The Battle of Midway (film)
- September 14, 1942 (1942-09-14)
The Battle of Midway is a 1942 American short documentary film directed by John Ford. It is a montage of color footage of the Battle of Midway with voice overs of various narrators, including Johnny Governali, Donald Crisp, Henry Fonda, and Jane Darwell.
Plot
The film begins with a male narrator (Donald Crisp) explaining where Midway Island is and its strategic importance. About five minutes into the film the format changes somewhat, with more leisurely pictures of the G.I.s at work on the island, and then a female voice over. The female voice over (Jane Darwell) takes the personality of a middle aged woman from Springfield, Ohio, who is a mother-type figure pointing out how she recognizes a boy from her home town. The boy is Army Air Force pilot William E. "Junior" Kinney. Then stock footage of the Kinney family back home is introduced.
Abruptly the narrative (spoken by Henry Fonda) turns to the battle itself with approximately five minutes dedicated to the defense of the island, the naval battle, and the aftermath. At the end the various known Japanese losses are shown (four aircraft carriers, as well as battleships, aircraft, and men) and then brushed over with red or black paint.
Production notes
When the United States Navy sent director John Ford to Midway Island in 1942, he believed that the military wanted him to make a documentary on life at a small, isolated military base, and filmed casual footage of the sailors and Marines there working and having fun. Two days before the battle, he learned that the Japanese planned to attack the base and that it was preparing to defend itself.[1] Ford's handheld, 16mm footage of the battle was captured totally impromptu. He had been in transit on the island, roused from his bunk by the sounds of the battle, and started filming.[2] Ford was wounded by enemy fire while filming the battle.[3] Acclaimed as a hero when he returned home because of the footage and the minor wound, Ford decades later incorrectly claimed to Peter Bogdanovich that he was the only cameraman; however, Jack Mackenzie Jr. and Kenneth Pier assisted Ford in filming.[1]
Ford was worried that military censors would prevent the footage from being shown in public. After returning to Los Angeles, he gave the footage to Robert Parrish, who had worked with him on How Green Was My Valley, to edit in secret. Ford spliced in footage of James Roosevelt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's son and a Marine Corps officer; when the president saw the film in the White House, he told William Leahy: "I want every mother in America to see this film", thus protecting Ford from censorship.[1] Parrish wrote an in-depth account of the making of The Battle of Midway in his autobiography, Growing Up in Hollywood (1976).[3] The film runs for 18 minutes, was distributed by 20th Century Fox, and was one of four winners of the inaugural, 1942 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Seeing men he had met and filmed die horrified Ford, who said, "I am really a coward" compared to those who fought. He had spent time with Torpedo Squadron 8, and 29 of 30 men of the unit died or were missing after the battle. Ford assembled the footage he had taken of the squadron into an eight-minute film, adding titles praising the squadron for having "written the most brilliant pages in the glowing history of our Naval Air Forces" and identifying each man as he appeared. He printed the result, Torpedo Squadron 8, to 8mm film suitable for home projectors and sent copies to the men's families.[1]
Cast
- Donald Crisp as Main Narrator (voice)
- Henry Fonda as Narrator (voice)
- Jane Darwell as Narrator (voice)
Archive
The Academy Film Archive preserved The Battle of Midway in 2006.[4] The film is part of the Academy War Film Collection, one of the largest collections of World War II era short films held outside government archives.[5]
Gallery
- USAAF B-17E taking off
- A PT boat off Sand Island
- An SB2U-3 of VMSB-241 taking off
- Marines firing a machine gun
- Japanese planes under fire
- Seaplane hangar on Sand Island burning
- Bomb damage after the raid
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Harris, Mark (2014-02-28). "In the Line of Fire". Entertainment Weekly. p. 78.
- ^ Bogdanovich, Peter (director) (1971). Directed by John Ford. American Film Institute. OCLC 436284884. See the interview of Henry Fonda.
- ^ a b Parrish, Robert (1976). Growing Up in Hollywood. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. ISBN 9780151374731. OCLC 1659633.
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
- ^ "Academy War Film Collection". Academy Film Archive.
External links
- Media related to The Battle of Midway (1942 documentary) at Wikimedia Commons
- The full text of The Battle of Midway at Wikisource
- The short film The Battle of Midway is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- The Battle of Midway at the National Archives and Records Administration
- The Battle of Midway at IMDb
- The Battle of Midway at AllMovie
- The Battle of Midway at the TCM Movie Database
- Reel America: The Battle of Midway and John Ford on C-SPAN (June 8, 2014)
- v
- t
- e
- The Tornado (1917)
- The Trail of Hate (1917)
- The Scrapper (1917)
- Cheyenne's Pal (1917)
- The Soul Herder (1917)
- Straight Shooting (1917)
- The Secret Man (1917)
- A Marked Man (1917)
- Bucking Broadway (1917)
- The Phantom Riders (1918)
- Wild Women (1918)
- Thieves' Gold (1918)
- The Scarlet Drop (1918)
- Hell Bent (1918)
- A Woman's Fool (1918)
- The Craving (1918)
- Three Mounted Men (1918)
- Roped (1919)
- The Fighting Brothers (1919)
- A Fight for Love (1919)
- Rustlers (1919)
- Bare Fists (1919)
- Gun Law (1919)
- By Indian Post (1919)
- The Gun Packer (1919)
- Riders of Vengeance (1919)
- The Last Outlaw (1919)
- The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1919)
- Ace of the Saddle (1919)
- Rider of the Law (1919)
- A Gun Fightin' Gentleman (1919)
- Marked Men (1919)
- The Prince of Avenue A (1920)
- The Girl in Number 29 (1920)
- Hitchin' Posts (1920)
- Just Pals (1920)
- The Big Punch (1921)
- The Freeze-Out (1921)
- The Wallop (1921)
- Desperate Trails (1921)
- Action (1921)
- Sure Fire (1921)
- Jackie (1921)
- Little Miss Smiles (1922)
- Silver Wings (1922)
- The Village Blacksmith (1922)
- The Face on the Bar-Room Floor (1923)
- Three Jumps Ahead (1923)
- Cameo Kirby (1923)
- North of Hudson Bay (1923)
- Hoodman Blind (1923)
- The Iron Horse (1924)
- Hearts of Oak (1924)
- Lightnin' (1925)
- Kentucky Pride (1925)
- Thank You (1925)
- The Fighting Heart (1925)
- The Shamrock Handicap (1926)
- 3 Bad Men (1926)
- Upstream (1927)
- Four Sons (1928)
- Strong Boy (1929)
- The Black Watch (1929)
- Men Without Women (1930)
- Born Reckless (1930)
- Up the River (1930)
- Seas Beneath (1931)
- The Brat (1931)
- Arrowsmith (1931)
- Air Mail (1932)
- Flesh (1932)
- Pilgrimage (1933)
- Doctor Bull (1933)
- The Lost Patrol (1934)
- The World Moves On (1934)
- Judge Priest (1934)
- The Whole Town's Talking (1935)
- The Informer (1935)
- Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)
- The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)
- Mary of Scotland (1936)
- The Plough and the Stars (1936)
- Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
- The Hurricane (1937)
- Four Men and a Prayer (1938)
- Submarine Patrol (1938)
- Stagecoach (1939)
- Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
- Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- The Long Voyage Home (1940)
- Tobacco Road (1941)
- How Green Was My Valley (1941)
- They Were Expendable (1945)
- My Darling Clementine (1946)
- The Fugitive (1947)
- Fort Apache (1948)
- 3 Godfathers (1948)
- She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
- When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950)
- Wagon Master (1950)
- Rio Grande (1950)
- The Quiet Man (1952)
- What Price Glory (1952)
- The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
- Mogambo (1953)
- The Long Gray Line (1955)
- Mister Roberts (co-d, 1955)
- The Searchers (1956)
- The Wings of Eagles (1957)
- The Rising of the Moon (1957)
- Gideon's Day (1958)
- The Last Hurrah (1958)
- The Horse Soldiers (1959)
- Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
- Two Rode Together (1961)
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
- How the West Was Won (1962)
- Donovan's Reef (1963)
- Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
- 7 Women (1966)
- "Rookie of the Year" (1955)
- "The Colter Craven Story" (1960)
- "Flashing Spikes" (1962)
- The Iron Horse (1924)
- The Blue Eagle (1926)
- Mother Machree (1928)
- Hangman's House (1928)
- Riley the Cop (1928)
- Salute (1929)
- Flesh (1932)
- The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)
- Young Cassidy (1965)
and training films
- Torpedo Squadron (1942)
- Sex Hygiene (1942)
- The Battle of Midway (1942)
- December 7th: The Movie (1943)
- Undercover (1943)
- This Is Korea (1951)
- Korea: Battleground for Liberty (1959)
- Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend (1970)
- Vietnam! Vietnam! (1971) (produced and co-wrote)
- Directed by John Ford (1971 documentary)
- Five Came Back (2017 documentary)