Originally produced as a motion picture in 1976. Special features: Original featurette ; documentary featuring new interviews with producer Walter Mirisch, director, Jack Smight, editor Frank J. Urioste and Charlton Heston ; featurette on composer John Williams ; featurette on Sensurround Sound ; production of photographs and portraits with score by John Williams ; additional scenes, exclusively shot for the Network Television version ; theatrical trailer ; production notes ; cast and filmmakers. Closed captioned for the hearing impaired. Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Ed Nelson, James Shigeta, Christina Kokubo, Monte Markham.
Summary:
"This is the way it was--the story of the battle that was the turning point of the war in the Pacific, told wherever possible with actual film shot during combat. It exemplifies the combination of planning, courage, error and pure chance by which great events are often decided."--Title screens. In June of 1942, quite possibly the most important naval encounter of WWII took place in the middle of the Pacific, at Midway Island. While fictional, the film uses a great deal of documentary footage of the actual battle, featuring hundreds of ships of all sizes, from patrol boats to battleships and multiple carriers with hundreds of aircraft. US forces get wind of an imminent Japanese action and tries to sort fact from fiction, while the Japanese plan and execute their own attack plans. An epic on a grand scale that incorporates a huge cast, the film emphasizes the sheer scale of battles fought in the Pacific theater, which even when victorious, cost hundreds of lives.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.