The battle of midway is done with captions to identify historical characters. Historically accurate in its major points, a subplot of an American flyer who is engaged to a Hawiian girl of Japanese descent has been added. This is the battle in which the previously undefeated Japanese fleet was stopped in a battle during which all damage was done by aircraft. The opposing fleets never saw each other. The 1942 battles of the Coral Sea and Midway island are retold through the points of view of both sides. When an audacious US air raid reaches Japan itself, Combined Fleet commander Isoroku Yamamoto orders seaborne invasions of Port Moresby in the southwestern Pacific and of Midway Island near Hawaii, invasions that Yamamoto hopes will smoke out the US Pacific Fleet for destruction before the full might of US war production can kick in. The Japanese are supremely confident of victory over the vastly outnumbered US fleet, but they are unaware that US Navy intelligence has cracked the Imperial Navy's codes, allowing the US to deploy aircraft carriers to maximum counteroffensive effect. I know I WILL catch flack for this, but this was just bad. They used footage from other films, and I think this started the love story in war movies theme. The Japanese spoke perfect English…in Tora! Tora! Tora! I loved the sub titles… they conveyed so much more about the actual speaking and history of Japanese, in my opinion. I have this movie, just cause I am war movie fanatic, but I don't watch it. The couple of times I have seen it, I am set for life. Tora! Tora! Tora!, The Longest Day, hell even Where Eagles Dare, are much better movies. Just was a very weak movie. Check out Airforce or Wake Island. The Sands of Iwo Jima….and yes I am looking forward to seeing the movie, Flag Of Our Fathers. This entire process was a total waste of time. The film is about the most pivotal sea battle in WW2. The treatment given some of the most famous figures in the war is nearly criminal. Only Henry Fonda can properly play Adm. Chester Nimitz, and he does so well in this film. Everyone else, including the *star*, Charleton Heston, is terrible. Many of the performances, particularly those of the Japanese actors, are very mechanical. Heston, whom I have never liked as an actor, stinks in this one. The entire charade of the love affair between his son and his Japanese girlfriend should have been left out. The use of stock footage included many ships and aircraft of the wrong era, reuse of film from Tora! Tora! Tora! and overall very poor editing make this a lousy film. Don't waste your time on this one!
Jazmfyn replied
344 weeks ago