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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This review isn't about the 1975 film called "Midway" in general, but the specific version with the ASIN number of B0000AOWN3. Note it's running time is 126 minutes.
And herein lies the problem. For some reason, there are 6 minutes missing from this film rather than its so-called Collector's Edition counterpart with ASIN B00005N5S3. I haven't watched both to be sure, but I suspect those six minutes include two things which I found inexplicably missing in this version.
First of all, no matter how much I fiddled with my widescreen telly's controls, I couldn't find any captions for all the different squadrons which identify which body of airplanes you're looking at. That omission meant the audience is left in the dark about whether they're looking at a torpedo squadron or bombers or fighters (this is especially helpful when, as other reviewers have noted, the planes themselves aren't the correct kind). Even the spy planes in other versions are labeled Strawberry 5 or Strawberry 6 (US) and Spy Plane 4 from a Japanese carrier.
Second, a crucial scene is missing from the end of the film. (spoiler)
Matt Garth's crash at the end is supposed to be due to an old hand injury, which is heightened with cockpit scenes of his wrestling with the controls in his bad hand. All this is missing from the 126-minute version, so you don't see more than just his crash.
According to Wikipedia, there's yet another version of Midway that was made for t.v. and ran to about 2 hours and 40 minutes. This version includes back-story scenes with Susan Sullivan as Heston's girlfriend (ten minutes of this is included as a bonus feature on this DVD). Unfortunately, this t.v. version isn't available on DVD, though we can hope/pray that Universal could release this for the 70th anniversary in 2012.
All this aside, you can still play an awesome drinking game with any edition. Take a sip of beer or libation of your choice every time anyone says "sir". If you want to make it more interesting, down your drink when you catch a glimpse of Erik Estrada (of CHIPS fame, playing fighter pilot "Chilli Bean") and Tom Selleck (Magnum PI, playing a soldier on Midway Island itself) who had bit parts before they were famous. Be warned: they show up within a few minutes of each other. Another warning: you may not remember the end of the film!
And herein lies the problem. For some reason, there are 6 minutes missing from this film rather than its so-called Collector's Edition counterpart with ASIN B00005N5S3. I haven't watched both to be sure, but I suspect those six minutes include two things which I found inexplicably missing in this version.
First of all, no matter how much I fiddled with my widescreen telly's controls, I couldn't find any captions for all the different squadrons which identify which body of airplanes you're looking at. That omission meant the audience is left in the dark about whether they're looking at a torpedo squadron or bombers or fighters (this is especially helpful when, as other reviewers have noted, the planes themselves aren't the correct kind). Even the spy planes in other versions are labeled Strawberry 5 or Strawberry 6 (US) and Spy Plane 4 from a Japanese carrier.
Second, a crucial scene is missing from the end of the film. (spoiler)
Matt Garth's crash at the end is supposed to be due to an old hand injury, which is heightened with cockpit scenes of his wrestling with the controls in his bad hand. All this is missing from the 126-minute version, so you don't see more than just his crash.
According to Wikipedia, there's yet another version of Midway that was made for t.v. and ran to about 2 hours and 40 minutes. This version includes back-story scenes with Susan Sullivan as Heston's girlfriend (ten minutes of this is included as a bonus feature on this DVD). Unfortunately, this t.v. version isn't available on DVD, though we can hope/pray that Universal could release this for the 70th anniversary in 2012.
All this aside, you can still play an awesome drinking game with any edition. Take a sip of beer or libation of your choice every time anyone says "sir". If you want to make it more interesting, down your drink when you catch a glimpse of Erik Estrada (of CHIPS fame, playing fighter pilot "Chilli Bean") and Tom Selleck (Magnum PI, playing a soldier on Midway Island itself) who had bit parts before they were famous. Be warned: they show up within a few minutes of each other. Another warning: you may not remember the end of the film!
33 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Made by the same studio that gave us Tora Tora Tora, I was really looking forward to this film. Whilst TTT was both historically accurate & excellently acted, this one is exactly the opposite. It is truly,absolutely dreadful !!! The acting is uniformly wooden and the dialogue is cringeworthy. You can tell this movie was made "on the cheap" because EVERY action scene is made up from a combination of old World War II footage and at least 45 minutes of Tora Tora Tora. So-much-so that scenes of Japanese torpedo bombers attacking the American carriers ,supposedly 125 miles off Midway, show the Pearl Harbour dockyard cranes in the background. Using stock footage,certainly saves money but badly detracts from reality. Pilots take off in Wildcats which, randomly, turn into Hellcats during flight and SBD Dauntless dive bombers turn into Helldivers then Avengers then Corsairs (and back) again apparently at random. In a ludicrous finale they even manage to add stock footage of an F9F Panther jet in a deck crash landing scene.I only rated this one star, as I was not allowed to give it less.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Midway is very much from the last-gasp of big-screen spot-the-star epics, and it shows. On paper it's an impressive cast - Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum, James Coburn, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Toshiro Mifune, James Shigeta - but aside from Heston, Fonda and Hal Holbrook, few of them have much to do: Mitchum only has one scene. Much of the first third of the film is taken up with either gathering intelligence while Heston tries not very hard to get estranged son Edward Albert's Japanese-American wife out of internment (this section was even longer, with a subplot with Heston's wife removed from all but the US TV prints: parts of it can be found in this disc's deleted scenes).
Things don't improve much when battle is finally joined and it becomes clear that aside from the odd scene on the deck of an aircraft carrier, the new footage is mainly men in control rooms or cockpits intercut less than convincingly with stock footage from Tora! Tora! Tora! and real color footage of the battle. Unfortunately, blown up to widescreen they often look jarringly grainy, constantly drawing attention to how much of a cut-and-paste the film is. In many ways, despite the widescreen and Senssurround trappings of its theatrical release, this 1976 film often looks like something you'd have expected to be made during the war or perhaps something that started life as an intended TV miniseries: watchable enough without ever really threatening to become truly memorable.
Despite this, it was still surprisingly commercially successful at the US box-office - but then, unlike Tora! Tora! Tora!, the good guys won this particular battle. The DVD is of the two hour theatrical version, but comes loaded with plenty of additional features - 4 deleted scenes and extended ending, a 38-minute making of documentary, featurettes on John Williams' score and the sound effects, the original ten-minute making of short from 1976, stills montage and trailer.
Things don't improve much when battle is finally joined and it becomes clear that aside from the odd scene on the deck of an aircraft carrier, the new footage is mainly men in control rooms or cockpits intercut less than convincingly with stock footage from Tora! Tora! Tora! and real color footage of the battle. Unfortunately, blown up to widescreen they often look jarringly grainy, constantly drawing attention to how much of a cut-and-paste the film is. In many ways, despite the widescreen and Senssurround trappings of its theatrical release, this 1976 film often looks like something you'd have expected to be made during the war or perhaps something that started life as an intended TV miniseries: watchable enough without ever really threatening to become truly memorable.
Despite this, it was still surprisingly commercially successful at the US box-office - but then, unlike Tora! Tora! Tora!, the good guys won this particular battle. The DVD is of the two hour theatrical version, but comes loaded with plenty of additional features - 4 deleted scenes and extended ending, a 38-minute making of documentary, featurettes on John Williams' score and the sound effects, the original ten-minute making of short from 1976, stills montage and trailer.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
One of the best war films ever made, although harmed by the bad use of...
Although fully aware of its weak spots, I give "Midway" full five stars, because I believe this is one of the best reconstructions of major battles in history of cinema, the others... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Maciej
Great film
Great cast of actors, some of the story line is a bit limp, but the portrayal of these events is good. Well worth watching
Published 9 months ago by John Casey
Good DVD/Average Film
'MIdway' is an average war film. It's no where near as good as 'Tora Tora Tora'. It works as a historical account and there's an impressive cast(Fonda, Heston,Coburn etc) and John... Read more
Published 12 months ago by j.r
rubbish director
having just seen the film i carnt believe the directors have put into it the same footage from tora,tora,tora its exactly the same, also had hoped to see a bit more action even... Read more
Published 14 months ago by WEEKEND WARRIOR
The Most Complex Form of Modern Warfare
I realize that a lot of the review of this film were quite scathing, but I am still going to rate this with five stars. I find it a very enjoyable and informative film. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2010 by givbatam3
A great film with great actors action and story
The Battle of Midway is a great film with many great actors giving great performances in a story of the turning point in the Pacific War. Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2008 by Mr. R. S. Hutton Mckee
Not as good as I remember !
I watched this and had it on video about 20 years ago and, being young, thought it pretty good
However, now on DVD, it is pretty poor
Much of the footage used... Read more
However, now on DVD, it is pretty poor
Much of the footage used... Read more
Published on 14 April 2008 by Brumbar
A five star turkey
Anyone coming to this film having enjoyed Tora, Tora, Tora will be gravely disappointed. Despite it's 'all-star' cast, the acting is uniformly wooden, with a leaden main plot and a... Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2007 by birchden
Battle of Midway DVD.
A true epic in the old style of true to life real action with real classic aircraft. A great film providing that you take the sub plots with a pinch of salt. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2007 by Kj Goodwin
Fairly 2nd rate.
I bought this several years ago and was very dissappointed. It compares very unfavourably with Tora Tora Tora! Read more
Published on 5 July 2007 by ap999
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