Product: Midway (Collector's Edition) (1976)
Rating: 2.0
Couldn't they make a version without Heston??
This would-be epic '70s retelling of the Battle of Midway tries the same methodical approach as "Tora! Tora! Tora!" yet falters in the dramatic department. It's a bit too talky, although war buffs will probably appreciate its step-by-step delineation of the grand strategies and little quirks of fate that allowed the Americans to win this pivotal naval engagement. The clash at Midway took place in the summer of 1942, less than a year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and was itself a response to the Allied air raids on Tokyo and other targets in the Japanese homeland. The stunning victory shifted the balance of power in WWII, allowing the Americans to stalemate Japan in the Pacific, and concentrate their efforts on more decisive actions in Africa and Europe. The problem with this film lies mostly in the light-handed direction of its star-studded cast. The back-slapping he-man bonhomie of the Naval brass falls flat in scene after scene... but when you pin your dramatic efforts on an actor as wooden and insincere as Charlton Heston, well, what do you expect? Henry Fonda, however, is solid in his role, and Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum and James Coburn all do their bit, as do Pat Morita, Toshiro Mifune (as Admiral Yamomoto, naturally), and a slew of notable supporting actors. A socially liberal subplot involving a Japanese-American girl in love with a young American fighter pilot also falls flat; it's interesting to see an early critical look at the internment of Asian Americans, but again, the drama revolves around Heston (who cannot convey true emotion) and the actress in question is actually a worse actor than he is. This film isn't great, but it does a good job explaining the significance of the historical events. Worth checking out, but slow and mechanically directed without much attention to the actors.