The Battle of Midway was the great turning point of the Pacific War, just half a year after the Attack on Pearl Harbor that got America into the overall global war. The cause was the Doolittle Raid (discussed in my last review) which is featured in the opening credits of this review’s subject. The ability of the Americans to launch a raid on Japanese soil, no matter how pitifully small, actually gave Admiral Yamamoto approval from high command to draw the Americans into a decisive naval battle. Yamamoto had chafed at the failure to find and destroy the US aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor and had then been forced to use the Imperial Japanese Navy to support the Army’s conquests across Southeast Asia. A major Japanese victory could set back the American Navy months, buying Japan time to fortify its gains. On June 4, the Japanese and American fleets would clash near Midway Island in what turned out to be an important, perhaps decisive American victory. The loss of four Japanese carriers gave the Americans the momentum they needed to start driving their enemy from their conquests.
Understandably, the Battle of Midway has gotten three major filmed treatments, all historically accurate in terms of what happened. It was the only battle to receive full-fledged onscreen attention in the War and Remembrance mini-series (based on former navy man Herman Wouk’s World War II novels). In 2019 Roland Emmerich released his own movie that tried to be palatable to today’s attention-deficit general audiences, but still failed at the box office (I think it’s a fine film, but could use some extra oomph). This review goes back to the 1976 film, which was a box office hit, but hasn’t aged that well as a piece of movie-making.
Midway’s production
was heavily influenced by the disappointing box office of the excellent Tora, Tora, Tora. That movie was so
accurate in its details, casting, and use of Japanese actors using their
language that it actually failed to connect with people seeking entertainment. Universal
Studios’ decisions have varying results. First, the movie would only be about
two hours as opposed to other war epics’ three hour runtimes. The results are
some rushed battle scenes (not helped by some budget-saving measures. Second,
instead of using actors that closely resembled the real figures, Midway would
use a host of big name actors, even in some rather small roles. Third, the
movie would include a fictional love story to add some melodrama. Fourth, the
Japanese figures would speak English so audiences wouldn’t have to keep reading
subtitles.
First is the runtime’s effect on the military action. The movie does a good job setting up the staging for the battle. We get plenty of scenes of admirals and captains on both sides trying to decipher information and formulate their strategies. The initial action, the Japanese attack on Midway Island, was probably easier to put together since the Americans were fighting from land (you erect a military base set and have extras act as if they’re fighting planes). The movie accurately shows this part going more the Japanese way, as bombers and fighters smash up the American installation.
Tom Selleck, without his famous mustache, helps defend Midway Island.
The
actual back-and-forth Japanese and American aerial assaults against the
carriers are accurately strung together chronologically and well explained, but
here the excitement of the action is ruined by the decision to employ actual combat
footage of World War II. Many older World War II films did this both to save
money and ensure authenticity. The difference is that those were
black-and-white, so aside from some sudden blurriness the footage generally
meshed well. Midway is a color film so the combat footage had to be colorized.
The result is ugly, blurred footage that doesn’t gel well at all with the original
battle footage. Another more understandable hindrance is the limits of the
time’s technology. It was probably difficult to have extended original footage
of dozens to hundreds of planes flying in formation and assaulting ships. While
the 2019 film’s CGI can be obvious, at least it captures the intensity and scale
of the air-to-ship battles.
The
second major topic is the casting. I’ll get more into Charlton Heston and
Toshiro Mifune when I get into the love angle and Japanese side of the story.
This is definitely a stacked cast, though many actors don’t resemble their
historical counterparts too well. The three most famous American admirals of
the war are all here. Henry Fonda, known for his good guy persona, is a perfect
fit for Chester Nimitz. Nimitz was known for his thoughtful intellect and calm
presence. While his personality wasn’t likely to grab popular attention back in
the States, he was undoubtedly competent and not prone to some of the
egotistical and combative flaws of many other major American commanders of the
war. Glenn Ford gets considerable screentime as Rear Admiral Raymond Spruance.
Like Nimitz, he was a careful planner who wasn’t out to make self-glorifying
headlines, but he always got the job done.
The three admirals from left to right: Chester Nimitz (Henry Fonda), Raymond
Spruance (Glenn Ford),and William "Bull" Halsey (Robert Mitchum)
Less
prominent is Robert Mitchum as Vice Admiral William Halsey. Halsey was the
opposite of the other two admirals, being a hyper-pugnacious figure who just
wanted to keep hitting the Japanese. This got him a lot of press attention in
America. Sadly for him, he was taken out of action by a severe skin condition
that put Spruance in charge of the forces at Midway. Back to the movie,
Mitchum’s critics often accused him of laziness because he didn’t see acting as
that serious an art. The fact that he got a big paycheck for literally sitting
in a bed as the disabled Halsey certainly didn’t help his case in their eyes.
A
few notable character actors and TV stars make up a lot of the lower ranks and
pilots, such as Glenn Corbett as John Waldron. Waldron decided to rush an
attack on the Japanese Navy. Though he and many others died, his decision
prevented a Japanese attack on American carriers. James Coburn surprisingly
appears for just one scene as a staff officer, and Hal Holbrook attempts to
bring some eccentric energy as intelligence officer Joseph Rochefort. His team
did much to discover Japanese intentions and prepare the fleet for their big
battle.
Now
it’s on to perhaps the most prevalent criticism, its inclusion of some fictional
romance. Charlton Heston gets top billing as Captain Matthew Garth. To simplify
the scenes, the sizeable staffs of the admirals were condensed into one or two
characters. Garth, working for Nimitz, goes back and forth between the
historical figures, helping set up the American battle plan. During all this he
learns that his pilot son Tom (Edward Albert) has been dating Japanese-American
Haruko Sakura (Christina Kokubo). Like many Japanese-Americans in real life,
Haruko has been imprisoned with her family and is facing transportation to the
internment camps on the mainland.
Tom Garth visits his girlfriend at the prison facility.
The
internment of Japanese-Americans is considered one of the worst moments of the
US government during World War II, as most of the people were perfectly
innocent and willing to help out with the war effort. Thankfully, unlike with
many other American crimes, public and political outcry did grow throughout the
war and the Japanese-Americans actually got some compensation once the war
ended, but would not receive full reparations until the 80s. The subplot in the
movie, unfortunately, doesn’t justify its own existence. It’s forgotten about
after the first act and barely comes into play at the end.
If
you watched the TV version back in the day, the romantic intrusion is actually
worse, as Heston’s character gets his own love plot with Ann (Susan Sullivan).
Without the civil rights and interracial angle, this plot is even more useless
and unwelcome. There’s a silly scene where Ann begs Garth not to go. This is a
common scene in war films, but it’s absolutely ludicrous here. Garth is a
high-ranking staff officer who’s been in the Navy for decades and Ann seems to
have started dating him at least when war was obviously imminent. Seriously,
lady, you should have known he’d be out on the ocean fighting a war when you
dated him! (the TV version does include the Battle of the Coral Sea, the tactical draw that occurred a month before Midway)
Admiral Nagumo (James Shigeta) listens to advice from Kusaka (Pat Morita)
while Flight Officer Minoru Genda (Robert Ito) watches from the background.
The
Japanese characters are generally done well. They mostly talk strategy and
tactics, but so do most of the Americans. The cast here is made up of Hollywood’s
limited stock of Asian-American actors. Looking at the actors, you’ll find a
lot of overlap with Hawaii Five-O and
Magnum P.I., as well as Pat Morita of
Karate Kid fame (he plays Kusaka, Yamamoto’s chief of staff). James Shigeta
gets the important role of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, whose flip-flopping on
whether to arm the planes with torpedoes or bombs in his carrier Akagi
left the Japanese fleet highly vulnerable and contributed to its loss.
Usually Nagumo is shown as the wrong man for the moment who upsets the genius
Yamamoto’s plans. This movie is a little more sympathetic, showing him as a man
faced with a heavily uncertain situation and conflicting advice from his
subordinates.
There is one actual Japanese actor, and it’s the highly acclaimed Toshiro Mifune as Yamamoto. On paper this sounds awesome, but Mifune’s accent was so noticeable that the filmmakers decided to dub him over. It’s not like his lips aren’t matching what he’s saying, but it still feels like a parody without actual comedy whenever he speaks, as his audio is obviously not on the same wavelength as the Asian-Americans’. It doesn’t help when you learn that Paul Frees, a prolific cartoon voice actor known for works such as Rocky and Bullwinkle, did the voice.
Fictional
love plot (or plots) aside, Midway
succeeds well on the historical accuracy front. But accuracy doesn’t always guarantee
a great film. For a big Hollywood epic, it just doesn’t nail the battle scenes
and ends up looking shockingly cheap. Then there’s the Garth family drama which
is mostly forgotten about, so it takes up time early on without actually
contributing any dramatic heft. As yet there’s still no definitive must-watch
movie on what is one of the most critical battles of World War II.
Rating:
5/10
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