Product: Midway (Collector's Edition) (1976)
Rating: 3.0
a worthy film
Sometimes derided as a 'cut and paste job' (the filmakers used footage from other movies), Midway is a workmanlike account of the unbelievable US victory at Midway, only six months after Pearl Harbor.Sometimes a little wooden in it's documentary style approach, no one however will leave the movie without a clear understanding of what happened at Midway and how.Wanting to add drama the producers used a lot of actual battle footage, teasing 16mm up to 35mm with acceptable appearance.The movie is sometimes criticized for its subplot of a young Naval officer's romance of a young interned Japanese girl, it was felt that was projecting a modern sensibility onto the period. But the producers, who felt the interment was morally wrong, included it as a brief commentary on this other aspect of the war.This movie is done much like Tora Tora Tora, sticking to the history and resisting the impulse to flash up the story. And like Tora Tora Tora it presents an objective view, with the Japanese depicted as human beings with complicated motivations and courage in the face of battle.Like Battle of Britain and Tora Tora Tora this is a good addition to the library of any World War II air buff.