The Battle of Midway
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- This article is about the documentary film . For other uses, see Midway.
A 1942 documentary film directed by Oscar-winning director 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.
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[edit] Plot
The film starts out in documentary style with a male narrator explaining where Midway is and its stategic importance. About five minutes into the film the format changes somewhat, with more leisurely pictures of the GIs at work on the island, and a female voice over. The female voice over takes the personality of a middle aged woman from Springfield, Illinois, who is a mother-type figure pointing out how she recognizes such and such boy from her home town. Then stock footage of the boys' mothers and sisters back home is introduced.
Abruptly the narrative turns to the battle itself with approximately 5 minutes dedicated to the defence of the island, the naval battle, and the aftermath. At the end the various known Japanese losses are shown (4 aircraft carriers, 34 battleships, etc) and then brushed over with red paint.
[edit] Production notes
The film runs for 18 minutes, was distributed by 20th Century Fox and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
John Ford's handheld, 16mm footage of the battle was captured totally impromptu. He had been in transit on the island, roused from his bunk in the BOQ (bachelor officers' quarters) by the sounds of the battle, and started filming. [1] Ford was wounded by enemy fire while filming the battle[1].
[edit] Other film on the same subject
In 1976, the feature film, Midway, based on the events of the battle, starring Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda and Robert Mitchum was released by Universal Pictures.
[edit] See also
| Preceded by - |
Academy Award for Documentary Feature 1942 |
Succeeded by Desert Victory |
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Henry Fonda interview, Directed by John Ford, (1970) dir. Peter Bogdanovich.
