not as good as all the hype

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A documentary short, directed by John Ford. Covers the Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive battles of WW2. Taking place near the island of Midway in the central Pacific in June 1942, the battle turned the tide of the Pacific Theatre. Ford uses actual footage from the battle and the aftermath, with narration by Henry Fonda.During WW2 the US used its mighty film industry to its advantage, producing high-quality news reels. documentaries and propaganda films. For this they enlisted some of the foremost directors of the age: Frank Capra, William Wyler, John Huston, John Sturges and John Ford, among others. Here, John Ford (or should I say, Lt. Commander John Ford, USNR) does his bit. He does fairly well, capturing some great footage of the battle. It is more the editing and over-the-top, hammy added-on dialogue that weaken the film, and only when viewed with a 21st century lens. Propaganda films never have the same impact when viewed outside of wartime.The movie went on to win the Best Documentary Oscar in 1943.

. . . were pivotal in allowing America to defeat her sneak attackers and triumph with a resounding victory in World War Two, but THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY proves that these successful nuclear bombings were merely the icing on the U.S. cupcakes. When Midway turned the tide on the Pacific Theater, future President Harry "I pushed the button" Truman was selling hats or something, and A-Bombs were not yet even a gleam in his eye. However, as the Japanese aircraft carriers that had blind-sided Pearl Harbor began littering the seabed around Midway, Japanese Prime Minister Tojo told the Emperor that he could already feel a hangman's noose tightening around his neck. How could he expect anything else, as THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY shows Japan always going out of its way to bomb U.S. hospitals and churches? But the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" blares as this war crimes carnage is documented during the final portion of THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY to remind viewers that God was on America's side.

John Ford's celebrated 19-minute documentary about America's first major victory of World War Two earned him a shrapnel wound, a Purple Heart and an Oscar. The first 10 is impressive without being that interesting - hard-won battle footage that largely consists of some stuff setting on fire, the camera shaking, the film cutting, then something else setting on fire - though the raising of the flag is a lovely moment, narrator Irving Pichel intoning: "Yes, this really happened". The second half is more obviously Fordian, the elegiac tone reinforced by hymns, slanting shadows and Jane Darwell's frenzied, corny, but effective narration. Audiences wept and fainted during the passage where she urges ambulance-men to rush injured soldiers to a hospital. Ford would make his definitive statement on the war, and the nature of heroism, with 1945's They Were Expendable, but this short is well worth a look.

This short piece of film shows parts of, as the title already tells us, of the battle of Midway, and some moments after it. The director is John Ford and what he creates with this short documentary is pure Hollywood war propaganda. There is a storyline that even includes the women at home waiting for the fighters. During some scenes a dialogue between Jane Darwell and the great Henry Fonda is heard on the background.The images of the battle, shot in color, have historic value and are pretty exciting. The heroic tone is easy to understand, although now it is easy to see past that. Everything, including its Oscar win, seems to be there for propaganda purposes, making the people at home feel good enough about the war that is going on. In the end 'The Battle of Midway' is an interesting little film, but not that much more.