Мидуэй: Битва за остров Мидуэй

1976 film by Jack Smight

Midway, released in the United Kingdom as Battle of Midway, is a 1976 American war film that chronicles the Battle of Midway, a turning point in the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II. Directed by Jack Smight and produced by Walter Mirisch from a screenplay by Donald S. Sanford, the film starred Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, supported by a large international cast of guest stars including James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Ed Nelson, Hal Holbrook, Robert Webber, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Pat Morita, Dabney Coleman, Erik Estrada and Tom Selleck. The film was made using Technicolor, and its soundtrack used Sensurround to augment the physical sensation of engine noise, explosions, crashes and gunfire. Despite mixed reviews, particularly involving the use of stock footage and an unnecessary romance subplot, the music score by John Williams and the cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr. were highly regarded, and Midway became the tenth most popular movie at the box office in 1976.

On April 18, 1942, a squadron of B 25 bombers from the Hornet launches a raid on Tokyo. The strike stuns the Imperial Japanese Navy and its commander Admiral Yamamoto. With hard evidence of the threat posed to the Japanese home islands by the carriers of the American Pacific Fleet, Yamamoto is permitted to use his plan to invade Midway Island. At Pearl Harbor, Captain Matt Garth is tasked with gauging the progress of decryption efforts at Station HYPO, headed by Commander Joseph Rochefort, which has partially cracked the Japanese Navy's JN 25 code, revealing a location the Japanese refer to as "AF". Garth is asked by his son, naval aviator Ensign Tom Garth, to help free his girlfriend Haruko Sakura, an American born daughter of Japanese immigrants, who has been interned with her parents, by calling in favors to have the charges against the family dropped. Yamamoto and his staff present their plans for Midway to the commanders who have been chosen to lead the attack, Admirals Nagumo and Yamaguchi of the Japanese carrier force and Admiral Kondo of the invasion force. After the inconclusive Battle of the Coral Sea, Rochefort uses a simple ruse to confirm that "AF" is Midway. Knowing the location of the attack, Admiral Nimitz and his staff send the carriers Enterprise and Hornet, augmented by Yorktown, hastily repaired after being damaged at Coral Sea, to a point north of Midway and lie in wait for the Japanese fleet. Meanwhile, Matt has been unsuccessful in freeing the Sakuras, infuriating Tom. On June 4, the Japanese fleet is spotted by scouts; the American carriers launch their planes in response. Nagumo's carrier force launches its air attack on Midway Island. The American base is damaged but the airstrip remains usable, meaning Midway can still launch aircraft. Nagumo learns of a sighting by a scout plane of the Yorktown, disrupting his plans for a second strike on Midway; he orders that his planes be rapidly re armed with torpedoes for an attack on the American carrier. Torpedo bombers find the Japanese fleet and attack without fighter protection and are destroyed by the Japanese Combat Air Patrol leaving only one crew member George H. Gay Jr. surviving. When American escort fighters cover another wave of torpedo bombers, Tom is wounded and severely burned. The Japanese fighters are drawn down to wave top altitude by the low flying torpedo planes, leaving them out of position when dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown arrive. As the Japanese prepare to launch their second wave, the American bombers attack and reduce three of the Japanese carriers – Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga, Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū and Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi– to burning wrecks. Nagumo, having received a concussion, is told to transfer his flag to cruiser Japanese cruiser Nagara. The remaining Japanese carrier Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryū launches aircraft. Following the returning American bombers, the Japanese find Yorktown and inflict severe damage. The crew manage to bring the fires under control as a scout plane reports that Hiryū has been spotted. Below decks, Matt meets Tom and reconciles with him. Due to a shortage of pilots, Matt joins the counterattack against Hiryū just before its second wave of aircraft strikes. Yorktown is crippled and the order is given to abandon ship. Hiryū is reduced to a burning wreck, and Yamamoto, during a general withdrawal, takes responsibility of apologising for the failure to the Emperor. Returning to Enterprise, Matt, his plane badly damaged, is killed when the plane crashes. As Enterprise docks at Pearl Harbor, the injured younger Garth is carried off the ship, seen by Haruko, as Nimitz and Rochefort reflect on the battle. Nimitz suggests that Matt would have noted that Yamamoto "had everything going for him", and asked "were we better than the Japanese, or just luckier?"

ActorRoleNotesCharlton HestonCaptain Matthew GarthHenry FondaAdmiral Chester W. NimitzHenry Fonda was one of the narrators of the 1942 John Ford documentary The Battle of Midway, some footage from which was used in the 1976 film and had played an unnamed admiral (based on Admiral Nimitz) in the 1965 film In Harm's Way. James CoburnCaptain Vinton MaddoxGlenn FordRear Admiral Raymond A. SpruanceHal HolbrookCommander Joseph RochefortRobert MitchumVice Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey Jr. Cliff RobertsonCommander Carl JessopRobert WagnerLieutenant Commander Ernest L. BlakeRobert WebberRear Admiral Frank J. FletcherEd NelsonRear Admiral Harry PearsonMonte MarkhamCommander Max LeslieBiff McGuireCaptain Miles BrowningChristopher GeorgeLieutenant Commander C. Wade McCluskyKevin DobsonEnsign George H. Gay Jr. Glenn CorbettLieutenant Commander John C. WaldronGregory WalcottCaptain Elliott BuckmasterEdward AlbertLieutenant Thomas GarthDabney ColemanCaptain Murray ArnoldErik EstradaEnsign Ramos "Chili Bean"Larry PennellCaptain Cyril SimardPhillip R. AllenLieutenant Commander John S. "Jimmy" ThachTom SelleckAide to Capt. Cyril SimardKurt GraysonMajor Floyd "Red" ParksSteve KanalyLieutenant Commander Lance E. Massey

John Guillermin was reportedly hired to direct but was replaced by Jack Smight before filming began. Naval aviator Lieutenant Richard "Dick" Best and Joseph Rochefort served as consultants; George Gay, the only survivor of Torpedo Squadron 8, visited during filming. Toshiro Mifune sent his script to Minoru Glenda and to Yamamoto’s son, so that they could attest to its historical accuracy. Reportedly, Mifune had been scheduled to play Yamamoto in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), but withdrew when director Akira Kurosawa left the project. The filmmakers wanted to portray the Japanese in a fair light and to portray them and the Americans as equals. Principal photography was scheduled to end around 20 July 1975. Filming at sea took three weeks, which included lensing on the U. S. S. Lexington, the last World War II ship in service. Robert Mitchum settled on filming his scenes in bed. Modern crew members of the U. S. S. Lexington were persuaded to have their hair cut and to shave to conform to World War II Navy regulations after watching the filming. Fonda was astonished to learn that Yamamoto and Nimitz were missing fingers from accidents. Fonda consciously folded back his finger throughout his performance and Mifune had his uniforms and gloves made to be accurate as possible. In the original script, Garth survived.

Midway was shot at the Terminal Island Naval Base, Los Angeles, California, the U. S. Naval Station, Long Beach, California, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida and San Diego, California. The on board scenes were filmed in the Gulf of Mexico aboard Lexington. Lexington, an , was the last World War II era carrier left in service at that point, although the ship was completed after the battle. She is now a museum ship at Corpus Christi, Texas. Scenes depicting Midway Island were filmed at Point Mugu, California. "Point Mugu has sand dunes, just like Midway. We built an airstrip, a tower, some barricades, things like that," said Jack Smight. "We did a lot of strafing and bombing there." A Consolidated PBY 6A Catalina BuNo 63998, N16KL, of the Commemorative Air Force, was used in depicting all the search and rescue mission scenes.

The film was the second of only four films released with a Sensurround sound mix which required special speakers to be installed in movie theatres. The other Sensurround films were Earthquake (1974), Rollercoaster (1977), and Battlestar Galactica (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's Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Some scenes are from the Japanese Toho film Hawai Middouei daikaikusen: Taiheiyo no arashi (1960) (which also stars Mifune). Several action scenes, including the one where a Mitsubishi A6M Zero slams into Yorktown's bridge, were taken from Away All Boats (1956); scenes of Doolittle's Tokyo raid at the beginning of the film are from Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). In addition, most dogfight sequences come from wartime gun camera footage or from the film Battle of Britain (1969). As with many "carrier films" produced around this time, the US Navy Essex class aircraft carrier USS Lexington played the part of both American and Japanese flattops for shipboard scenes.

Shortly after its successful theatrical debut, additional material was assembled and shot in standard 4:3 ratio for a TV version of the film, which aired on NBC. The TV version was 45 minutes longer than the theatrical film and aired over two nights. In the TV version of the film, Susan Sullivan played Ann, the girlfriend of Captain Garth, to add depth to his reason for previously divorcing Ensign Garth's mother, and restored a cut scene from the theatrical release that clarifies that Garth suffered a hand injury in the Pearl Harbor attack that has kept him out of flying, to bring further emotional impact to the fate of Captain Garth. Ann is seen in the final scene as Hornet docks at Pearl Harbor. The TV version also added Coral Sea battle scenes to help the plot build up to the decisive engagement at Midway. Mitchell Ryan played Rear Admiral Aubrey W. Fitch aboard the USS Lexington and Jim Ishida played Takeo Koda, a Japanese pilot and old friend of Nagumo. After the raid on Tokyo, Koda meets Nagumo to express his doubts that Japan might be able to win the war. Koda is killed in the Coral Sea battle, and Yamaguchi informs Nagumo about the defeat at Coral Sea. Prior to the Midway battle, the cautious Nagumo ruminates on Koda to Genda. Jack Smight directed the additional scenes. The end credits of the TV version use the song, "Men of The Yorktown March" (which is more prominent in the film's underscore), instead of the "Midway March". In June 1992, a re edit of the extended version, shortened to fill a three hour time slot, aired on the CBS network to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Midway battle. This version brought in successful ratings.

Midway proved extremely popular with movie audiences, and opened at number one at the US box office with an opening weekend gross of $4,356,666 from 311 theatres. It went on to gross over $43 million at the US box office, becoming the tenth most popular movie of 1976 with theatrical rentals of $20,300,000. Internationally, it grossed $57 million for a worldwide gross of $100 million.