Review of Midway (1976) by Filipeneto — 23 Apr 2020

This film addresses one of the most important aircraft battles of the Pacific War, which was the continuation of World War II, after German surrender, but only in the Pacific theater, between the USA and Japan.

This film is, to say the least, an uneven effort. It is part of a series of war epics that populated the cinemas during the 60s and 70s. However, contrary to what was usual in these films, the script was not limited to being a very expensive documentary: here we really have a story , quite well built characters and an effort to show more than just the war. Perhaps this is the result of a change in public attitudes towards war (this film was released after the emergence of the hippie movement and protests for peace and against the Vietnam War)... but the fact is that the film won with that, and does not leave that flavour of documentary that I felt in films like "The Longest Day" and "A Bridge Too Far". For example, I really liked the sub-plot involving the romance of an American naval pilot by a young American-Japanese woman, who was detained because of her origins (as many American-Japanese citizens were at that time). I thought it was a undeveloped sub-plot and could have gone further, but it was a positive addition. However, there are problems: the film drags on, it takes time to develop like an old car. It is a two-hour film that could have been easily shortened by half an hour in an editing room, to make it more palatable.

Another problem is the number of movie stars that appear just for appearing, without actually being put to use. Not to mention that some of the actors seem too old for their roles. But that does not mean that they did a bad job! All or almost all were very well, but, let's face it, it was easy for them and they were all safe bets! From the cast we can mention Charlton Heston (the days of "Ben-Hur" and "Ten Commandments" are long gone, but he remains in great shape), Pat Morita (who will consecrate himself as Miyagi in "Karate Kid", years later), Toshirô Mifune , Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Robert Wagner, Glenn Ford. I did not like Robert Mitchum very much, he appears so little and in a role so static that it almost becomes expendable; in turn, Hal Holbrook is too old and too hairy for the character, not to mention the strange costume.

But where the film really got lost was in the technical part. To begin with, the film was unable to go looking for war material and props consistent with what existed in 1945. At least they went to shoot on the USS Lexingon, which today is a museum. I realized that the idea of putting real scenes of the real battle in the middle of the film was, allegedly, a tribute to the military who fought in it, but that just sounds like a super lame excuse to save a few million dollars on the most technically challenging and complex part of the film : the recreation of combat scenes. If the producers and director Jack Smight were unwilling to do so, they shouldn't have made a war movie! Simple! Those scenes are worthy of merit, they are historical documents, but they were not made for cinema! They have a lot of grain and scratches, and they were horrible in the middle of the film! Not to mention that, for all those who have had enough of History Channel documentaries about the World War II, they are terribly familiar.