In the vein of THE LONGEST DAY (1962) and BATTLE OF THE BULGE (1965), this one’s basically the equivalent of BATTLE OF Britain (1969) – as well as a sort of companion piece to TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970). For this reason, it tries hard to be as authentic and detailed as possible (with stock footage of the real WWII battle and constant captions indicating names of places, vehicles and personnel) but then doesn’t allow much acting opportunity to its star-studded cast: with this in mind, the contribution of James Coburn (as an officer who mistrusts the information denoting Midway as a probable enemy target), Robert Mitchum (more on his character later), Cliff Robertson (as Heston’s former buddy and superior to his pilot son) and Robert Wagner (as Commander Henry Fonda’s aide) results in being especially negligible.
Charlton Heston is the nominal lead: he’s seen having problems with son Edward Albert over the latter’s inopportune relationship with a Japanese girl (when the latter continues to mope about his personal situation, Heston snaps in his inimitable fashion: “You better shape up, Tiger, or some hotshot Jap pilot's gonna flame your ass!”). Henry Fonda is, as ever, the authoritative figure – playing the Admiral in charge of the defense operation at Midway; Glenn Ford is Mitchum’s low-ranking replacement (the latter appears as the well-known Admiral Halsey, who’s been confined to hospital due to a skin disease: apparently, the bulky and notoriously laid-back actor could have chosen to play any real-life character involved but deliberately opted for this thankless role – even so, he lends a welcome dose of humor to the proceedings, especially when he rebukes Ford, who wants to shake Mitchum’s hand for displaying the utmost confidence in him, with “You want us to lose the war?!”). Hal Holbrook is the enthusiastic old-timer who first detects, through a coded message, the Japs’ intention to attack Midway; Robert Webber is the Commander of one of the three U.S. cruisers who see action during the famous and decisive battle. Monte Markham is the intelligence officer whom Heston approaches to intervene for the Japanese girl and her parents, who have been detained; Christopher George is unrecognizable in the cock-pit as one of the leaders of the various flying squadrons involved in the dogfight sequences. Toshiro Mifune and James Shigeta are the most renowned actors on the Japanese side (one can notice the effort they all did to speak their lines in English!) – the country’s defeat at Midway was clearly the result of over-confidence (brought on by a previous victory, albeit a sneak attack, at Pearl Harbor) and constant bad judgment on the part of the officers concerned. Incidentally, just for the record, the film features three actors from the cast of THE YAKUZA (1974) – which I’ve just watched – namely Mitchum, Shigeta and Christina Kokubo (Albert’s girl).
The various strategies by which the battle was fought maintain reasonable interest throughout, and the action sequences – which virtually take up the last third of the running-time – are certainly spectacular enough. Hell, even the domestic asides emerge to be less distracting than I had anticipated (though the same can’t be said of the few scenes from the so-called “TV version” of the film included among the DVD supplements, which introduce the useless character of Heston’s much-younger girlfriend!); having said that, this added footage does dwell a little on Heston's inability to fly due to a hand injury (which, of course, has a bearing on his eventual fate). In the long run, however, I feel that MIDWAY comes across a bit stiff as entertainment.
Charlton Heston is the nominal lead: he’s seen having problems with son Edward Albert over the latter’s inopportune relationship with a Japanese girl (when the latter continues to mope about his personal situation, Heston snaps in his inimitable fashion: “You better shape up, Tiger, or some hotshot Jap pilot's gonna flame your ass!”). Henry Fonda is, as ever, the authoritative figure – playing the Admiral in charge of the defense operation at Midway; Glenn Ford is Mitchum’s low-ranking replacement (the latter appears as the well-known Admiral Halsey, who’s been confined to hospital due to a skin disease: apparently, the bulky and notoriously laid-back actor could have chosen to play any real-life character involved but deliberately opted for this thankless role – even so, he lends a welcome dose of humor to the proceedings, especially when he rebukes Ford, who wants to shake Mitchum’s hand for displaying the utmost confidence in him, with “You want us to lose the war?!”). Hal Holbrook is the enthusiastic old-timer who first detects, through a coded message, the Japs’ intention to attack Midway; Robert Webber is the Commander of one of the three U.S. cruisers who see action during the famous and decisive battle. Monte Markham is the intelligence officer whom Heston approaches to intervene for the Japanese girl and her parents, who have been detained; Christopher George is unrecognizable in the cock-pit as one of the leaders of the various flying squadrons involved in the dogfight sequences. Toshiro Mifune and James Shigeta are the most renowned actors on the Japanese side (one can notice the effort they all did to speak their lines in English!) – the country’s defeat at Midway was clearly the result of over-confidence (brought on by a previous victory, albeit a sneak attack, at Pearl Harbor) and constant bad judgment on the part of the officers concerned. Incidentally, just for the record, the film features three actors from the cast of THE YAKUZA (1974) – which I’ve just watched – namely Mitchum, Shigeta and Christina Kokubo (Albert’s girl).
The various strategies by which the battle was fought maintain reasonable interest throughout, and the action sequences – which virtually take up the last third of the running-time – are certainly spectacular enough. Hell, even the domestic asides emerge to be less distracting than I had anticipated (though the same can’t be said of the few scenes from the so-called “TV version” of the film included among the DVD supplements, which introduce the useless character of Heston’s much-younger girlfriend!); having said that, this added footage does dwell a little on Heston's inability to fly due to a hand injury (which, of course, has a bearing on his eventual fate). In the long run, however, I feel that MIDWAY comes across a bit stiff as entertainment.