Midway (1976)

Réalisateur:

Jack Smight

Scénariste:

Donald S. Sanford (written by)

Release Date:

18 juin 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drame | History | War

Accroche:

The glory, the suspense, the spectacular drama of the men who won the most decisive naval battle in U.S. history.

Plot:

A dramatization of the battle that turned out to be the turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

Plot Keywords:

Japanese Navy | Naval Battle | Japan | Historical | Aircraft Carrier

Avis des utilisateurs:

Blast from the past

Ensemble

Charlton Heston	...	Capt. Matthew Garth
Edward Albert	...	Ens. Thomas Garth
Henry Fonda	...	Adm. Chester W. Nimitz
James Coburn	...	Capt. Vinton Maddox
Glenn Ford	...	Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
Hal Holbrook	...	Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort
Toshirô Mifune	...	Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto (as Toshiro Mifune)
Robert Mitchum	...	Vice Adm. William F. 'Bull' Halsey Jr.
Cliff Robertson	...	Cmdr. Carl Jessop
Robert Wagner	...	Lt. Cmdr. Ernest L. Blake
Robert Webber	...	RAdm. Frank J. 'Jack' Fletcher
Ed Nelson	...	RAdm. Harry Pearson
James Shigeta	...	Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo
Christina Kokubo	...	Miss Haruko Sakura
Monte Markham	...	Lt. Cmdr. Maxwell F. Leslie

Autre(s) titre(s) :

Battle of Midway (Philippines: English title) (UK)
The Battle of Midway (USA) (video title)
Bataille de Midway, La (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]

Durée:

132 min

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Son:

Sensurround (Westrex Recording System)

Classification:

UK:PG | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Norway:16 (1977) | USA:PG | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Iceland:12

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Lake Castaic, California, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Anecdotes:

The clip showing "Tom Garth's" plane crashing and breaking in two is one of the most used crash sequences from WWII. In the actual crash, the pilot was hardly even shaken up and immediately climbed out on his own.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When some of the torpedo squadrons are shown, the planes are actually Vindicator dive bombers.

Guillemet:

Captain Garth: Can I ask you something personal? Very personal?
Commander Rochefort: Sure.
Captain Garth: You know, it really stinks down here. How often do some of your people take a bath?
Commander Rochefort: Bath? Hell, I don't know. What *day* is it?

Connexions De Film:

Featured in The Making of 'Midway' (2001) (V)

Blast from the past

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. This one looks older than it actually is, due to the liberal use of stock footage and a cast that's a retirement counsellor's dream. 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. A curious aspect is that every military character with a speaking part is an officer; the grunts just get to grunt. It's very much the view from the bridge (and the pilot's seat). 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. The contribution of the American land-based aircraft is also given scant recognition.

Still you do get a bit of a story, though the less said about the silly sub-plot involving the Heston character's son and a Japanese-American girl the better. The director, Jack Smight had extensive T V experience, as did many of the younger actors, and this shows up in the rather static dialogue scenes you get when you aren't allowed to move the cameras much. The Japanese voices are dubbed, so that Paul Free, the voice of Boris Badenov in "Bullwinkle," (and countless other cartoon characters) is Admiral Yamamoto. The music was written by John Williams who a year or so later did the music for "Star Wars" and you can sense the similarities.

In the film the military operations side of things abounds with anacronisms, partly due to the liberal use of stock footage as mentioned. I don't think you can be too hard on the producers (the low profile but financially successful Mirisch Brothers) for not using a real Japanese World War 2 aircraft carrier since they are all at the bottom of the sea, but the crashed jet on the Yorktown's flightdeck was a bit sloppy. "Tora Tora Tora," which cost more money, was a better film. Not because it cost more money but because it was more carefully made, more balanced (both side's story told well) and more honest, perhaps also because it dealt with defeat rather than victory from the American viewpoint. "Midway" has some suspense, plenty of action, and the the patriotism drum is not banged to the point of pain.