Jack Smight's Midway was one of the last of the big budget World War 2 movies filled with a massive all-star cast. Some of the classics in the genre include The Longest Day, In Harms Way, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. These were patriotic movies that boasted about America's valiant role in World War 2. Midway follows in this tradition, but attempts to be different by exploring the internment of Japanese-Americans fall flat due to terrible acting and writing.

The Battle of Midway took place 6 months after Pearl Harbor. The Americans had suffered a succession of defeats but also had a moral victory with the Doolittle raid. Admiral Yammamoto (Toshiro Mifune) devised a plan to finish them off once and for all. He would divert the American force to the Aleutian Islands, while assaulting Midway Island. The idea was to capture Midway and then wait for the Americans to show up. This plan relied on surprise, but the Americans had broken the Japanese code and were waiting for them. Through a series of events including luck, guts, and Japanese blunders, the Americans sunk four Japanese aircraft carriers while only losing one of their own.

Midway relives the drama of this battle and follows the facts pretty well. It was a confusing battle, with numerous ships, aircraft squadrons, and ground commanders to keep track of. Smight does a decent job keeping everything in focus, using title card and theme music for each change of location. This is especially helpful with the aircraft squadrons. The movie does a great job depicting the code breaking effort, Admiral Nagumo's poor decision making, the switch from Admiral Halsey to Admiral Spruance, the bravery of the American pilots, and most of the other specific aspects of the battle. In these moments, the film works really well as a historical drama.

Unfortunately, Smight has other things on mind. Midway was made in the 70s, a decade when directors were trying to express themselves more than ever before. This apparently inspired Smight to include a subplot criticizing the internment of Japanese-Americans. This isn't necessarily a bad idea. Contrasting the heroism of the battle with the ugly denial of civil rights could have been a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, Smight decides to pursue this angle via a love story, and he made some terrible casting choices in the process. The idea is that a young pilot (Edward Albert) has fallen in love with a Japanese-American woman (Christina Kokubo) who had been placed in internment camps, and asks his father Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston) to intervene. The story falls flat mainly because Albert and Kokubo are extremely wooden and create no chemistry. The confrontations between father and son lead to some unintentionally hilarious moments as Albert is not able to muster the slightest bit of emotion and Heston chewing up so much scenery that the set falls down.

The actual battle scenes are compiled from stock footage borrowed from Tora! Tora! Tora! Keen history buffs will tell you how certain scenes don’t match because the planes or ships are different, but this didn’t bother me too much. Sure it was a cheap tactic, but it still worked well enough to make the battle scenes somewhat exciting. And the documentary-style look that was created lent a level of authenticity to the film that probably could not have been accomplished with original footage. There aren’t many moments where it is difficult to tell what is going on, and that’s a testament to editors Robert Swink and Frank J. Urioste who had to put that mess together.

More bothersome is how the movie passes up quite a bit of drama by ending the battle too early. Smight has Yammamoto retreating right after the Hiryu is sunk. In reality, he pressed the attack for much longer, even replacing Nagumo who refused to advance. Yammamoto attempted to trap the Americans into a dangerous night engagement. Considering the importance the movie places on the switch from Halsey to Spruance before the battle, you think they'd want to document the most significant aspect of the battle where that made a difference. The aggressive Halsey almost certainly would have fallen for the bait (as he did at Leyte Gulf), but Spruance was more careful in his planning and stayed away from a night engagement.

Charlton Heston plays the main character, and while it is understandable they created a fictional character for him to play, they went a little over the top to make him the hero. Heston’s Matt Garth is apparently the most versatile man in naval history. He’s Nimitz’s right hand man, gets to sail on the Yorktown with Fletcher, and even gets to fly a plane and lay the crucial bombs on the Hiryu. A much worse indiscretion was Smight’s decision to dub Toshiro Mifune. Instead of asking the audience to read subtitles, he treats us like idiots and dubs the voice of one of the greatest actors in film history. It’s such a shame, because Mifune really could’ve nailed the role of Yammamoto.

The movie did make some brilliant casting decisions, though. Henry Fonda always had that soft-spoken strength that was perfect for Nimitz (this was his 2nd time playing him after In Harm’s Way). He makes you see how Nimitz was so good at exerting authority without needing to yell at someone. The other great performance is Hal Holbrook as Commander Joe Rochefort, the primary cryptanalyst responsible for cracking the Japanese code. Rochefort was an unorthodox individual who would often be late to meetings and barely showered, much less dressed up. Holbrook plays him a little folksier than he really was, but gets the essence of the man very well and is one of the most entertaining parts of the movie.

Midway was always a personal favorite and it’s not wholly without redeeming merit. John Williams’ brilliant patriotic score still gets the heart racing today. The drama of the battle eventually does come across and there are a few moments that suggest how great this movie can be. The battle is so unique in its place in American history that only really incompetent could completely destroy a film on the subject. Ultimately, Midway has too many flaws to be considered a good film, but it still has some merit for those interested in the Pacific War.


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