Midway (1976)

 “”Wait and see.” We waited. December 7th, we saw… The “Wait and see”-ers will bust your ass *every time*!” – Cmdr. Carl Jessop

Number of Times Seen – 1 (28 Apr 2014)

Brief Synopsis – An accounting of the Battle of Midway during WWII between the US and Japanese Fleets.

My Take on it – I always have enjoyed movies that tell the story of an actual event.

The problem with this movie is unfortunately one that is rampant in these kind of movies tho; it has too much going on at once and the characters aren’t developed well at all that it makes the movie difficult to completely follow and understand who is doing what, when.

It’s a dilemma that is faced in every one of these kind of movies and I’m not quite sure if there is a sure-fire way to tackle that problem.

I think Pearl Harbor (2001) or Titanic (1997) for instance both found a way to tell a story amidst the background of a major event, but weren’t able to go into enough detail about those events as is done in movies like this one.

So I’m not sure how it’s best to make movies like this.

This movie has an all-star cast led by Charlton Heston.  Also appearing are Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, James Shigeta [Takagi from Die Hard (1988)], Pat Morita, Dabney Coleman, Erik Estrada and a not yet famous Tom Selleck.

It’s really too bad that this movie (as the battle itself did) chronicle too many events at once because it just makes this movie less enjoyable.

Bottom Line – Interestingly done. Too many characters with little focus on any of them make it somewhat confusing if not impossible to completely follow the story.

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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