Midway (1976)
Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda lead a terrific cast in this blockbuster war movie about the events following Pearl Harbor leading up to the crucial battle betwen the US and Japanese navies for the islands of Midway in the Pacific ocean.
One of the great epic World War II films, it tells the story from both the American and Japanese commanding officers points of view and features a plethora of big names in the cast, alongside Heston and Fonda we have Glenn Ford, James Coburn, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner as well as terrific Japanese actors like Toshiro Mifune, John Fujioka and Pat Morita.
My only slight gripe is that although the US Navy allowed the use of USS Lexington, an Essex-class aircraft carrier, much of the action sequences are from other films such as Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970), Battle of Britain (1969) and the Toho film Storm Over the Pacific (1960). However it is a spectacle and looks fantastic via the Powerhouse Blu-ray which even utilises the original Sensurround sound mix which was used in cinemas.
I'll be interested to see the three hour tv version which is 45 minutes longer than the movie and adds a couple of extra characters and also features the Coral Sea battle which took place leading up to the events of Midway.
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