Product: Midway (Collector's Edition) (1976)
Rating: 4.0
"Sunk that flattop!!"
Though WWII raged until 1945, 1942 saw the turning of the tide on all fronst in the allies' favor. With Stalingrad in Russia, Tobruk in the Mideast, the battle of Midway in the Pacidic saw the once-thought Axis steamroller stopped in its tracks. Inventing the tactics of naval aviation, the Pacific was the stage for the first battles between ships that were too far from each other to be seen. In the ensuing battle in which the Japanese had the numerical, technological and morale advantge, US launched planes launched crippling attacks that prevented invasion, sank Japanese carriers and killed the cream of Japan's core of elite carrier-fighter pilots.With an all-star cast, this film begins with the "Doolittle Raid" over Japan and the Battle of the Coral Sea to set the stage for the Japanese defeat at Midway. The raid was a military non-event, causing less damage to the enemy than propaganda would suggest, and only leading Japan to strengthen its defenses while hunting down those in China who aided American fliers after the raid. The results of the Battle of the Coral Sea were more even - with severe losses felt by both sides (though the Americans were proceeding from a position of presumed inferiority against a military machine that had devestated them at Pearl while overwhelming the British in Singapore as well as other western colonial powers elsewhere in the Pacific. Taking the initiative after the Coral Sea, and knowing that an outright conquest over America is impossible, the Japanese set their sites on America's central-Pacific outpost on Midway. Using their best code-breaking assets, US Navy intelligence cryptologists under Joe Rochefort conclude that Midway is Japan's next target. With their resources already whittled down by the attacks at Pearl Harbor and the battle of Coral Sea, the element of surprise is America's only hope of winning the battle.The actual dynamics of the battle were complicated - with the Japanese caught off-guard by the unexpected appearance of US carrier fighters, and the torturous dilemma of having to decide which to attack first; the initial waves of US dive bombers annihilated by the Japnese defenses; the Japanese fighters brought down too low after the first attack to deal with a second wave; the devestation of the Japanese fleet; and the Japanese reprisals. While the film deals well with this, many historians might be dismayed by the fatcual lapses in the choice of stock footage - F6 Hellcat fighters appearing a year too early; post-war US Carriers (with their distinctive angled decks) subbing for Japanese ships) - or simply how badly the footgae blends with the non-stock footage. (This is a flaw not too rare on Discovery Channel documentaries that aren't quite as interesting). Still an important film for those who've never heard or understood the significance of the battle of Midway.