, "The Flying Tigers". The acting is rigid and unremarkable and the plane rocking effects are so flat that one wants to just skip these scenes to get to the more interesting live battle footage. Another throwback to the earlier days of film making are the one dimensional characters for whom motivation can be distilled down to a single moral value, such as love of country. On the positive side, the model work used to illustrate the destruction on the Japanese carriers is appropriate for the period and is actually quite good. In summary, this would have been a worthy entry into the world of film had it been released 20 years earlier. The battle scenes and a glimpse into the motivation of the Japanese commanders make this film worth watching for its historical value. But if you are looking for a good example of war films made during the 1970's, you would be better off with something of merit like "Tora! Tora! Tora" (1970), "A Bridge Too Far" (1977), and of course "Apocalypse Now" (1979).

Rating:
Summary: Embarrasing America
Review: MIDWAY is one of the very worst movies ever made. There really was no imagination used in its making. Many of the fight scenes were from Tora!Tora!Tora! The war footage had too many scenes from the late war period. Whoever wrote the screenplay is clueless about the facts of the battle. Like a good fiction writer, he never let the facts get in the way of a good story. If we were as inept as the the producers and directors then we should have lost the Pacific War to the Japanese.

Rating:
Summary: Midway (Collector's Edition)
Review: I had purchased to original Midway DVD release about 2 years ago or whenever it was and was very disappointed to find that the Battle of Coral Sea was cut out. In addition to that I noticed the scenes of Charlton Heston's character's girlfriend were cut out as well, however they weren't an important part of the movie anyways so I didn't really care about that. The original Midway DVD was the THEATRICAL RELEASE, something they neglected to put on the box. This is really important because it is only in the TELEVISION version that the Coral Sea scenes were included. The Collector's Edition is suppose to include scenes from the TV network version. I'm pretty sure they are referring to the Coral Sea sequence. I don't know whether or not they will include the WHOLE sequence, but I'm willing to bet they are. So I'm ordering the DVD. I don't really care if they add in the girlfriend scenes or not. This is definitely a worthwhile purchase if you don't own it already. And if you felt cheated, like I did when I purchased the original DVD, this is a good upgrade, too bad I have to pay for it.

Rating:
Summary: THANK GOODNESS I RENTED THIS FIRST
Review: Ok I love war movies but... I like them to be (realistic) this movie is loaded with flaws (big flaws) .First someone please tell me why the Japanise are speaking english in this movie? It looks so cheap and goofy . Japanise dialoge with subtitles would have been more realistic. Next their is a sub plot with an American Pilot who falls in love with a Japanise woman who is in an American Isolation camp. I am not un romantic person but it had nothing to do with the battle at Midway ( and the acting was bad and melo dramatic in this part). Next this movie uses footage that was recycled from the movie TORA TORA TORA ( A MUCH BETER MOVIE) now thats cheesy!. All in all this movie looks like it was thrown together and Mr Heston deserves beter.