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Midway
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Midway (1976) -- Trailerfan.com - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
6.6/10   5,137 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
No change in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writer:
Donald S. Sanford (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Midway on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 June 1976 (USA) more
Genre:
Tagline:
The glory, the suspense, the spectacular drama of the men who won the most decisive naval battle in U.S. history. more
Plot:
A dramatization of the battle that turned out to be the turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War II. full summary | full synopsis
NewsDesk:
(11 articles)
User Reviews:
Blast from the past more (100 total)

Cast

  (in credits order) (verified as complete)

Charlton Heston ... Captain Matt Garth

Henry Fonda ... Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

James Coburn ... Captain Vinton Maddox

Glenn Ford ... Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance

Hal Holbrook ... Commander Joseph Rochefort
Toshirô Mifune ... Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (as Toshiro Mifune)

Robert Mitchum ... Admiral William F. Halsey

Cliff Robertson ... Commander Carl Jessop

Robert Wagner ... Lieutenant Commander Ernest L. Blake
Robert Webber ... Rear Admiral Frank J. 'Jack' Fletcher
Ed Nelson ... Admiral Harry Pearson
James Shigeta ... Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo
Christina Kokubo ... Haruko Sakura

Monte Markham ... Commander Max Leslie
Biff McGuire ... Captain Miles Browning
Christopher George ... Lieutenant Commander C. Wade McClusky
Kevin Dobson ... Ensign George Gay
Glenn Corbett ... Lieutenant Commander John Waldron
Gregory Walcott ... Captain Elliott Buckmaster

Edward Albert ... Lieutenant Tom Garth

Pat Morita ... Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka
John Fujioka ... Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi
Dale Ishimoto ... Vice Admiral Moshiro Hosogaya

Dabney Coleman ... Captain Murray Arnold

Erik Estrada ... Pilot Ramos
Larry Pennell ... Captain Cyril Simard

Clyde Kusatsu ... Cmdr. Watanabe
Phillip R. Allen ... Lt. Cmdr. John S. 'Jimmy' Thach

Tom Selleck ... Aide to Capt. Cyril Simard
Sab Shimono ... Lt. Tomonaga
Conrad Yama ... Adm. Nobutake Kondo
Robert Ito ... Cmdr. Minoru Genda
Yuki Shimoda ... Officer aboard carrier Hiryu
Seth Sakai
Kurt Grayson
Alfie Wise ... Dobbs
Beeson Carroll

John Bennett Perry
Steve Kanaly ... Lt. Cmdr. Lance E. "Lem" Massey
Kip Niven ... PBY pilot
Dennis Rucker ... Ens. Manson
Michael Richardson
James Ingersoll
rest of cast listed alphabetically:

Jeff Chamberlain ... Sailor (uncredited)
Sam Chew Jr. ... Guard (uncredited)
Noel Conlon ... (TV version only) (uncredited)
Larry Csonka ... Cmdr. Delaney (uncredited)
Jesse Dizon ... Pilot (uncredited)
Don Dolan ... (TV version only) (uncredited)
Paul Frees ... Adm. Yamamoto (voice) (uncredited)
Jerry Fujikawa ... Japanese gentleman (uncredited)
Sean Garrison ... Lt. Cmdr. Ken Cunningham (uncredited)

Ned Gill ... Seaman Downes (uncredited)
Redmond Gleeson ... Pvt. Dombrowski (radio man) (uncredited)
Anthony Herrara ... (uncredited)
David Hirokane ... Lt. Shima (uncredited)
Jim Ishida ... Pilot Lt. Takeo Koda (uncredited)
Lloyd Kino ... Capt. Aoki (uncredited)
John Lupton ... Officer Testing Electric Bomb Release (uncredited)

David Macklin ... Lt. Jack Reid (uncredited)
Sandy McPeak ... Capt. Thomas (uncredited)
Chuck Morrell ... Pvt. Andy (uncredited)
Yosuke Natsuki ... Japanese Pilot on Hiryu (uncredited) (archive footage)
Bennett Ohta ... Captain Taijiro Aoki - Commander of Akagi (uncredited)
Frank Parker ... Deke (uncredited)
Clint Ritchie ... Lt. Cmdr. Charles Fenton (uncredited)

Mitch Ryan ... RAdm. Aubrey W. Fitch (uncredited)
Richard Sanders ... (TV version only) (uncredited)
Richard Sarradet ... (uncredited)
John Schuck ... Wilson (uncredited)

Alec Smight ... (TV version only) (uncredited)
Susan Sullivan ... Ann (TV version only) (uncredited)
Miiko Taka ... (TV version only) (uncredited)
William Wellman Jr. ... (TV version only) (uncredited)
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Directed by
Jack Smight 
 
Writing credits
Donald S. Sanford (written by)

Produced by
Walter Mirisch .... producer
 
Original Music by
John Williams 
 
Cinematography by
Harry Stradling Jr. 
 
Film Editing by
Robert Swink 
Frank J. Urioste 
 
Art Direction by
Walter H. Tyler  (as Walter Tyler)
 
Set Decoration by
John M. Dwyer  (as John Dwyer)
 
Production Management
William W. Gray .... production manager (as William Gray)
 
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Richard Hashimoto .... second assistant director
Jerome M. Siegel .... first assistant director (as Jerome Siegel)
 
Sound Department
Roger Heman Jr. .... sound re-recording mixer
Robert L. Hoyt .... sound re-recording mixer
Earl Madery .... sound re-recording mixer
Robert Martin .... sound
Leonard Peterson .... sound
Roger Sword .... sound editor
James Troutman .... sound editor (as Jim Troutman)
 
Special Effects by
Jack McMaster .... special effects
 
Stunts
Steven Burnett .... stunts (uncredited)
Gary Combs .... stunts (uncredited)
Erik Cord .... stunts (uncredited)
Duffy Hambleton .... stunts (uncredited)
Charlie Picerni .... stunts (uncredited)
Bill Saito .... stunts (uncredited)
James Winburn .... stunts (uncredited)
 
Camera and Electrical Department
Clifford Hutchison .... gaffer (uncredited)
 
Music Department
Robert O. Ragland .... conductor
Robert O. Ragland .... orchestrator
John Williams .... conductor
 
Other crew
Bob Forrest .... script supervisor
Vice Admiral Bernard M. Strean .... technical advisor
'Junior' Burchinal .... pilot (uncredited)
 
Crew verified as complete


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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Battle of Midway (Philippines: English title) (UK)
The Battle of Midway (USA) (video title)
more
Runtime:
132 min
Country:
Language:
Colour:
Colour (archive footage) | Black and White (archive footage) | Colour (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Sensurround (Westrex Recording System)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Toshirô Mifune's voice is dubbed by American actor Paul Frees. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: When Admiral Pearson very reluctantly agrees to help Captain Garth with his family problems, he says, "We're even", meaning that by his taking this action all debts between them have been squared. In response, Captain Garth says "Aye, aye, sir." Any navy man knows that this is incorrect; "Aye, aye, sir" does not mean simply, "Yes, sir." It means 1) I hear the order, 2) I understand it, and 3) I will carry it out to the best of my ability." Since Admiral Pearson is not issuing an order in this case, the proper response is simply, "Yes, sir." more
Quotes:
Lt. Jack Reid: You okay?
[to Lieutenant Garth]
Lt. Jack Reid: Here.
[gives him a cigarette]
Pilot Ramos: [Gestures to the scout planes taking off] Those poor bastards are going to miss all the fun. There's nothin' north of us but empty ocean.
Lt. Jack Reid: [to Garth] He gets his dope straight from Tokyo Rose, right, Chili Bean?
Pilot Ramos: Wrong, caballo. I get from here!
[gestures to his head]
Pilot Ramos: When it frizzles, there's Japs around!
more
Movie Connections:

FAQ

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19 out of 23 people found the following review useful.
Blast from the past, 5 June 1999
Author: Philby-3 from Sydney, Australia

Saturday night TV is a bit of a dead zone down here so I suppose one should be grateful for the odd watchable movie, even if its 20 years old. This one looks older than it actually is, due to the liberal use of stock footage and a cast that's a retirement counsellor's dream. A relatively youthful Charlton Heston is in the lead, but there's Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum, Robert Webber and even the great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune. A curious aspect is that every military character with a speaking part is an officer; the grunts just get to grunt. It's very much the view from the bridge (and the pilot's seat). Despite this aspect and the attempt at historical realism it's not made clear quite how it was that the Japanese made the error that cost them the battle, getting caught with their flightdecks full just as the American torpedo bombers arrived. The contribution of the American land-based aircraft is also given scant recognition.

Still you do get a bit of a story, though the less said about the silly sub-plot involving the Heston character's son and a Japanese-American girl the better. The director, Jack Smight had extensive T V experience, as did many of the younger actors, and this shows up in the rather static dialogue scenes you get when you aren't allowed to move the cameras much. The Japanese voices are dubbed, so that Paul Free, the voice of Boris Badenov in "Bullwinkle," (and countless other cartoon characters) is Admiral Yamamoto. The music was written by John Williams who a year or so later did the music for "Star Wars" and you can sense the similarities.

In the film the military operations side of things abounds with anacronisms, partly due to the liberal use of stock footage as mentioned. I don't think you can be too hard on the producers (the low profile but financially successful Mirisch Brothers) for not using a real Japanese World War 2 aircraft carrier since they are all at the bottom of the sea, but the crashed jet on the Yorktown's flightdeck was a bit sloppy. "Tora Tora Tora," which cost more money, was a better film. Not because it cost more money but because it was more carefully made, more balanced (both side's story told well) and more honest, perhaps also because it dealt with defeat rather than victory from the American viewpoint. "Midway" has some suspense, plenty of action, and the the patriotism drum is not banged to the point of pain.

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A better recreation of Midway krspas2
Coverup about Midway? deeveed
TV edits eflandrois
Blu Ray? ColtraneandFlash
TV Version SgtSlaughter
Listed error that is incorrect. viking04
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