Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

cameronstuartmain The movie gets the facts correct and has an excellent cast. The problem with the movie is the archival footage use. The archival footage is obviously not having good quality while the scenes filmed by the film crew have excellent quality. The movie used scenes from many other movies, but in the end, the film is good. However, there were some incorrect things that really hurt it. For example, during the Japanese torpedo attacks on Yorktown, a fighter plane and then the squadron leader are seen crash diving on the ship. The group leader, Tomonaga's plane was damaged over Midway and could not be repaired. He knew that he would die and was shot down by US fighters.

joekwiatkowski I tend to lose patience with reviews of movies like this and 'Battle of the Bulge' where equipment used or depicted isn't historically authentic. Back in the day, you used what was available or you blew your budget out of the water. After 'Tora! Tora! Tora! didn't do so well at the box office, I'm sure the bean counters became leery of that idea. (A full-scale mock-up of the 'Nagato'?) Still, it might be high time to take this one back into the studio, have the CDI folks massage the offending sequences, replace the F4Us and F6Fs and what-have-yous with the proper types of aircraft and ships for the time and situation, and re-release it, even if it goes directly to cable TV.I'm pretty satisfied with most of the film. They did a good job of staying historically accurate given the time constraints involved. Two key items that were glossed over were the interception of both Japanese strikes against 'Yorktown' by that ship's defending fighters (out of Koboyashi's eighteen dive bombers, ten were shot down by fighters and one by flak before they released. The seven remaining dive bombers scored three hits. Three of the escorting Zeros were also shot down.) and the submarine attack that finished off 'Yorktown'. The effort to save 'Yorktown' after Tomonaga's torpedo bomber attack would have been another movie in itself.The part I was most dis-satisfied with was the sequence dealing with the launch of the 108-plane Japanese initial strike on Midway which started the battle. Poorly executed, in my opinion, compared to the same sequence in 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'.This is one where you want to watch the movie, then read a good book about the battle. I recommend 'Incredible Victory' by Walter Lord.

yjk316 Unlike Tora, Tora, Tora, which also dealt with the Pacific War between the U.S. and Japan, Midway employed American actors and actresses of the Japanese descent. I think it was the first mistake. Somehow the Japanese actors didn't sound and look real.The beginning of the movie was good. The B-17 raid of Tokyo off a U.S. aircraft carrier alerting the Japanese military leaders seemed tense and realistic. But the moment the movie began to develop characters, it began to slow down -- way down. I think it was totally unrealistic to introduce a Japanese-American girl who is the object of affection of a Naval officer. The producers wanted to convey the message that it was the Imperial Japan, not the Japanese people, was the enemy, but it was syrupy, predictable and boring.The climax of the movie has to be the surprise attack by the American dive bombers on Japanese carriers, but it was rather anticlimactic. Couldn't they have come up with better exclamations that "Hooray" and "Hail Mary"? were

jdferrell784 As many others have stated, the flaws in this film are many. There is the unnecessary subplot of an American aviator and his interned Japanese/American girlfriend, which serves as nothing more than a gratuitous distraction. Limits in 1976 technology forced the use of cheap-looking special effects and recycled footage from other movies and war footage, often resulting in incorrect historical portrayals of the ships and aircraft present. Some historical plot details were omitted or glossed over entirely, mostly due to production and budget limits. And the acting was uneven, and in a few parts pretty bad, and sometimes failed to realistically portray a few figures.But there are few war movies that can generate as much excitement in me to this day like this one. I first saw this movie as a two-part NBC Movie of the Week when I was ten years old and instantly developed a passion for the Battle of Midway and WWII military history in general. The climatic scene of the dive bombers pounding the Japanese carriers into wrecks still gives me goosebumps thirty-five years later, as does the horror of watching a young fighter pilot nearly burn to death in his plane. The John Williams score was fantastic, as it was in many movies, and kept the sense of drama on the edge. And for me, the standout performances were by Henry Fonda as Admiral Nimitz, Glenn Ford as Admiral Spruance, and James Shigeta as Admiral Nagumo. Fonda brought to life Nimitz's cool but tough demeanor, and his willingness to take calculated risks based on his intelligence sources, rather than play it safe and guard what he has left. Ford played Spruance well as a calm, cerebral admiral that plays by his own instincts rather than the way the man he replaced (Halsey) would've played it. And I enjoyed Shigeta's portrayal of Nagumo as a leader who, despite his perceived material superiority, is wary of the lack of intelligence and communication regarding the whereabouts of the American fleet, and the uncertainty of what really may be waiting for his carriers as he undertakes his mission.It's real easy to pick apart the historical details of this movie, especially given more recent information and sources that weren't available back in 1976. But even allowing for that, the movie stays mostly true to history. And to those who aren't looking to nitpick details and just want to enjoy the story being told, there's more than enough "wow" in this movie even almost forty years later. I would recommend it as a primer for young kids (but not too young, there is some blood, language, and tense scenes) with an interest in military and WWII history that hasn't yet researched more comprehensive works written like Walter Lord's Incredible Victory, Gordon Prange's Miracle at Midway, and Anthony Tully/Jonathan Parshall's Shattered Sword.I would like to see Hollywood do another adaptation of the battle of Midway someday, but am fearful of them turning it turning into another Pearl Harbor, or becoming a political statement rather than the retelling of an incredible true story. Until that day comes, this one will have to do. And it does surprisingly well, if you can tolerate the flaws and just enjoy the show.