Midway (1976)

Director:

Jack Smight

Writer:

Donald S. Sanford (written by)

Release Date:

18 June 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

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:

Battle | Midway | Pacific | Midway Island | Navy

US TV Schedule:

Thur. June 7

2:00 PM

AMC

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Captain Matt Garth
Henry Fonda	...	Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
James Coburn	...	Captain Vinton Maddox
Glenn Ford	...	Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
Hal Holbrook	...	Commander Joseph Rochefort
Toshirô Mifune	...	Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (as Toshiro Mifune)
Robert Mitchum	...	Admiral William F. Halsey
Cliff Robertson	...	Commander Carl Jessop
Robert Wagner	...	Lieutenant Commander Ernest L. Blake
Robert Webber	...	Rear Admiral Frank J. 'Jack' Fletcher
Ed Nelson	...	Admiral Harry Pearson
James Shigeta	...	Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo
Christina Kokubo	...	Haruko Sakura
Monte Markham	...	Commander Max Leslie
Biff McGuire	...	Captain Miles Browning
Christopher George	...	Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky
Kevin Dobson	...	Ensign George Gay
Glenn Corbett	...	Lieutenant Commander John Waldron
Gregory Walcott	...	Captain Elliott Buckmaster
Edward Albert	...	Lieutenant Tom Garth
Pat Morita	...	Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka
John Fujioka	...	Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi
Dale Ishimoto	...	Vice Admiral Moshiro Hosogaya
Dabney Coleman	...	Captain Murray Arnold
Erik Estrada	...	Pilot 'Chili Bean' Ramos
Larry Pennell	...	Captain Cyril Simard
Clyde Kusatsu	...	Cmdr. Watanabe
Phillip R. Allen	...	Lt. Cmdr. John S. 'Jimmy' Thach
Tom Selleck	...	Aide to Capt. Cyril Simard
Sab Shimono	...	Lt. Tomonaga
Conrad Yama	...	Adm. Nobutake Kondo
Robert Ito	...	Cmdr. Minoru Genda
Yuki Shimoda	...	Officer Aboard Carrier Hiryu
Seth Sakai
Kurt Grayson
Alfie Wise	...	Dobbs
Beeson Carroll
John Bennett Perry
Steve Kanaly	...	Lt. Cmdr. Lance E. "Lem" Massey
Kip Niven	...	PBY Pilot
Dennis Rucker	...	Ens. Manson
Michael Richardson
James Ingersoll
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jeff Chamberlain	...	Sailor (uncredited)
Sam Chew Jr.	...	Guard (uncredited)
Noel Conlon	...	(TV version only) (uncredited)
Larry Csonka	...	Cmdr. Delaney (uncredited)
Jesse Dizon	...	Pilot (uncredited)
Don Dolan	...	(TV version only) (uncredited)
Paul Frees	...	Adm. Yamamoto (voice) (uncredited)
Jerry Fujikawa	...	Japanese Gentleman (uncredited)
Sean Garrison	...	Lt. Cmdr. Ken Cunningham (uncredited)
Ned Gill	...	Seaman Downes (uncredited)
Redmond Gleeson	...	Pvt. Dombrowski - Radio Man (uncredited)
Anthony Herrara	...	(uncredited)
David Hirokane	...	Lt. Shima (uncredited)
Jim Ishida	...	Pilot Lt. Takeo Koda (uncredited)
Lloyd Kino	...	Capt. Aoki (uncredited)
John Lupton	...	Officer Testing Electric Bomb Release (uncredited)
David Macklin	...	Lt. Jack Reid (uncredited)
Sandy McPeak	...	Capt. Thomas (uncredited)
Steve Moriarty	...	Naval Officer / Aide (uncredited)
Chuck Morrell	...	Pvt. Andy (uncredited)
Richard Narita	...	Lt. Hashimoto (uncredited)
Yôsuke Natsuki	...	Japanese Pilot on Hiryu (uncredited) (archive footage)
Bennett Ohta	...	Captain Taijiro Aoki - Commander of Akagi (uncredited)
Frank Parker	...	Deke (uncredited)
Clint Ritchie	...	Lt. Cmdr. Charles Fenton (uncredited)
Mitch Ryan	...	RAdm. Aubrey W. Fitch (uncredited)
Richard Sanders	...	(TV version only) (uncredited)
Richard Sarradet	...	(uncredited)
John Schuck	...	Wilson (uncredited)
Alec Smight	...	(TV version only) (uncredited)
Susan Sullivan	...	Ann (TV version only) (uncredited)
Miiko Taka	...	(TV version only) (uncredited)
William Wellman Jr.	...	(TV version only) (uncredited)

Directed by
Jack Smight

Writing credits
Donald S. Sanford		(written by)

Produced by
Walter Mirisch	....	producer

Original Music by
John Williams

Cinematography by
Harry Stradling Jr.		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Robert Swink
Frank J. Urioste

Art Direction by
Walter H. Tyler		(as Walter Tyler)

Set Decoration by
John M. Dwyer		(as John Dwyer)

Production Management
William W. Gray	....	production manager (as William Gray)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Richard Hashimoto	....	second assistant director
Jerome M. Siegel	....	first assistant director (as Jerome Siegel)

Sound Department
Roger Heman Jr.	....	sound re-recording mixer
Robert L. Hoyt	....	sound re-recording mixer
Earl Madery	....	sound re-recording mixer
Robert Martin	....	sound
Leonard Peterson	....	sound
Roger Sword	....	sound editor
James Troutman	....	sound editor (as Jim Troutman)
Dennis C. Salcedo	....	optical sound recordist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Jack McMaster	....	special effects

Stunts
Steven Burnett	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gary Combs	....	stunts (uncredited)
Erik Cord	....	stunts (uncredited)
Duffy Hambleton	....	stunts (uncredited)
Charlie Picerni	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill Saito	....	stunts (uncredited)
James Winburn	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Clifford Hutchison	....	gaffer (uncredited)

Music Department
Robert O. Ragland	....	conductor
Robert O. Ragland	....	orchestrator
John Williams	....	conductor

Other crew
Bob Forrest	....	script supervisor
Bernard M. Strean	....	technical advisor (as Vice Admiral Bernard M. Strean)
'Junior' Burchinal	....	pilot (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Mirisch Corporation, The (presents)
• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (1976) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Cinema International Corporation (CIC) (1977) (France) (theatrical)
• Image Entertainment (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (199?) (USA) (VHS)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1978) (USA) (TV)
• Universal Home Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Other Companies

• MCA  Sensurround created by
• Universal Title  titles and opticals
• Department of Defense, The  grateful appreciation
• United States Navy, The  grateful appreciation
• Officers and Men of the USS Lexington, The  special salute

Also Known As:

"Battle of Midway" - Philippines (English title), UK
"The Battle of Midway" - USA (video title)

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (archive footage) | Black and White (archive footage) | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Sensurround (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:PG | Sweden:15 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Norway:16 (1977) | USA:PG | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Lake Castaic, California, USA

Company:

Mirisch Corporation, The

Trivia:

The credits at the end of the movie play over a loop of film. The sailor on the flight deck railing repeats the same movements several times over.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the second air attack on Yorktown, the movie shows two kamikazes hitting the aircraft carrier. There were no kamikaze attacks or intentional crashes into ships in this battle. Yorktown was hit by three bombs in the first attack and by two torpedoes in the second attack.

Quotes:

RAdm. Raymond A. Spruance:If it's Midway, I'll *bushwhack* 'em!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Final Justice (#11.8)" (1999)

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.