Schlacht um Midway (1976)

Schlacht um Midway: Directed by Jack Smight. With Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford. A dramatization of the battle that was widely heralded as a turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

“Of course u0026quot;Midwayu0026quot; is a flawed movie. The subplot about Japanese-Americans is ridiculous and seems like a forced attempt to be PC during the post-Vietnam 1970s when it wasnu0026#39;t in fashion to be completely celebratory of America. Of course itu0026#39;s unsatisfying that the Japanese actors donu0026#39;t speak Japanese and we have to hear Paul Frees dubbing Toshiro Mifune. Of course the stock footage isnu0026#39;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. u0026quot;Pearl Harboru0026quot; ultimately got those details right through CGI and the end result was a far worse film in the final analysis. Because ultimately, for all the flaws that are in u0026quot;Midwayu0026quot; it succeeds because it does stick to the essential truths when telling the story of the battle, and I know this because when I first saw this movie on the CBS Late Movie around 1979, I got so hooked that I went out and read every book on the battle I could find including Walter Lordu0026#39;s u0026quot;Incredible Victory.u0026quot; The movie had given me a starting reference point and while I was sorry that some key aspects of the latter stages of the battle were not depicted (such as the torpedoing and eventual sinking of the Yorktown), I couldnu0026#39;t have asked for anything better in terms of getting me to learn more about this great turning point of World War II. As far as Iu0026#39;m concerned, itu0026#39;s good that Hollywood did tackle this subject in an era when the influence of u0026quot;Tora! Tora! Tora!u0026quot;, u0026quot;The Longest Dayu0026quot; etc. still hung over the proceedings because if it hadnu0026#39;t been made back then, we would today be forced to see it given the u0026quot;Pearl Harboru0026quot; and u0026quot;Titanicu0026quot; treatment that is pure garbage.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJohn Williams contributes one of his finer pre-Star Wars scores with two great themes, the u0026quot;Midway Marchu0026quot; (which is only heard in the end credits of the theatrical version and became more popular in an expanded concert arrangement by the Boston Pops) and the u0026quot;Men Of The Yorktown Marchu0026quot; which dominates much of the score and offers great foreshadowings of the Throne Room sequence in u0026quot;Star Warsu0026quot; and the Smallville music in u0026quot;Superman.u0026quot;”