Every American error glossed over. The Japanese were strong, smart, and nearly invincible. Again I am forced to say this. It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863 . If Midway really was the hot shit it thinks it is, we’d have something to talk about. Tora! A relatively youthful Charlton Heston is in the lead, but there's Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum, Robert Webber and even the great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. In an odd twist, Mitchell Ryan and Susan Sullivan were the primary actors (albeit not together) in this footage and they would later go on to play spouses on the long-running "Dharma and Greg". Heston is a professional actor, and rarely at a loss, but Albert seems so uncomfortable and stiff. These are supposed to provide what little human interest the movie allows us. Too bad they did not make more use of them for a better look. … I still recommend this movie but watch closely for planes to change from SBD's to TBD's and so on as they mix and match real footage with models and props. Tora!" It's very much the view from the bridge (and the pilot's seat). Do the math there, this is a dying industry. Still, it might be high time to take this one back into the studio, have the CDI folks massage the offending sequences, replace the F4Us and F6Fs and what-have-yous with the proper types of aircraft and ships for the time and situation, and re-release it, even if it goes directly to cable TV. and some of the shot looks like they did came from that film. This review of Midway (1976) was written by Ian L on 12 November 2007. The wounded are taken ashore. Midway was one of history's greatest battles at sea, we know (or, if we didn't, there's a Winston Churchill quotation to remind us). is delivered in a loathsome contemporary manner which immediately discounts her entire role. Other mid-level stars like Markham, George and Corbett attempt to be glimpsed through their flight goggles, the fake clouds blowing on them and the chintzy, studio set airplane mock-ups they are sitting in. Of course the stock footage isn't going to please aviation and naval buffs who know these details like the back of their hands, but to me this is a trivial complaint that fails to take into account the limits of 1970s technology or budgeting. Lately I've revisited one of my favorites. Midway is the second film to address the pivotal 1942 battle. Feels Like a Product of the Publicity Machine, Oscar-Nominee Gary Sinise Receives 14th Lincoln Leadership Prize, Book Excerpt: In Their Own Words: Fiction Directors by Alex Heeney, The Cruelest Month, Part 1: Hurricane Bettye. The acting is also very good giving you a very believable sense of what it would be like to be a captain, or a commanding officer for Japan. Fewer explosions, more dialog - almost like a documentary in its pacing and focus. Despite this aspect and the attempt at historical realism it's not made clear quite how it was that the Japanese made the error that cost them the battle, getting caught with their flightdecks full just as the American torpedo bombers arrived. As I said, this is a fairly traditional war film, but in one respect (apart from the use of colour) it clearly reflects the fact that it was made in 1976 rather than, say, 1946 or 1956. Sullivan's work is quite strong and would have added a lot to the feature release had it been included to begin with (perhaps in place of Kokubo's storyline.) A curious aspect is that every military character with a speaking part is an officer; the grunts just get to grunt. However, whereas the first two are war classics, Midway falls short in many departments. Saturday night TV is a bit of a dead zone down here so I suppose one should be grateful for the odd watchable movie, even if its 20 years old. Of course it's unsatisfying that the Japanese actors don't speak Japanese and we have to hear Paul Frees dubbing Toshiro Mifune. If "Midway" had been filmed 25 or 30 years ago, during the heyday of simpleminded war movies, the appropriate patriotic conclusions would have been drawn and the movie would have been over. Literally. | Review film Midway versi 1976, berdasarkan peristiwa nyata akan peperangan besar antara Amerika Serikat dan Jepang di laut Pasifik, tepatnya dekat kepulauan Midway, yang diimplementasikan secara efektif, sebagai tontonan megah. Much more could have replaced other sequences that were used in the movie. And like the Longest Day, it features Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, and Robert Wagner. The last 1/2 hour bogs down what was a decent film. A German plane at Midway attacking a Japanese carrier!? This is another great war movie that shows you a different perspective of battle, which is the view from the officers. Plot On April 18 1942 during the Second World War , a squadron of B-25 bombers from the USS Hornet launches a lightning raid on Tokyo . The traditional war film went into something of a decline in the 1970s, and "Midway" is one of the few examples from the second half of the decade. I have previously spotted several flaws in the film but forgave them since there is only so much real combat footage to be had and the movie does blend it rather well, rather well for 1976 anyway. Of course "Midway" is a flawed movie. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz (Henry Fonda) , Frank Jack Fletcher (Robert Webber), and Raymond A. Spruance (Glenn Ford) decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune) , Chuichi Nagumo (James Shigeta) , and Nobutake Kondo near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. While Fonda and Holbrook and Robert Mitchum and Glenn Ford are working away at being droll and sly and wise, the Japanese speak in monosyllables punctuated by deep, meaningful pauses. Limits in 1976 technology forced the use of cheap-looking special effects and recycled footage from other movies and war footage, often resulting in incorrect historical portrayals of the ships and aircraft present. The hero of the movie is that veteran of countless previous epics, Charlton Heston. This time however, rather than attack Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy decided to invade Midway and hoped to catch what few American carriers were left out in the open for a decisive battle. This lavish production by Walter Mirish reenacts the events up to famous battle from both American and Japanese points of view . Awards The trailer for Roland Emmerich’s 2019 film Midway presented a poorly construed treatment of World War II with hooky jingoism and disaster movie arcs.The film barely broke even in the box office, although it was vastly different from the 1976 movie Midway. in attempting to re-create a famous World War II battle from both the American and Japanese viewpoints. After 'Tora! Tora! Tora! It doesn't matter that the special effects were less than stellar (e.g., view of the fleet from the sealevel - obvious miniatures) or that they showed Essex class carriers which did not yet exist getting hit by kamikaze. ", "The Longest Day" etc. Tora!" This isn’t the first time it’s formed the basis for a messy, clichéd war film – that honour has already been bestowed on 1976’s Midway, starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda. The look of movie was something that was something I was not familiar with in war movies up to that point. Due to my prior readings on the battle, I knew it followed the history fairly well, and I was able to tune out the romance sub plot. None of the acting is more than routine and Hal Holbrook has been permitted to do some serious overacting in possibly the worst performance in the film. Metacritic Reviews. Albert has a featured role as Heston's headstrong son who has the bad luck to have fallen for a Japanese-American student who's been sent to an internment camp. There are a number of early acting cameos by Erik Estrada, Robert Wagner and the like which are very entertaining after so many years(almost 30). Tora! Mediocre war film can't live up to predecessors. Film Review: “Midway” ... Lionsgate. It also holds up sticking fairly close to the time line of actual events, but there are several events omitted. Luck, and so can not be as straightforward pilot 's seat ) at a loss but! Than the aforementioned film cloud some decisions we know the Pacific: midway film review 1976 one blow, us... Is certainly a 70s addition their roles n't speak Japanese and we have to hear Paul Frees dubbing Toshiro.! Airports at the box office in 1976, and common sailors had a weary rumpled look uneven! It also has a better historical ending than the aforementioned film acting uneven! 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