Midway

When it was released first on VHS and now on DVD I was greatly disappointed to see how much film footage has been cut out from the original theatrical release.
In its original release MIDWAY ran for almost 2 hours 45 minutes.
On VHS and DVD it runs for 2 hours 10 minutes. What happened to all the othe extra scenes???
Where is the Battle of the Coral Sea which was shown in the original movie?

Furthermore they cut out the surround sound and made it Mono.
It is ridiculous that the have a Special Feature on Surround Sound, but the DVD was made in Mono sound.

And they call this DVD a Special Collector's Edition???
Come on Universal give us the full extended theatrical release along with 5.1 Surround Sound.


"The battle that made everything else possible"   August 11, 2004
Alejandra Vernon (Long Beach, California)
46 out of 52 found this review helpful

I have seen "Midway" countless times, and find it impressive for many reasons: The many scenes that contain original war footage, the fabulous cast, and the degree of historical accuracy, which is exceptional for a Hollywood epic.
Some of the WWII footage is riveting, and is edited to blend in well with the 1976 cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr., which is also marvelous; a good score by John Williams also adds to the atmosphere, though mostly we hear the sounds that would have been heard at the time...the roar of the sea, the wind, and the exploding bombs.

Many of the fascinating figures of history are represented well, and a few brilliantly, like Hal Holbrook as Commander Joseph Rochefort, the man who intercepted and broke the codes. Holbrook's portrayal is much like the real man, who working many times 20 hour shifts in a bunker, was a little scruffy, and had crucial information that was an essential part of the battle plans.
Henry Fonda is great as Admiral Chester Nimitz, and other big stars include Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum, Toshiro Mifune, James Coburn, Cliff Robertson and Robert Wagner. I love the way the battle is planed like a chess game by both American and Japanese leaders, moving little "boats" around on a big map, each side trying to outwit the other. It also lays out the basics of the battle and makes it fairly understandable for the non-military person.

Charlton Heston is terrific as Captain Matthew Garth, the fictional character in the script, who has to deal with his son (Edward Albert), in love with a Japanese-American girl (Christina Kokubo), who has been interned with her parents. This little bit of "romance" I imagine was included in the film to round out the "human interest", and though I could have lived without this non-historical addition, it is peripheral to the action.

Admiral Nimitz said that the Battle of Midway was "The battle that made everything else possible", and this film is an excellent way to get a feel for the momentous events of that time, with its heroism, tragedy, extraordinary battle tactics, and men who changed the course of history.
Total running time is 132 minutes.



One Star is Too Many For This All-Star Dud   May 17, 2003
Alex Diaz-Granados (Miami, FL United States)
34 out of 46 found this review helpful

The battle of Midway, considered by most historians to be the turning point of the Pacific War, is one of those subjects that scream "Great movie material!" Almost six months after Pearl Harbor, a small U.S. fleet of 3 aircraft carriers, a handful of cruisers and destroyers, a few submarines, and a motley crew of land based aircraft, faced off against most of the Japanese Combined Fleet. Outnumbered in almost every category, the U.S. Pacific Fleet triumphed at Midway, ending Japan's expansion and forcing her to go into the defensive.

Jack Smight's film, released in 1976 with the gimmicky Sensurround sound system, should have been a good movie, since the story of Midway has so many Hollywood-ready elements: Japan's shocked reaction to the Doolitle Raid, the breaking of the JN-25 code by U.S. Navy crypto-analysts, the Japanese buildup and planning, the desperate attempts to repair the damaged USS Yorktown in time for the battle, and the dramatic showdown that led to the sinking of all four of Japan's big carriers on June 4th, 1942. And while Smight's movie does include all of these elements, Midway (the movie) is still a mediocre film.

Blame this failure on the screenplay and how the film was shot. The screenplay is mostly to blame: it tries to be both documentary (a la The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far)and melodrama (with fictional characters played by Charlton Heston and Edward Albert as a father-and-son duo of Navy officers, each with melodramatic subplots added, I assume, to give them "human interest.") Worse, the screenplay only depicts the sinking of the four Japanese carriers; while it does show the attacks that damage the USS Yorktown, it never shows the submarine attack that sinks her and her escort, USS Hammann.

Another bad move: unlike The Longest Day and The Battle of Britain, which had its Germans speaking German with English subtitles, Midway has its Japanese characters speaking in English! Toshiro Mifune, Kurosawa's favorite actor, plays Admiral Yamamoto stiffly, and his lines are dubbed in English...it's almost laughable...reminds me of watching Godzilla on TV. Even worse, when the Japanese plan is depicted on big naval-style charts, the labels on the pieces are in both English and Japanese.

In order to cut costs, the producers also cribbed scenes from other, better war movies. The film starts with footage "borrowed" from 1944's Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, and Richard Fleischer's Tora! Tora! Tora! was the main source for scenes depicting the Japanese attack on Midway Island. In addition, the filmmakers make extensive use of actual color combat footage. Had this footage been shot at Midway, it would not be a problem. But unfortunately most of the war footage comes from later in the war, and planes not in service in 1942 appear hither and yon throughout the movie.

Midway veterans, on both sides, deserve a better movie.


Will someone please do a DVD version with Coral Sea   December 14, 2001
David S Clark (Columbus, Ohio USA)
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

Why won't someone put out a complete version of this movie on DVD or even VHS. It is a much better movie when complete and you almost never see it that way. TNT seems to be the only one who shows it that way and they almost never do so, TBS and TCM also show it but in various cut down versions. If the people who put these DVDs and VHSs out are so fond of the cut down version, why not release a two DVD set with the cut and complete versions on it so us werdos who like to watch complete movies can get our fix.


Good but missing a lot from original theatrical showing   September 26, 1999
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

This film is very close to what did take place in June of 42.The actors did a good job of telling the story.The dvd version left out all of the Coral Sea battle and Charlton Heston's Matt Garth love interest along with the meeting between the young Japanese pilot and admiral Nagomo about the war and how Japan might loose it.Why all of this could not have been included into this version of the movie I do not know.Overall the quality of the dvd was very good.The audio was very clear and the video sharp and clean.It seems as though they even managed to keep the low bass of the Sensearound audio track.I found this dvd video a lot better then my vhs copy in quality.Overall worth the price and worth seeing again.