Midway (1976)

Several months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States launched an attack on Japan.  The bombing did minimal damage, but demonstrated that the homeland was not safe from American reprisals.  As such, Admiral Yamamoto (Toshiro Mfune) was allowed to proceed with a daring attack.  With a vast fleet that included 4 aircraft carriers, he set out for Midway Island.

In Hawaii, Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston) confronted intelligence specialist Commander Joe Rochefort.  Joe suspected the Japs were up to something.  Even though he could only decipher 10% of the communiques, he had a hunch that they were moving on Midway.  False report about a water filtration system confirmed it.  Or was this an elaborate ruse by the Japs.  Admiral Nimitz (Henry Fonda) trusted Rochefort's hunch and dispatched the remaining carriers - Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown - to Midway.  Now that the battle map is setup and the players have been introduced, it was time to detail the events.

After some melodrama between Garth, his aviator son (Edward Albert), and his Japanese finance (Christina Kokubo), the movie becomes a dramatized documentary on the battle.  Each fleet sending scout planes to locate the other, bombers unescorted by fighters are wiped from the sky, unprotected carriers are sunk, and Midway Island is bombed.  Thought Garth is the main character, the story is not told from his perspective.  There is Admiral Spruance (Glenn Ford) commanding Task Force 16 (which comprised Enterprise & Hornet), a command he received on account of Admiral Halsey (Robert Mitchum) suffering from shingles.  Admiral Fletcher (Robert Webber) commands Task Force 17, which only had one carrier, the Yorktown.  The Yorktown had been seriously damaged at the Battle of Coral Sea and really should have been in port for repairs, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  Of course, there is Admiral Nimitz in Hawaii who gets regular reports on how things are going.

There are entirely too many characters.  The number of noteworthy stars is impressive.  James Coburn gets a cameo as a naysayer to Nimitz's strategy.  Robert Wagner is Admiral Nimitz's chief of staff.  Tom Selleck is an unnamed officer on Midway.  Dabney Coleman is an officer on one of the carriers.  Cliff Robertson, Monte Markham, Christopher George, Steve Kanaly, and Erik Estrada are pilots.  Pat Morita - best remembered as Mr. Miagi - plays a Japanese admiral.

Just okay.  A good thumbnail sketch of the Battle of Midway, the battle that turned the Pacific War in the United States' favor.