Midway (1976)

50% of critics liked it
(12 reviews)
71% of users liked it
(6,765 ratings)

An expensive war epic, Midway emulates The Longest Day and Tora! Tora! Tora! in attempting to re-create a famous World War II battle from both the American and Japanese viewpoints. The 1942 battle of Midway was the turning point of the War in the Pacific; the Japanese invasion fleet was destroyed,… More An expensive war epic, Midway emulates The Longest Day and Tora! Tora! Tora! in attempting to re-create a famous World War II battle from both the American and Japanese viewpoints. The 1942 battle of Midway was the turning point of the War in the Pacific; the Japanese invasion fleet was destroyed, and America's string of humiliating defeats was finally broken. Though the battle itself was sufficiently dramatic to fill two films, Midway also has plotline involving the mixed-race relationship between Ensign Garth (Edward Albert), son of Navy Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston), and Haruko Sakura (Christina Kokubo), a Hawaiian girl of Japanese descent. The real-life personages depicted herein include American Admirals Nimitz (Henry Fonda), Halsey (Robert Mitchum) and Spruance (Glenn Ford), and Japanese Admiral Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune, his voice once again dubbed by Paul Frees, whom Mifune personally selected for the job). For its original road show release, Midway was offered in the "Sensurround" process, which electronically shook and vibrated the audience's chairs during the battle sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 12 min.
Directed By: Jack Smight
Genres: Documentary, Drama, Action & Adventure, Classics

In Theaters: Jun 18, 1976 Wide
On DVD: Oct 10, 2000
Studio: MCA Universal Home Video

Critic Reviews

Richard T. Jameson, Parallax View
To make an uninvolving movie out of one of the most decisive battles of the Second World War may seem a dubious challenge, but there's no denying Universal their full credit in meeting it.
James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette
Rather dull, although certainly elaborate enough
Dan Fazio, Citysearch
Charlton Heston at his restrained yet forceful best.
Brian Mckay, eFilmCritic.com
has the decency to devote the majority of the film to the actual events, and not get bogged down in a fictitious, smarmy love affair.
Scott Weinberg, Apollo Guide
If the movie drags a bit in the dramatics department, that's probably because the filmmakers were shooting for 'accuracy' over 'emotion'.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

moon r

Blow by blow recital of the facts of the famous WWII Pacific sea battle delivered by faces you know and love makes for a cozy history lesson. The nutty love story thrown in for the ladies is not only distracting but irrelevant. All in all not a terrible waste.
Randy T

I can't help but think that a certain amount of entertainment value was sacrificed for the sake of historical accuracy.
Red L

Like Flixster says, "Midway feels more like a history lesson than a drama". Still, it is history I am only vaguely aware of, so that is fine, but the movie seems long. There are a lot of famous faces in the movie. This film uses a lot of actual battle footage.
Barry L

Good war film
Timothy O

Not completely accurate, but a great war, or should I say, anti-war film

Cast

            Charlton Heston as Capt. Matt Garth

            Henry Fonda as Adm. Chester W. Nimitz

            James Coburn as Capt. Vinton Maddox

            Glenn Ford as Rear Adm. Raymond A. Spruance

            Hal Holbrook as Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort

            Toshiro Mifune as Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto

            Robert Mitchum as Adm. William F. Halsey

            Robert Wagner as Lt. Cmdr. Ernest L. Blake

            Christina Kokubo as Haruko Sakura

            Monte Markham as Cmdr. Max Leslie

            Kevin Dobson as Ensign George Gay

            Glenn Corbett as Lt. Cmdr. John Waldron

            Gregory Walcott as Capt. Elliott Buckmaster

            Edward Albert as Lt. Tom Garth

            Beeson Carroll
            
            Clyde Kusatsu
            
            Larry Csonka as Cmdr. Delaney

            Erik Estrada
            
            John Fujioka
            
            Christopher George as Lt. Cmdr. C. Wade McClusky

            James Ingersoll
            
            Dale Ishimoto as Vice Adm. Moshiro Hosogaya

            Robert Ito
            
            Steve Kanaly
            
            Lloyd Kino
            
            Biff McGuire as Capt. Miles Browning

            Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita
            
            Ed Nelson as Adm. Harry Pearson

            Kip Niven
            
            Bennett Ohta
            
            John Bennett Perry
            
            Dennis Rucker as Ens. Mansen

            Seth Sakai
            
            Tom Selleck
            
            James Shigeta as Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo

            Yuki Shimoda
            
            Sab Shimono
            
            Robert Webber as Rear Adm. Frank J. "Jack" Fletcher

            Alfie Wise
            
            Conrad Yama as Adm. Nobutake Kondo

            Dabney Coleman as Capt. Murray Arnold

            Cliff Robertson as Cmdr. Carl Jessop

            David Macklin
            
            Phillip Richard Allen
            
            Kurt Grayson
            
            Kevin Michael Richardson
            
See full cast