Midway is a 1976 war film

War film

War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...

 directed by Jack Smight

Jack Smight

Jack Smight was an American theatre and film director.Smight was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to school with future actor Peter Graves...

 and produced by
Walter Mirisch

Walter Mirisch

Walter Mortimer Mirisch is an American film producer. In his long and successful motion picture career, Walter Mirisch has produced some of the industry’s finest and most memorable films...

 from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford

Donald S. Sanford

Donald S. Sanford was an American television, radio and film screenwriter. Sanford was known for his work on numerous television series, as well as his role as the author of the screenplay for the 1976 World War II film Midway, starring Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, which became a cult...

. The music score was by John Williams

John Williams

John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...

 and the cinematography by Harry Stradling, Jr. The film features an international cast of superstars including Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...

, Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda

Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...

, James Coburn

James Coburn

James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...

, Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford

Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...

, Hal Holbrook

Hal Holbrook

Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...

, Toshirō Mifune

Toshiro Mifune

Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...

, Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...

, Cliff Robertson

Cliff Robertson

Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...

, Robert Wagner

Robert Wagner

Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...

, James Shigeta

James Shigeta

James Shigeta is an American film and television actor. He is also a standards singer, musical theatre and nightclub performer, and recording artist. He is a Nisei or second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.-Early life:...

, Pat Morita

Pat Morita

Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...

, Robert Ito

Robert Ito

Robert Ito is a Canadian voice, television, and movie actor of Japanese decent.A Canadian actor of Japanese descent, Ito was, for many years, a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada before turning to acting in the mid-1960s...

 and Christina Kokubo

Christina Kokubo

Christina Kokubo was an American film and television actress; she was also a drama teacher.-Career:Kokubo appeared in several feature films, including The Yakuza , a neo-noir gangster film set in Japan, and Midway , in which she played a Japanese-American who has a troubled romance with a white...

, among others.

The soundtrack used Sensurround

Sensurround

Sensurround is the trademark name for a process developed in the 1970s by Cerwin-Vega in conjunction with Universal Studios to enhance the audio experience during film screenings...

 to augment the physical sensation of engine noise, explosions, crashes and gunfire.

Plot

The film chronicles the Battle of Midway

Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...

, a turning point in World War II in the Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

 had been undefeated until that time and out-numbered the American naval forces by four to one.

The film follows two threads, one centered around the Japanese chief strategist Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto

was a Japanese Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of Harvard University ....

 (played by Mifune), and the other around fictional characters, Captain Matt Garth (Heston), an American naval officer who is involved in various phases of the US planning and execution of the battle and Garth's son (also a pilot involved in the battle) is romantically involved with Haruko Sakura (Kokubo), an American-born daughter of Japanese immigrants, who has been interned

Japanese internment

Japanese internment is a term generally used to refer to one or both of the following events:*Japanese American internment, the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II...

 with her parents. Garth calls in all of his favors with a long-time friend to investigate the charges against the Sakuras (apparently with success, as Haruko is free and at dockside when the injured younger Garth is carried off the ship at the end of the film)

The film starts with the Doolittle raid

Doolittle Raid

The Doolittle Raid, on 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike the Japanese Home Islands during World War II. By demonstrating that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, it provided a vital morale boost and opportunity for U.S. retaliation after the...

, and so takes place before the Battle of the Coral Sea

Battle of the Coral Sea

The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4–8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged...

 (which is only mentioned). It depicts the creation of a complicated battle plan. Unknown to the Japanese, American signals intelligence has broken the Japanese Naval encryption

Encryption

In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...

 codes and know ahead of time that the ambush will take place at Midway Island

Midway Atoll

Midway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...

. American Admiral Chester Nimitz (played by Fonda), plays a desperate gamble by sending his last remaining aircraft carriers to Midway before the Japanese to set up his own ambush.

Successful in saving Midway, but at a heavy cost, Nimitz reflects that Yamamoto "had everything going for him", asking "were we better than the Japanese, or just luckier?"

Background and production

The film was shot at the Terminal Island

Terminal Island

Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a mudflat known to the Spanish as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918...

 Naval Base, Los Angeles, California, the U.S. Naval Station, Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

 and Pensacola, Florida

Pensacola, Florida

Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...

. The on-board scenes were filmed in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the . The Lexington, a World War II-era carrier that was decommissioned in 1991, was the longest-serving carrier in history. She is now a museum ship at Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...

.

A PBY-6A Catalina

PBY Catalina

The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...

 BuNo 63998, N16KL, of the Confederate Air Force, was used in depicting all the search and rescue mission scenes.

It was the second of only four films released with a Sensurround

Sensurround

Sensurround is the trademark name for a process developed in the 1970s by Cerwin-Vega in conjunction with Universal Studios to enhance the audio experience during film screenings...

 sound mix which required special speakers to be installed in movie theatres. The other Sensurround films were Earthquake

Earthquake (film)

Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations...

 (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), and Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The franchise began with the Battlestar Galactica TV series in 1978, and was followed by a brief sequel TV series in 1980, a line of book adaptations, original novels, comic books, a board game, and video games...

 (1978). The regular soundtrack (dialog, background and music) was monaural; a second optical track was devoted to low frequency rumble added to battle scenes and when characters were near unmuffled military engines.

Many of the action sequences used footage from earlier films: most sequences of the Japanese air raids on Midway are stock shots from 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

's Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora!

is a 1970 American-Japanese war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to the extent these facts were known at the time of production. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and stars an all-star cast, including So Yamamura, E.G...

 (1970). Some scenes are from the Japanese Toho film Hawai Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi

Storm Over the Pacific

is a 1960 color Japanese film directed by Shūe Matsubayashi.It is the first color widescreen war film from Toho Studios...

 (1960) (which also stars Mifune). Several action scenes, including the one where an A6M Zero

A6M Zero

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a long-range fighter aircraft operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945. The A6M was designated as the , and also designated as the Mitsubishi A6M Rei-sen and Mitsubishi Navy 12-shi Carrier Fighter. The A6M was usually referred to by the...

 slams into the 's bridge, were taken from Away All Boats

Away All Boats

Away All Boats is a 1956 American war film produced by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Joseph Pevney and produced by Howard Christie from a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman based on the 1953 novel by Kenneth M. Dodson....

 (1956); scenes of Doolittle's Tokyo raid at the beginning of the film are from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Thirty Seconds over Tokyo

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is a 1944 MGM war film. It is based on the true story of America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan four months after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist. The screenplay by...

 (1944). In addition, most dogfight sequences come from wartime gun camera footage or from the film Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain (film)

Battle of Britain is a 1969 Technicolor film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain...

 (1969).

As with many "carrier films" produced around this time, the US Navy Essex class aircraft carrier

Essex class aircraft carrier

The Essex class was a class of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy, which constituted the 20th century's most numerous class of capital ships with 24 vessels built in both "short-hull" and "long-hull" versions. Thirty-two were originally ordered; however as World War II wound down, six were...

 USS Lexington played the parts of both American and Japanese flattops for shipboard scenes.

Authenticity of the combat footage

The film uses real combat footage, but not necessarily of the actions portrayed. The U.S. carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

 fighter-planes in the Battle of Midway were Grumman F4F Wildcat

F4F Wildcat

The Grumman F4F Wildcat was an American carrier-based fighter aircraft that began service with both the United States Navy and the British Royal Navy in 1940...

s, and the film does use footage of Wildcats, flying in formation. Mention is made of the Brewster F2A Buffalo

Brewster Buffalo

The Brewster F2A Buffalo was an American fighter aircraft which saw limited service early in World War II. Though the Buffalo won a competition against the Grumman F4F Wildcat in 1939 to become the US Navy's first monoplane fighter aircraft, it turned out to be a big disappointment...

, which was employed extensively in the real battle, but no aircraft of this type are seen in the film. However, several scenes of combat action and carrier landings in the movie show the later era and visibly distinct F6F Hellcat

F6F Hellcat

The Grumman F6F Hellcat was a carrier-based fighter aircraft developed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat in United States Navy service. Although the F6F resembled the Wildcat, it was a completely new design powered by a 2,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-2800. Some tagged it as the "Wildcat's big...

 and F4U Corsair

F4U Corsair

The Vought F4U Corsair was a carrier-capable fighter aircraft that saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Demand for the aircraft soon overwhelmed Vought's manufacturing capability, resulting in production by Goodyear and Brewster: Goodyear-built Corsairs were designated FG and...

. On the Wildcat, the wings are straight and mounted midway through the fuselage

Fuselage

The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...

. The Hellcat is very similar, but with the wings mounted much lower (under the fuselage), another distinctive feature is the F6F's 'Smile', while the Corsair, in contrast, has inverted gull-wings. In combat, stock Spitfire and Hurricane images from Battle of Britain were used to make up for the Wildcats and Buffaloes.

All the scenes of American single-engined bombers flying in formation are of SB2U Vindicator

SB2U Vindicator

The Vought SB2U Vindicator was a carrier-based dive bomber developed for the United States Navy in the 1930s, the first monoplane in this role. Obsolescent at the outbreak of World War II, Vindicators still remained in service at the time of the Battle of Midway, but by 1943, all had been withdrawn...

s (actually in use at that time), so that the famous attack by Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8

VT-8

Torpedo Squadron 8 was a United States Navy squadron of World War II torpedo bombers assigned initially to the Air Group operating from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet , until after her loss in October 1942 during the Battle of Santa Cruz Island...

), made in Douglas TBD-1 Devastator

TBD Devastator

The Douglas TBD Devastator was a torpedo bomber of the United States Navy, ordered in 1934, first flying in 1935 and entering service in 1937. At that point, it was the most advanced aircraft flying for the USN and possibly for any navy in the world...

s, is depicted by Vindicators in formation, but with SBD Dauntless

SBD Dauntless

The Douglas SBD Dauntless was a naval dive bomber made by Douglas during World War II. The SBD was the United States Navy's main dive bomber from mid-1940 until late 1943, when it was largely replaced by the SB2C Helldiver...

es making the actual attack. The sole survivor, ensign George H. Gay, Jr., is then seen crashing into the ocean, using footage of a single-seater Hellcat fighter. A little later, an attack by Dauntless dive bombers is portrayed by the same Vindicators in formation, but with Dauntless's making the actual attack, with a Corsair mixed in.

According to Robert Osborne, the host of the Turner Classic Movies channel

Turner Classic Movies

Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...

, the film relied heavily on combat footage shot on color film stock which is more likely to have been shot by the U.S. Navy after the battle.

Other scenes include footage of German Bf 109

Messerschmitt Bf 109

The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...

 and He 111

Heinkel He 111

The Heinkel He 111 was a German aircraft designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter in the early 1930s in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Often described as a "Wolf in sheep's clothing", it masqueraded as a transport aircraft, but its purpose was to provide the Luftwaffe with a fast medium...

 aircraft which did not participate in the actual battle, possibly the result of using stock footage from the film Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain (film)

Battle of Britain is a 1969 Technicolor film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain...

. The film does not depict the first air attacks launched by B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-26 Marauder

B-26 Marauder

The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe....

s, and TBF Avenger

TBF Avenger

The Grumman TBF Avenger was a torpedo bomber developed initially for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and eventually used by several air or naval arms around the world....

s. In at least one scene, an aircraft carrier is shown to have an "angled" deck, an innovation developed after the war. World War II era carriers had straight-decks.

These inaccurate depictions resulted from various limitations, including the desire to make use of contemporary color film footage, which was both rare and mostly absent with regards to the actual events being portrayed in the film. The 18-minute John Ford

John Ford

John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

 documentary, The Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway is a 1942 American documentary film short directed by John Ford. It is a montage of color footage of the Battle of Midway with voice overs of various narrators, including Donald Crisp, Henry Fonda, and Jane Darwell...

, was shot during the battle in color, though the footage was all shot from the island of Midway and thus offered no footage of aerial combat or naval operations. Stock footage from other theatrical films was used to augment the available wartime footage, namely from Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain (film)

Battle of Britain is a 1969 Technicolor film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain...

 and Tora! Tora! Tora!

Tora! Tora! Tora!

is a 1970 American-Japanese war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, to the extent these facts were known at the time of production. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and stars an all-star cast, including So Yamamura, E.G...

 (U.S. Navy battleship masts, of which there were none in this action, are visible in certain attack scenes, borrowed from Tora! Tora! Tora!).

Other inaccuracies

Four historic inaccuracies are depicted in the scene where the Japanese aircraft carriers are destroyed.

1. A bomb is depicted as blasting the bridge of the carrier Akagi and shattering the interior; this happened to the Kaga.
2. The scene also shows aircraft from the Yorktown attacking the Kaga; Yorktowns aircraft actually focused their attack on the Soryu.
3. The film depicts planes from the Yorktown sinking the . In reality the Yorktown's surviving aircraft were landed aboard Enterprise and combined with Enterprise aircraft to deliver the final attack on Hiryu.
4. Lt. Tomonaga is shown purposely crashing his plane into an American warship. Kamikaze
   Kamikaze
   The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
   
    attacks were not officially undertaken until after 1943, and while such suicide attacks by damaged Japanese aircraft did occur, there were no such attacks recorded during the Battle of Midway except by a US Marine dive bomber pilot during the attack on the Mikuma after the main engagement ended. Tomonaga's plane mostly likely crashed into the sea after receiving flak damage.

Also, the movie gives no clear reference as to Yorktowns fate after being hit by 2 torpedoes from carrier planes launched by Hiryū. After having her engines knocked out, she was taken under tow, on her way back to Pearl Harbor for repairs. The , serving as part of the Japanese patrol group between Midway and Pearl Harbor, sank her before she returned to base. No mention is made of this attack.

In addition, the movie gives the date of 6 June, 1942 as to when the US Navy found the fourth Japanese "flattop" and then sent an attack to destroy it when, in actuality, all four Japanese carriers were attacked and badly damaged by 10:00 of 4 June. The film fails to mention that the Japanese and American carriers were on different sides of the international dateline. The film gives the date and time of the initial Japanese attack at 04:30 on 4 June; the American carriers were and Midway was (and still is) on the other side of the international dateline, so the Japanese attack on Midway occurred at about 07:00 on 3 June, given the fact that it took the Japanese warplanes 2.5 hours to reach Midway from their carriers.

Internment in Hawaii

The film portrays a young Japanese-American woman, Haruko, and her Issei

Issei

Issei is a Japanese language term used in countries in North America, South America and Australia to specify the Japanese people first to immigrate. Their children born in the new country are referred to as Nisei , and their grandchildren are Sansei...

 parents interned near Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 naval base. This is explained as having been due to Haruko's father making frequent visits to the Japanse Consulate and her membership in various Japanese cultural associations.

However, only 1,800 citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry were interned in Hawaii (as compared to over 110,000 in California). By June, 1942, most had been moved to internment camps on the mainland (a fate planned for Haruko and her family, and prevented by Garth). The closest internment camp to Pearl Harbor was on Sand Island

Sand Island (Hawaii)

Sand Island, formerly known as Quarantine Island, is a small island within the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. The island lies at the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.-History:...

, a former quarantine island on the Honolulu waterfront just east of the mouth of the harbor. Sand Island housed prominent Issei social and religious leaders and separated men's quarters from women's. The film shows Haruko's parents sitting together in a shared room and Haruko defends them as being introverted and harmless recipients of Japanese patriotic magazines and newspapers; a situation that would have been common in California. Internees at Sand Island had at least one member of their family assessed as a major security risk, such as her father's visits to the Consulate (explained by Haruko as meeting with old friends).

TV version

Shortly after its successful theatrical debut, additional material was assembled and shot in standard 1.33:1 ratio for a TV version of the film. A major character was added: Susan Sullivan

Susan Sullivan

Susan Michaela Sullivan is an American actress, known for several notable roles on various television programs. Sullivan played the role of Lenore Curtin Delaney on the daytime soap opera, Another World ; waitress Lois Adams during the first season of the comedy It's a Living, Maggie Gioberti...

 played Ann, the girlfriend of Captain Garth, adding depth to his reason for previously divorcing Ensign Garth's mother, and bringing further emotional impact to the fate of Captain Garth. The TV version also has Coral Sea

Battle of the Coral Sea

The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4–8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged...

 battle scenes to help the plot build up to the decisive engagement at Midway. The TV version was 33 minutes longer than the film and was aired as a two-part special.

Part of this additional footage is available as a bonus feature on the Universal Pictures Home Entertainment DVD of Midway.

Reception

Robert Niemi, author of History in the Media: Film and Television, stated that Midways "clichéd dialogue" and an overuse of stock footage lead the film to have a "shopworn quality that signalled the end of the heroic era of American-made World War II epics." He described the film as a "final, anachronistic attempt to recapture World War II glories in a radically altered geopolitical era, when the old good-versus-evil dichotomies no longer made sense."

Cast

Actor	Role
Edward Albert Edward Albert Edward Albert was an American film and television actor. He was also known as Edward Laurence Albert, Laurence Edward Albert and occasionally Eddie Albert, Jr.-Early life:Albert was born Edward Laurence Heimberger in Los Angeles, California, to actor Eddie...	Ens. Ensign (rank) Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....  Thomas Garth
Philip R. Allen	Lt. Cmdr. Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...  John S. "Jimmy" Thach John Thach John Smith "Jimmy" Thach was a World War II naval aviator, air combat tactician, and United States Navy admiral. Thach developed the Thach Weave, a combat flight formation that could counter enemy fighters of superior performance, and later the big blue blanket, an aerial defense against Kamikaze...
Beeson Carroll Beeson Carroll Beeson Carroll is an American actor. He made an initial appearance in the role of Donald Penobscot, the first husband of Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on the TV series M*A*S*H, but was unavailable for the character's second appearance; the role went to former Tarzan and football player Mike...	Wilson
James Coburn James Coburn James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...	Capt. Captain (naval) Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....  Vinton Maddox
Dabney Coleman Dabney Coleman Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...	Capt. Murray Arnold
Glenn Corbett Glenn Corbett Glenn Corbett was an American actor best known for his role on CBS's adventure drama Route 66.-Acting career:...	Lt. Cmdr. John C. Waldron John C. Waldron John Charles Waldron was a United States Navy aviator who led a squadron of torpedo bombers in World War II...
Larry Csonka Larry Csonka Larry Richard Csonka is a former collegiate and professional American football fullback.-Childhood:One of six children, Csonka was born in Stow, Ohio where he was raised on a farm by his Hungarian family...	Lt. Cmdr. J.F. Delaney
Kevin Dobson Kevin Dobson Kevin Patrick Dobson is an American film and television actor of Irish descent, who is primarily known for his roles on television. His most prominent roles were as Lt. Theo Kojak's trusted partner, Det. Bobby Crocker on the popular 1970s TV crime drama Kojak, and as Karen MacKenzie's second...	Ens. George H. Gay
Erik Estrada Erik Estrada Henry Enrique "Erik" Estrada is an American police officer and actor, known for his co-starring lead role in the 1977–1983 United States police television series CHiPs...	Ens. Ramos "Chili Bean"
Henry Fonda Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...	Adm. Admiral Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...  Chester Nimitz
Glenn Ford Glenn Ford Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...	RAdm. Rear Admiral Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...  Raymond A. Spruance Raymond A. Spruance Raymond Ames Spruance was a United States Navy admiral in World War II.Spruance commanded US naval forces during two of the most significant naval battles in the Pacific theater, the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Philippine Sea...
John Fujioka	RAdm. Tamon Yamaguchi
Christopher George Christopher George Christopher John George was an American television and film actor who was perhaps best known for his starring role in the 1966-1968 TV series The Rat Patrol. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 as Best TV Star for his performance in the series...	Lt. Cmdr. Clarence Wade McClusky C. Wade McClusky Rear Admiral Clarence Wade McClusky, Jr., was a United States Navy aviator during World War II. He is credited with playing a major part in the Battle of Midway...
Charlton Heston Charlton Heston Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...	Capt. Matthew Garth
Hal Holbrook Hal Holbrook Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...	Cmdr. Commander Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...  Joseph Rochefort Joseph Rochefort Joseph John Rochefort was an American Naval officer and cryptanalyst. His contributions and those of his team were pivotal to victory in the Pacific War....
Dale Ishimoto Dale Ishimoto Dale Ishimoto was an American actor of Japanese descent. He was born in Delta, Colorado in 1923 and was raised in Guadalupe, California.-Military service:...	VAdm. Vice Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...  Boshirō Hosogaya Boshiro Hosogaya , was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.-Biography:Hosogaya was born to a farming family in Nozawa, Nagano prefecture in 1888. He graduated from the 36th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1908. He was ranked 16th in a class of 191 cadets. As a midshipman, he...
Robert Ito Robert Ito Robert Ito is a Canadian voice, television, and movie actor of Japanese decent.A Canadian actor of Japanese descent, Ito was, for many years, a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada before turning to acting in the mid-1960s...	Cmdr. Minoru Genda Minoru Genda was a well-known Japanese military aviator and politician. He is best known for planning the Pearl Harbor attack.- Early life :Minoru Genda was the second son of a farmer from Hiroshima. Two brothers were graduates of Tokyo University, another brother graduated from Chiba Medical College, and his...
Steve Kanaly Steve Kanaly Steven Francis "Steve" Kanaly is an American actor, best known for his role as Ray Krebbs, foreman of the Southfork Ranch, on the television soap opera Dallas from 1978 to 1989. He reprised the role for the final episode of the series in 1991, and again for the made-for-TV reunion movie Dallas:...	Lt. Cmdr. Lance Edward Massey
Christina Kokubo Christina Kokubo Christina Kokubo was an American film and television actress; she was also a drama teacher.-Career:Kokubo appeared in several feature films, including The Yakuza , a neo-noir gangster film set in Japan, and Midway , in which she played a Japanese-American who has a troubled romance with a white...	Haruko Sakura
Clyde Kusatsu Clyde Kusatsu Clyde Kusatsu is a U.S. actor.Kusatsu was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he attended ʻIolani School. Kusatsu began acting in Honolulu summer stock, and after studying theatre at Northwestern University, started to make his mark on the small screen in the mid-1970s...	Cmdr. Watanabe
David Macklin David Macklin David Thurman Macklin is an American football cornerback who is currently a free agent. He was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He played college football at Penn State....	Lt. Lieutenant A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...  Jack Reid
Monte Markham Monte Markham Monte Markham is an American actor. During his career, Markham has appeared in film, in television, and on Broadway.Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content and Jesse Edward Markham, Sr., who was a merchant.Of his television roles, Markham is perhaps most famous for...	Cmdr. Maxwell F. Leslie Max Leslie Maxwell Franklin Leslie was a naval aviator in the United States Navy during World War II. He is credited with playing a major part in the Battle of Midway....
Toshirō Mifune Toshiro Mifune Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...	Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto Isoroku Yamamoto was a Japanese Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of Harvard University ....
Robert Mitchum Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...	VAdm William F. Halsey, Jr. William Halsey, Jr. Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., United States Navy, , was a U.S. Naval officer. He commanded the South Pacific Area during the early stages of the Pacific War against Japan...
Pat Morita Pat Morita Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...	RAdm. Ryunosuke Kusaka
Ed Nelson Ed Nelson Edwin Stafford Nelson is an American actor.Nelson has appeared in numerous television shows, more than fifty motion pictures, and hundreds of stage productions. Until 2005, he was teaching acting and screenwriting in his native New Orleans at two local universities there...	RAdm. Harry Pearson
Larry Pennell Larry Pennell Larry "Bud" Pennell , aka Alessandro Pennelli, is an American television and film actor.Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, he is mainly a supporting actor, best known for his role as "Dash Riprock," the conceited, image-conscious, and macho Hollywood movie star courting "Elly May Clampett" in the...	Capt. Cyril Simard
John Bennett Perry John Bennett Perry John Bennett Perry is an American actor and former model. He is the father of actor Matthew Perry.-Life and career:Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, the son of Maria Schaefer and Alton L. Perry. He married twice...
Clint Ritchie Clint Ritchie Clinton Charles Augustus Ritchie was an American actor.-Early life:Ritchie was born on a farm in Grafton, North Dakota to J. C. and Charlotte Ritchie, and his family moved to Washington state when he was seven...	Lt. Cmdr. Charles Fenton
Cliff Robertson Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...	Cmdr. Carl Jessop
Mitch Ryan	RAdm. Aubrey W. Fitch Aubrey Fitch Aubrey Wray Fitch was an admiral of the United States Navy during World War II. A naval aviator, he held important aviation-related commands both at sea and on shore from the 1920s onward. He also served as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy.-Early life and career:Fitch was born...
Tom Selleck Tom Selleck Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....	Aide to Capt. Cyril Simard
James Shigeta James Shigeta James Shigeta is an American film and television actor. He is also a standards singer, musical theatre and nightclub performer, and recording artist. He is a Nisei or second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.-Early life:...	VAdm. Chuichi Nagumo Chuichi Nagumo was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and one time commander of the Kido Butai . He committed suicide during the Battle of Saipan.-Early life:...
Sab Shimono Sab Shimono Sab Shimono is an American actor who has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows in character roles.-Career:An accomplished stage actor, he has appeared on Broadway and in regional theaters including San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre and Berkeley Repertory Theatre...	Lt. Tomonaga
Robert Wagner Robert Wagner Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...	Lt. Cmdr. Ernest L. Blake
Gregory Walcott Gregory Walcott Gregory Walcott is an American television and film actor. He is perhaps best known for having appeared in the 1959 Ed Wood film, the cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space.-Early life and career:...	Capt. Elliott Buckmaster Elliott Buckmaster Vice Admiral Elliott Buckmaster was a United States Navy officer, later promoted to flag rank, and naval aviator during World War I and World War II....
Robert Webber Robert Webber Robert L. Webber was an American actor who starred as Juror #12 in the 1957 film 12 Angry Men.Webber was born in Santa Ana, California, the son of Alice and Robert Webber, who was a merchant seaman. He was a U.S. Marine during World War II serving on Guam and Okinawa...	RAdm. Frank Jack Fletcher Frank Jack Fletcher Frank Jack Fletcher was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. Fletcher was the operational commander at the pivotal Battles of Coral Sea and of Midway. He was the nephew of Admiral Frank Friday Fletcher.-Early life and early Navy career:Fletcher was born in Marshalltown, Iowa...