Midway (1976 Film)

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Midway, released in the United Kingdom as Battle of Midway, is a 1976 American Technicolor war film directed by Jack Smight and produced by Walter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford. The film features an international cast of stars including Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Ed Nelson, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, James Shigeta, Pat Morita, John Fujioka, Robert Ito and Christina Kokubo.

The music score by John Williams and the cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr. were both highly regarded. The soundtrack used Sensurround to augment the physical sensation of engine noise, explosions, crashes and gunfire. Despite mixed reviews, Midway became the tenth most popular movie at the box office in 1976.

Plot

The film chronicles the Battle of Midway, a turning point in World War II in the Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Navy had been undefeated until that time and out-numbered the American naval forces by four to one.

The film follows two threads; one centered on the Japanese chief strategist Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and the other on two fictional characters: Captain Matt Garth and his son, Ensign Thomas Garth, both naval aviators. Matt Garth is a senior officer who is involved in various phases of the US planning and execution of the battle, while Thomas Garth is a young pilot romantically involved with Haruko Sakura, an American-born daughter of Japanese immigrants, who has been interned with her parents. Captain Garth calls in all of his favors with a long-time friend to investigate the charges against the Sakuras. He apparently has some success, as Haruko is free and at dockside when the injured younger Garth is carried off the ship at the end of the film, while Captain Garth himself was killed at the end of the battle when his plane crashed.

The film starts with the Doolittle Raid, April 1942, and then goes on briefly to mention the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942). It then describes the planning for the Battle of Midway (June 1942), depicting the creation of a complicated battle plan. Unknown to the Japanese, American signals intelligence has broken the Japanese Naval encryption codes and suspects that the ambush will take place at Midway Island. They then trick the Japanese into confirming it. American Admiral Chester Nimitz, plays a desperate gamble by sending his last remaining aircraft carriers to Midway before the Japanese to set up his own ambush. The gamble pays off and all four of the Japanese carriers are destroyed in the battle of Midway.

Successful in saving Midway, but at a heavy cost, Nimitz reflects that Yamamoto “had everything going for him”, asking “were we better than the Japanese, or just luckier?”

Nine members of the cast pose with a Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter on the flight deck of USS Lexington, today a museum ship.

Midway was shot at the Terminal Island Naval Base, Los Angeles, California, the U.S. Naval Station, Long Beach, California, and Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. The on-board scenes were filmed in the Gulf of Mexico aboard USS Lexington. Lexington, an Essex-class aircraft carrier, was the last World War II-era carrier left in service at that point, although the ship was completed after the battle. She is now a museum ship at 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 BuNo 63998, N16KL, of the Commemorative Air Force, was used in depicting all the search and rescue mission scenes.

Sound

The film was the second of only four films released with a Sensurround sound mix which required special speakers to be installed in movie theatres. The other Sensurround films were Earthquake (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), and Battlestar Galactica (1978). The regular soundtrack (dialog, background and music) was monaural; a second optical track was devoted to low frequency rumble added to battle scenes and when characters were near unmuffled military engines.

Action

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 film Hawai Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi (1960) (which also stars Mifune). Several action scenes, including the one where a Mitsubishi A6M Zero slams into 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).

Cast member Henry Fonda (Admiral Nimitz) had been one of the narrators of the 1942 John Ford documentary The Battle of Midway, some footage from which was used in the 1976 film. The only actress with a speaking part in the original film was Christina Kobuko as Horuko. In the TV version of the film Susan Sullivan appears playing Matt Garth’s girlfriend. Later video versions dropped Sullivan to emphasize the essentially all-male cast and wartime action.

Japanese carrier hit by US bombs (for this scene, Midway editors used stock footage from the Japanese movie Storm Over the Pacific (太平洋の嵐 Taiheiyo no arashi), 1960).

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.

Midway proved extremely popular with movie audiences, earning over $43 million at the box office, becoming the tenth most popular movie of 1976.

Variety said the film earned $20,300,000 in 1976.

Critical

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, “The movie can be experienced as pure spectacle, I suppose, if we give up all hopes of making sense of it. Bombs explode and planes crash and the theater shakes with the magic of Sensurround. But there’s no real directorial intelligence at hand to weave the special effects into the story, to clarify the outlines of the battle and to convincingly account for the unexpected American victory.” Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that “the movie blows up harmlessly in a confusion of familiar old newsreel footage, idiotic fiction war movie clichés, and a series of wooden-faced performances by almost a dozen male stars, some of whom appear so briefly that it’s like taking a World War II aircraft-identification test.” Arthur D. Murphy of Variety thought that the film “emerges more as a passingly exciting theme-park extravaganza than a quality motion picture action-adventure story … Donald S. Sanford’s cluttered script, while striving for the long-ago personal element, gets overwhelmed by its action effects.” Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that “[t]he battle scenes run hot and cold.” He praised Henry Fonda as “absolutely convincing” but stated that Sanford “deserves a year in the brig for inserting amid the battle scenes a stupid subplot involving a young American sailor in love with a Japanese-American girl.” Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it a “tired combat epic” and wrote, “Hollywood may mean well, or imagine it does, but it’s a little appalling to think that authentic acts of bravery and sacrifice have become the pretext for such feeble, inadequate dramatization. There is no serious attempt in ‘Midway’ to characterize the young men who fought on either side of this pivotal battle.” Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times was mixed, describing it as “a disaster film whose disaster is war,” with its principal strength being that it “keeps the lines of battle both straight and suspenseful in the viewer’s mind.” He too faulted the romance subplot as “hokey even beyond the demands of the form.” Janet Maslin panned the film in Newsweek, stating that it “never quite decides whether war is hell, good clean fun, or merely another existential dilemma. This drab extravaganza toys with so many conflicting attitudes that it winds up reducing the pivotal World War II battle in the Pacific to utter nonsense.”

Robert Niemi, author of History in the Media: Film and Television, stated that Midway’s “clichéd dialogue” and an overuse of stock footage led the film to have a “shopworn quality that signalled the end of the heroic era of American-made World War II epics.” He described the film as a “final, anachronistic attempt to recapture World War II glories in a radically altered geopolitical era, when the old good-versus-evil dichotomies no longer made sense.”

Later studies by Japanese and American military historians call into question key scenes, like the dive-bombing attack that crippled the first Japanese carrier, the Akagi. In the movie, American pilots report, “They’ve got bombs all over their flight deck! We caught ’em flat-footed! No fighters and a deck full of bombs!” As Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully write in “Shattered Sword” (2005), aerial photography from the battle showed nearly empty decks. In addition, Japanese carriers loaded armament onto planes below the flight deck, unlike American carriers (as depicted earlier in the film). The fact that a closed hangar full of armaments was hit by bombs made damage to Akagi more devastating than if planes, torpedoes and bombs were on an open deck.

Television version

Shortly after its successful theatrical debut, additional material was assembled and shot in standard 4:3 ratio for a TV version of the film, which aired on NBC. A major character was added: Susan Sullivan played Ann, the girlfriend of Captain Garth, adding depth to his reason for previously divorcing Ensign Garth’s mother, and bringing further emotional impact to the fate of Captain Garth. The TV version also has Coral Sea battle scenes to help the plot build up to the decisive engagement at Midway. The TV version was 45 minutes longer than the theatrical film and aired over two nights. Jack Smight directed the additional scenes.

In June 1992, a re-edit of the extended version, shortened to fill a three-hour time slot, aired on the CBS network to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Midway battle. This version brought in successful ratings.

Part of this additional footage is available as a bonus feature on the Universal Pictures Home Entertainment DVD of Midway.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2006: AFI’s 100 Years…100 Cheers – Nominated

Historical accuracy

The plot follows the real battle remarkably well. Even though simplified, omitting details here and there did not distort the story. Such details, among others, were reduced:

• More flag officers took part at the decision making and planning before the battle, not just Nimitz, Fletcher and Spruance. All the same, commanding officers’ staffs were generally bigger than the one or two men portrayed in the movie.
• Admiral King, commander-in-chief of the navy at that time, approved the Midway battle plan propounded by Nimitz. They were regularly in contact, so there was no need of sending fictional Capt. Vinton Maddox to consult Nimitz (apart from enabling James Coburn to star in the movie).
• There were numerous air attacks by Midway-based bombers on approaching Japanese fleets completely omitted in the script. However, these had the same effect as later carrier-based torpedo bombers decimated by Japanese fleet air-defenses portrayed in the movie. Lack of impact from initial raids by land-based bombers only convinced Japanese commanders of their invincibility and incompetency of US military.

While most characters portray real persons, some of them are fictional though inspired by actual people. Captain Matthew Garth’s contribution to planning the battle is based rather faithfully on actual work of Lieutenant-Commander Edwin Layton. Layton served as Pacific fleet intelligence officer. He spoke Japanese and was key to transposing raw outputs of cryptography analysis into meaningful intelligence for Nimitz and his staff. Layton was long-time friend of Joseph Rochefort. Matt Garth’s further exploits were pure fiction and resembled deeds of at least two more persons. First, an intelligence officer at Adm. Fletcher’s Task Force 17 staff and then the leader of the last attack made by dive bombers from USS Yorktown. The latter, however, was actually performed by VB-3 dive bomber squadron led by LCDR Maxwell Leslie. Matt Garth’s character thus combine three actual people involved in the battle. While this is reasonable for the sake of storytelling, it could not have happened as it was unimaginable to put such a valuable officer as fleet intelligence officer in harm’s way. Besides, Layton was not a flyer.

Historical footage and atelier shots of warplanes action are mostly inaccurate in the movie. Most of the original footage portrays later and/or different events and thus planes and ships that were not operational during the battle or did not take part. One of the most flagrant moments is Matt Garth’s collision at the very end of the movie, which is followed by the recording of a post-war jet plane crash.

The Making of Midway : Original Featurette (w/edits) Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford

This article is about the 2019 film directed by Roland Emmerich.

Midway is a 2019 war film about the Battle of Midway, a turning point in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The film was directed by Roland Emmerich, who also produced the film with Harald Kloser, and was written by Wes Tooke. The film stars Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Dennis Quaid, Tadanobu Asano, Darren Criss and Woody Harrelson.

The film was a passion project of Emmerich’s, and he had trouble getting financial support for the film before finally raising sufficient funds and officially announcing the project in 2017. Much of the cast joined in summer 2018, and filming began in Hawaii that September. Some filming also took place in Montreal. With a production budget of $100 million, it is to date one of the most expensive independent films of all time.

Midway was theatrically released by Lionsgate in the United States on November 8, 2019 to received mixed reviews from critics, and was praised for its historical accuracy. The film grossed over $126 million worldwide against its $100 million budget.

Cast

Allies

Japanese

Civilians

Production

On May 23, 2017, it was reported that Roland Emmerich would be directing the World War II film Midway. Due to its potential lofty budget (with estimates putting its needed cost at $125 million), Emmerich had trouble getting the film greenlit. When no major studio would bankroll the project, he cut down on potential battle sequences and turned to individuals for the funds, resulting in $76 million; he then got an additional $24 million in equity, mostly from Chinese investors, resulting in the film’s $100 million budget. It is one of the most costly independent films ever made. Emmerich had previously attempted to mount the film at Sony Pictures in the 1990s, with William Goldman becoming interested in the project. However, as with the final rendition, executives balked at the proposed $100 million budget ($152 million by 2019 inflation), and Emmerich moved on to direct The Patriot.

Harald Kloser also produced the film.

In April 2018, Woody Harrelson and Mandy Moore joined the ensemble cast for the film. In July 2018, Luke Evans was cast in the film to play Lieutenant Commander Wade McClusky, who was awarded the Navy Cross for his role in the Battle of Midway. Robby Baumgartner was hired as cinematographer. August saw the additions of Patrick Wilson, Ed Skrein, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Tadanobu Asano, Dennis Quaid, and others to the cast. Darren Criss, Alexander Ludwig, and Brandon Sklenar were cast in September. Filming began on September 5, 2018, in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was also shot in Montreal, Quebec.

In November 2018, it was announced that VFX company Scanline VFX will be the main VFX vendor, and that Pixomondo had signed on to provide additional visual effects.

Release

By CC BY 2.0, Link A photo from a press junket for the film

The film was released on November 8, 2019, Veterans Day weekend.

Marketing

A teaser poster for the film was released on June 4, 2019, which was also the 77th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. A set of 13 still photographs depicting scenes from the film was released on June 26, 2019, and the first trailer for the film was released the following day (June 27). The second and final trailer of the film was released on September 12, 2019, with the film’s theatrical poster on September 25. All-in-all, Lionsgate spent around $40 million promoting the film.

Home media

Midway was released on Digital HD on February 4, 2020, and on DVD and Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray on February 18, 2020.

Midway 2019 Main Theme

Reception

Box office

Midway grossed $56.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $68.5 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $125.4 million, against a production budget of $100 million.

In the United States and Canada, Midway was released alongside Doctor Sleep, Playing with Fire, and Last Christmas, and was projected to gross around $15 million from 3,242 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $6.3 million on its first day (including $925,000 from Thursday night previews). It went on to debut to $17.5 million, beating box office expectations and upsetting projected winner Doctor Sleep by finishing first at the box office. In its second weekend the film made $8.8 million, finishing second behind newcomer Ford v Ferrari, before making $4.7 million and finishing in fifth in its third weekend.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 42% based on 169 reviews and an average rating of 5.2/10. The site’s critics consensus reads: “Midway revisits a well-known story with modern special effects and a more balanced point of view, but its screenplay isn’t quite ready for battle.” On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an average 4 out of 5 stars, with 58% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail gave the film a score of 2/4 stars, describing it as “a Second World War epic that runs a comparatively paltry 138 minutes yet feels about five times as long”, concluding that the film was “a choppy bore, its main source of intrigue centred around whatever New Jersey-ese accent British actor Ed Skrein is attempting as dive bomber Richard Best.” Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film a score of 2.5/4 stars, saying that it “tells a story that’s vividly and viscerally rendered, with all the entertainment value of a big, old-fashioned war movie”, but added: “the kiss-kiss never really registers with quite the same impact as the bang-bang.” Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film a score of 2/5 stars, writing: “Every tired war movie cliche is unearthed in a film that brings nothing new but will no doubt please fans of men in uniform yelling at explosions.”

Paul Byrnes of The Sydney Morning Herald gave the film a score of 3/5 stars, describing it as “one of [Roland Emmerich’s] better films”, but added: “There are a number of earlier versions to pick from, including John Ford’s original 18-minute Oscar-winning documentary. We didn’t need a new one, unless he had something new to say or a new way to say it. To both questions, the answer is no.” Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote: “The film’s drama is B-movie basic. But the destructive colliding metal-on-metal inferno of what war is what makes Midway a picture worth seeing.” Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described the film as being “so square, so old-school and old-fashioned, it almost feels avant-garde”, adding: “It aims to celebrate heroism, sacrifice, determination and grit, and if you don’t like that it really does not care.”

Historical accuracy

While the film takes some artistic license, Emmerich and Tooke were both adamant about being historically accurate, and Midway received praise from some combat veterans and historians for being more accurate of events than Midway (1976) and Pearl Harbor (2001). Naval History and Heritage Command director and retired Navy Rear Admiral Sam Cox said: “Despite some of the ‘Hollywood’ aspects, this is still the most realistic movie about naval combat ever made.”

Several seemingly “Hollywood-ized” events depicted in the film, such as Bruno Gaido sprinting into a parked plane in an effort to shoot down a crippled plane attempting to crash into the Enterprise, then getting on-spot promoted, occurred as shown, though according to USA Today, “Gaido hid after shooting the plane down, afraid he was going to get in trouble for leaving his battle station. ‘They had to hunt him down and bring him to Halsey’, says [Retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Samuel J. Cox, director of the Naval History and Heritage Command].”

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