''The Battle of Midway'' is a 1942 American

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

directed by

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

. It is a montage of color footage of the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under ...

with voice overs of various narrators, including Johnny Governali,

Donald Crisp Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor ...

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and ra ...

, and

Jane Darwell Jane Darwell (born Patti Woodard; October 15, 1879 – August 13, 1967) was an American actress of stage, film, and television. With appearances in more than 100 major movies spanning half a century, Darwell is perhaps best remembered for her p ...

Plot

The film begins with a male narrator (

) 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 (

) 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

) 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

Midway Island Midway Atoll (colloquial: Midway Islands; haw, Kauihelani, translation=the backbone of heaven; haw, Pihemanu, translation=the loud din of birds, label=none) is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the Unit ...

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. 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. Ford was wounded by enemy fire while filming the battle. Acclaimed as a hero when he returned home because of the footage and the minor wound, Ford decades later incorrectly claimed to

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he was hired to work on ...

that he was the only cameraman; however, Jack Mackenzie Jr. and Kenneth Pier assisted Ford in filming. 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 Robert R. Parrish (January 4, 1916December 4, 1995) was an American film director, screenwriter, editor and former child actor. He received an Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his contribution to '' Body and Soul'' (1947). Life and caree ...

, who had worked with him on ''

How Green Was My Valley ''How Green Was My Valley'' is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw Morgan, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own persona ...

'', to edit in secret. Ford spliced in footage of

James Roosevelt James Roosevelt II (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1991) was an American businessman, Marine, activist, and Democratic Party politician. The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secr ...

, President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

'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. Parrish wrote an in-depth account of the making of ''The Battle of Midway'' in his autobiography, ''Growing Up in Hollywood'' (1976). The film runs for 18 minutes, was distributed by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, 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 Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) was a United States Navy squadron of World War II torpedo bombers. VT-8 was assigned initially to the air group of the aircraft carrier , joining the ship shortly after her commissioning in October 1941. After heavy lo ...

, 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 8 mm or 8mm may refer to: ;Film technology *8 mm film, a photographic cine film format principally intended for domestic use. The term may also refer to later variants: ** Super 8 mm film ** Single-8 film ** 8 mm video format, a type of video recor ...

suitable for home projectors and sent copies to the men's families.

Gallery

File:Boeing B-17E taking off from Midway 1942.jpg, USAAF B-17E taking off File:PT boat Midway 1942.jpg, A PT boat off Sand Island File:SB2U taking off from Midway Jun 1942.jpg, An SB2U-3 of VMSB-241 taking off File:Machine gun firing at Midway 1942.jpg, Marines firing a machine gun File:Flak bursts at Midway 1942.jpg, Japanese planes under fire File:Seaplane hangar Midway burning.jpg, Seaplane hangar on Sand Island burning File:Damage_on_Midway_burning_building.jpg, Bomb damage after the raid

References

External links

* * * *
Reel America: The Battle of Midway and John Ford
on C-SPAN (June 8, 2014) {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Midway, The 1942 short films American World War II propaganda shorts Films about the Battle of Midway Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners American black-and-white films Documentary films about military aviation Films directed by John Ford Films scored by Alfred Newman World War II aviation films Films with screenplays by Dudley Nichols American short documentary films 1942 documentary films 20th Century Fox short films 1940s English-language films

Plot

Production notes

Archive

Gallery

See also

References

External links