356. Midway (1976)

*The Warlock pulls up to The Base in his 1958 Plymouth Fury holding a birthday present. He walks inside and Mr. America spots him*

A: Oh no you don’t. Today is a special day, I don’t want to watch any garbage on my birthday.

W: We’re not.

A: You damn betcha we’re not. Not today young fella.

W: Relax will ya? I got you something good to watch that you’re gonna love.

A: I’M gonna love? What could you possibly pick that I could love?

W: Open the present then.

*America opens the present*

A: A bow tie? Really?

*America spikes the bowtie like a football*

A: A button? Yay, a button.

*America chucks the button out the window*

A: A magazine…OF THE PEARL HARBOR MOVIE?

*America rips up the magazine and throws it behind himself*

A: You call this a present? Oh look…I bet its Pearl Harbor itself.

*He pulls out a DVD and stops himself*

A: Yeah see its…..Midway?

W: Midway.

A: You got me Midway? Only one of the greatest World War 2 movies ever made….

W: Happy birthday.

A: Get in here then.

*America rushes to put the movie in*

W: That’s right, today we’re watching Midway. The turning point against the Japanese army was the battle of Midway. One side was going to lose their coastline and Midway was going to decide the balance of power. Let’s see if the movie is as good as the actual events.

 

Written by Donald S Sanford

Directed by Jack Smight

 

Cast:

Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston)

Admiral Chester W Nimitz (Henry Fonda)

Captain Vinton Maddox (James Coburn)

Rear Admiral Raymond A Spruance (Glenn Ford)

Commander Joseph Rochefort (Hal Holbrook)

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune)

Admiral William F Halsey (Robert Mitchum)

Commander Carl Jessop (Cliff Robertson)

Lieutenant Commander Ernest L Blake (Robert Wagner)

Rear Admiral Frank J Fletcher (Robert Webber)

Admiral Harry Pearson (Ed Nelson)

Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo (James Shigeta)

Haruko Sakura (Christina Kokubo)

Commander Max Leslie (Monte Markham)

Captain Miles Browning (Biff McGuire)

Lieutenant Commander C Wade McClusky (Christopher George)

Ensign George Gay (Kevin Dobson)

Lieutenant Commander John Waldron (Glenn Corbett)

Captain Elliott Buckmaster (Gregory Walcott)

Lieutenant Tom Garth (Edward Albert)

Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka (Pat Morita)

Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi (John Fujioka)

Vice Admiral Moshiro Hosogaya (Dale Ishimoto)

Captain Murray Arnold (Dabney Coleman)

Chili Bean Ramos (Erik Estrada)

Captain Cyril Simard (Larry Pennell)

Commander Watanabe (Clyde Kusatsu)

Lt Commander John Thach (Phillip R Allen)

Captain Simard’s Aide (Tom Selleck)

Lt Tomonaga (Sab Shimono)

Admiral Nobutake Kondo (Conrad Yama)

Commander Minoru Genda (Robert Ito)

Hiryu officer (Yuki Shimoda)

Captain Kameto Kuroshima (Seth Sakai)

Major Floyd Parks (Kurt Grayson)

Chief Radioman Horace F Dobbs (Alfie Wise)

William E Gallagher (Beeson Carroll)

Walter G Chocalousek (John Bennett Perry)

Lt Commander Lance Massey (Steve Kanaly)

Lt Howard Ady (Kip Niven)

Ensign Mason (Dennis Rucker)

Robert K Huntington (Michael Richardson)

Strawberry (James Ingersoll)

Sailor (Jeff Chamberlain)

Guard (Sam Chew Jr)

Commander Delaney (Larry Csonka)

Pilot (Jesse Dizon)

Japanese Gentleman (Jerry Fujikawa)

Admiral Yamamoto’s voice (Paul Frees)

Lt Commander Ken Cunningham (Sean Garrison)

Seaman Downes (Ned Gill)

Private Dombrowski (Redmond Gleeson)

Office Worker (Bob Harks)

Marine Lieutenant (Anthony Herrara)

Lt. Shima (David Hirokane)

Lt. Takeo Koda (Jim Ishida)

Captain Aoki (Lloyd Kino)

Testing officer (John Lupton)

Lt. Jack Reid (David Macklin)

Captain Thomas (Sandy McPeak)

Naval Officer (Steve Moriarty)

Private Andy (Chuck Morrell)

Lt. Hashimoto (Richard Narita)

Japanese Pilot on Hiryu (Yosuke Natsuki)

Captain Tajiro Aoki (Bennett Ohta)

Deke (Frank Parker)

Lt Commander Charles Fenton (Clint Ritchie)

Rear Admiral Aubrey W Fitch (Mitchell Ryan)

Wilson (John Schuck)

Strawberry 9 Navigator (Hunter von Leer)

 

*America reads the tag-line*

A: “A dramatization of the battle that was widely heralded as a turning point of the Pacific Theatre of World War 2*

W: Revenge for Pearl Harbor.

A: Slightly more complicated than that.

 

*Graphic shows what we’re about to see was legendary*

W: If they lost, we wouldn’t be here.

 

*April 18, 1942…the hornet takes off*

W: What’s that?

A: This is the Doolittle Raid.

W: The actual planes?

A: Yep.

W: They gonna kick somebody ass.

A; Pretty much.

 

*American’s bomb Japan*

W: So this was accurate?

A: So far.

 

*Hiroshima – April 18 1942*

W: Three years before they dropped the big one.

 

*Admiral Yamamoto is called for*

W: Why are they speaking English?

A: Subtitles were’t around in 1976.

 

*Watanabe tells Yamamoto that Emperor Hirohito is safe but a bunch of Japanese cities have been attacked. Watanabe says this is a blessing in disguise as the army will be ready for next time and they’re not invulnerable.

 

*Radio gives the news James Doolittle led the charge on the bombing*

W: This could be the actual news broadcast from that day.

 

*Captain Matt Garth makes his entrance to a Pearl Harbor base. He is greeted by Commander Joseph Rochefort. Matt calls him Joe. Matt says Pearl Harbor is still in shambles and he’s afraid Yamamoto is chomping to retaliate*

W: Ya think?

 

*Joe says the Japanese are heading for the Coral Sea, Matt says he’ll check it out. Matt asks how often does Joe’s men bathe. Joe says he has no idea what day it is*

A: That’s gross.

 

*Joe gets a message A-F*

A: The fact they’re overlooking the Americans ability to crack coded messages..

 

*Mat meets his son Tom who’s been assigned to base. Tom says he fell in love with a Japanese girl who’s been arrested in Honalulu. Haruko was a student at San Diego State and her parents lived in Hawaii. Her parents were under suspicion and they bagged her too. She’s to be deported in 3 days. Tom thinks Matt is mad because she’s Japanese and Matt fires back that he’s not racist, it just looks bad 6 months after Pearl Harbor. He says he’ll do what he can to free her*

W: We’ve established Heston is not an asshole.

 

*Battleship Yamato is shown. Admiral Kondo doesn’t like the plan to invade Midway. Nagumo says his fleet can obliterate the American forces. Kondo says the Americans will blow them away with their air force before they even get there. Yamamoto said they obliterated the American navy in Hawaii and he can do it again*

A: Obliterate?? Yeah right, hahaha, good one.

W: Yeah, they sneak attacked them. They’ll be ready this time.

A: The balance of power in naval warfare shifted from battleships to seaborne aircraft. They didn’t touch a single carrier in Pearl Harbor. Yeah they sunk a lot of destroyers but the carriers were the strength.

 

*Hosogaya is concerned this may fail. Another admiral says they should meet after the Coral Sea experience. Watanabe says they outnumber the Americans and they have no chance*

W: Correct me if I’m wrong but Japan is not China. I don’t think they had more people.

 

*Matt tells Joe they got hurt in Coral Sea. Fletcher’s report makes it to Admiral Nimitz. They lost the Lexington but sunk one of their carriers. Nimitz says they can’t trade carrier for carrier. The Yorktown was heavily damaged. Joe tells Nimitz “A-F” was code for Midway. Joe is convinced of it even though Matt and Nimitz say that’s an invisible theory, forget thin. We cut to Midway Island*

W: Who are these guys?

A: American soldiers.

 

*Chief tells Dobrowski to send a message. Kwajalein Atoll, the Japanese Intercept Station is shown*

W: They’re going to get that message about the water coolant?

A: Its a way for them to give away their meaning of A-F.

W: Its a trap!

A: Yeah, if the Japanese reports that “A-F” lost their water then they’ll confirm it for them.

 

*Joe’s men cheer as Matt makes a call to Nimitz that “A-F” really is their code for Midway. Nimitz says to call a meeting. Meanwhile Watanabe, Yamamoto and the Japanese admirals go over the battle plan*

W: They still don’t know the Americans already know they’re coming.

A: Yup.

 

*Admiral Halsey’s photo is shown, he’s the most feared Admiral in the US fleet. Watanabe says he’s the prime target to eliminate. Nagumo says they can achieve great victory provided Nimitz and Halsey do what they expect*

W: Except they already know.

 

*Fletcher radioed his repair list. Nimitz wants the Yorktown fixed immediately. Meanwhile the sharpshooter Captain Vinton Maddox is there*

W: Hahaha James Coburn.

 

*Matt and Tom go over the report. Matt reveals Haruko belonged to a Japanese organization, they think she’s a spy. Tom is mad but Matt says to cool down, he’ll handle it. Maddox wants to talk to Nimitz alone. Maddox says the Japanese messages could be a trap and Nimitz is convinced Midway is their target. Maddox warns him of the disaster if he’s wrong*

W: He’s basically saying if they’re wrong, they’re fucked.

A: The Japanese are underestimating the ability of the US carrier forces. They thought Pearl Harbor demoralized the US and if they can win Midway, they’d get the US to surrender. Then they had a lot of their fleet spread too thin to support in case something went wrong. They were expecting two carriers, they had no idea the Yorktown was going to be repaired.

 

*Nimitz says if they win Midway, they’ll drive the Japanese back to their own shore. Maddox says he has no orders for Nimitz, just to consult. Nimitz gives the word to protect Midway. Maddox exhales. Meanwhile Bill Halsey is in the hospital*

W: Robert Mitchum.

 

*Carrier Akagi is shown. Admiral Kusaka is there*

W: Mr Myagi.

 

*Lt. Tomonaga is on his way to the Akagi. Fuchida is out with appendicits and Genda has the flu*

W: That’s the guy who organized Pearl Harbor?

A: Admiral Yamamoto did.

 

*Matt finds Haruko and her parents*

W: Ever notice every Japanese character is played by an American? Dale, James, Pat….her name is Christina.

 

*Haruko gives her side of the story of why she joined the activist group. Matt asks why she didn’t tell the FBI she’s with Tom and she replies she didn’t want to implicate him. Matt says he loves her but Haruko’s parents don’t approve and don’t want her to marry him. She tells Matt to tell Tom they can’t be married. Matt says to tell Tom herself if that’s how she really feels*

W: “I’m not gonna clean up your mess, bitch.”

A: Haha.

 

*Admiral Halsey is in the hospital*

W: Robert Mitchum always getting hurt.

 

*Halsey “When you’re in command, command.”

W: Good line.

 

*Rear Admiral Frank “Jack” Fletcher visits Nimitz. Nimitz says Halsey is out and he needs the Yorktown back. Ray and Matt greet Jack and Nimitz says Yamamoto himself is commanding the attack on Midway*

W: Was that true, Yamamoto was in charge in real life?

A: Yes.

 

*Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet are on a battle plan*

W: You say the Japanese didn’t know the Yorktown was coming?

A: Yup.

W: Suckersssssssss.

 

*Nimitz says the carriers are the only thing standing in the way of the Japanese and the American coastline. Ray visits Bill in the hospital and Bill is going stir crazy. Ray is Admiral Raymond Spruance and he’s taking Bill’s spot in the battle. Bill “Go to sea, find Yamamoto and chew his ass.”

W: Hahahahaha

 

*Pearl Harbor – May 28, 1942, USS Hornet is shown. Enterprise is shown as well*

W: Still no Yorktown.

 

*Battleship Yamato is shown. Watanabe moves pieces on the map. Delaney tells Nimitz the boilers on the Yorktown are down*

W: Larry Csonka the Miami Dolphins running back making a cameo.

 

*Haruko tells Tom they have no future. She claims she doesn’t love him anymore and it was a mistake. He says to say it to his face and she can’t*

W: Doncha love when parents don’t approve?

A: Mmhmm.

 

*Matt walks into a bar and Jess is cutting a promo saying everyone who waits in war will lose. Matt and Jess have a drink, Jess says his son is a pilot. Jess drops that everyone knows Tom is sleeping with the enemy*

W: Oh god, come on.

 

*Jess is Commander Carl Jessop and he tells Matt to keep his ass out of drafts. Tom confronts Matt and says he’s been transferred. Matt claims he had no idea about it and Tom walks off. Matt meets Harry who’s Admiral Harry Pearson. Matt wants Harry to investigate Haruko and her parents and to keep them from being deported if they’re clean. Harry says what Matt is doing is tampering. Matt admits his son is involved with her. Harry says if he reports this, it’ll go on his record. Matt doesn’t care and says he’s doing it for Tom*

W: Are they really going to drive this subplot into the ground?

A: They had to kill 2 hours.

 

*Yorktown is shown on May 30, 1942*

W: I wonder who was pitching for the Red Sox that day.

 

*Matt tells Tom before they went to sea, he vouched for Haruko and her parents. Tom says thanks and Matt says he had no hand in getting Tom transferred. Matt tells him to shape up or some hotshot Japanese kid is going to flame his ass*

W: Yeah really.

 

*Admiral gets a message that Operation K has been cancelled. They couldn’t refuel the scout planes because there was an enemy ship there. K was to scout Pearl Harbor*

W: If they made it, they would have found the Yorktown.

A: Two things, not only would they have known the Yorktown was in service but where the fleet was as well.

 

*Yamamoto stresses they need surprise and secrecy to carry out the attack*

A: We broke your code, there was no surprising us.

 

*Strawberry 5 is shown*

A: That’s a PBY Catalina.

W: Accurate for the movie?

A: Yup.

 

*Pilots eat while flying*

W: Ha, what?

 

*Strawberry 12 finds nothing*

W: Scout planes?

A: Yup.

 

*Nimitz reads the report that they’ve seen nothing. He says its miserable waiting for an attack on your own people. Meanwhile Midway Island prepares for war. Admiral Red is there. Meanwhile Yamamoto is pissed Operation K didn’t go through. His flagship is in a squall and can’t communicate. The Americans get a message that the Japanese bombed the Aleutian Islands*

W: Oh shit, here we go. We have an hour and 12 minutes to finish this.

 

*One of the Strawberries spots the Japanese fleet in motion*

W: “Holy fuck we found em!”

 

*Atago spots the PBY plane and figure out the plane warned Midway. The Captain says to alert Yamamoto that the US knows they’re coming*

W: So much for his surprise.

 

*Nimitz says they need Fletcher to engage from the northwest. Captain Buckmaster says to sound general quarters. Carrier Akagi is shown and Genda is ready for duty. Kasuka says there can’t be carriers near Midway so experienced pilots need to lead the first attack but Genda says there is no need to waste their best guys early*

W: Who was right?

A: Kasuka, if you send in inexperienced fighters in the first wave, they may miss or get slaughtered.

 

*Chili Bean Ramos and the other pilots yuk it up. Meanwhile the Tone is having problems. Planes take off of the Akagi*

W: Are they accurate?

A: Yup.

 

*Tomonaga is in the air*

W: Oh is he in for a surprise.

 

*Strawberry 5 is on patrol*

W: Can’t see anything in those damn clouds.

 

*Howie is the pilot of Strawberry 5 and the Japanese navy is there. They spot Japanese planes and break off to follow them*

W: Wouldn’t they spot them?

 

*Matt signals to Ray the Japanese are coming. Another Strawberry spots a whole fleet of planes on their way*

W: Operator was too excited.

 

*Strawberry 5 is hiding in the clouds. They can’t be seen but they can’t see anything*

W: A double edged sword.

 

*Strawberry 5 spot two carriers and a battleship.  Tomonaga and his planes make it to Midway Island. American planes take off to intercept.

A: P-40’s and F-6

W: SBD’s…hahaha

A: Grow up.

 

*Major Floyd “Red” Parks leads the charge from the American planes. One of the Americans gets the first Japanese plane shot down but Red goes down and so do the other planes*

W: That was a loss.

 

*Midway Island soldiers are called to retreat underground. Simard spots the Japanese fleet approaching*

W: So much for surprise.

 

*Tomonaga says to attack in order. Midway Island is slaughtered but Tomonaga’s plane is hit*

W: Least they dinged him.

 

*American plane lands missing a wheel. Yamamoto gets the report that they lost 7 planes and destroyed 40. Kusaka says that the inexperienced pilots didn’t destroy the airstrip. They should send their best men to completely level the island so there’s no counterstrike. Genda says Tomonaga’s planes can be refueled and rearmed with contact bombs. Footage of planes being rearmed*

W: That’s one way to kill time.

 

*Americans turn Enterprise and Hornet loose. Matt gets a call from Ray and they’re launching every plane they have. Kusaka says they have an hour to refuel their planes and still no sign of carriers. Meanwhile Scout 4 reports 10 American ships are on their way. Nagumo tells Genda to halt the rearming and tell Tomonaga’s planes to intercept the fleet*

W: You’re right, they are spreading thin.

 

*Commander John Waldron leads a torpedo squad. They search for the Japanese. Scout 4 says 3 ships including Yorktown is on the way. Kusaka says impossible. Nagumo says if they’re correct then they’re in trouble. Kusaka says to divert Tomonaga to the Yorktown as Genda says the planes are running out of fuel. Nagumo says to call them back to refuel and rearm and then go after the Yorktown*

A: It was one of multiple mistakes.

W: So should they have just sent the planes out to destroy the Yorktown without refueling?

A: No, they wouldn’t have made it back.

 

*Japanese sailors cheer the return of the Tomonaga planes*

W: Look, they think they won.

 

*Meanwhile on the Yamato, Yamamoto gets the intel that the Yorktown is at Midway, not Pearl Harbor*

W: Yamamoto just figured out the playing field got leveled.

 

*Yorktown planes get ready to attack*

A: Those are dive bombers, not torpedo bombers.

 

*Yamaguchi figures out they’re spread thin. The Americans attack and we get actual stock footage of the actual battle*

W: Love the stock footage.

 

*Huntington is dead, Gay is still alive. The dive bombers are being slaughtered by the Japanese planes. One makes it through although Waldron goes down in flames. Gay crashes into the water but is still alive. Yamamoto is pleased the Japanese suffered no casualties as Gay swims around*

W: Watch out for sharks.

 

*Max Leslie is leading Bombing 3*

A: The carrier may have failed but they have two more. The Japanese were only expecting two total.

 

*Tom and Chili Bean are on the next wave. Lt Commander Lance Massey commands. They spot 4 Japanese carriers. One pilot “We hit the jackpot”*

W: Here they come, time to make some sushi.

 

*Genda and Nagumo are worried. They underestimated the size of the American forces*

A: Just like I said, they underestimated how many carriers there were.

 

*Commander Thach blows away a few planes. Chili Bean takes out an enemy plane. Mansen takes out another plane. Meanwhile Kusaka struts around saying not one carrier has been hit as American planes are going down left and right. Genda correctly points out that they’re going to run out of planes for defense if there’s anymore carriers. Right on cue one of the Japanese scout planes finds the carriers but the transmitter isn’t working*

W: Oops.

 

*Lt. Commander Wade McCluskey spots a destroyer and has enough fuel to follow. Meanwhile Nagumo is worried that they can’t find the other carriers. Genda says Tomonaga’s planes are ready for a second strike on Midway. He tells them to launch immediately. Meanwhile the American planes spot 4 Japanese carriers*

W: Go get them!

A: That’s what they’re doing.

 

*Enterprise Bombing Squadron 6 says to attack. The guys without bombs will go down and slug it out to clear a path of the one with bombs*

W: Good idea.

 

*Gay is by himself in the water*

W: Still alive.

 

*Carrier Kaga is shown. Actual footage is shown as well as the movie. One of the bombers hits the Kaga up top. Another takes out the Kaga completely. The Soryu is destroyed as well. The Akagi watches the damage and is destroyed as well. An American voice says “We caught em flat footed”. Kusaka is dead*

W: Wasn’t the Akagi the flagship?

 

*Carrier Hiryu is shown. Tomonago’s men run up and see the Japanese fleet in shambles. Nagumo advices Yamaguchi he’s transferring the flag to him. Nagumo is dying. Yamaguchi tells Tomonago’s men to find the American carriers. American planes are patrolling. The Japanese pilots are going to follow the planes to the American carriers*

W: Good plan.

 

*Tom makes it back alive as does Chili Bean. Tom is badly burned and is taken to sick bay*

W: He’s alive.

 

*The Japanese planes have been spotted approaching the carrier*

W: Hey assholes we got a surprise for ya.

 

*The Yorktown is hit by a bomber. They’ve taken too much damage to continue. The Japanese plane reports the Yorktown is on fire and heads back to base*

W: Yeah on fire, not destroyed. That’s another mistake.

 

*Tom tells Matt to bring a picture of him and Haruko to the shore. Tom thanks him. Meanwhile Joe and Nimitz celebrate them taking down 3 carriers. Nimitz says they have one more to go. Joe says they’re in trouble if they find the Yorktown. Joe says to break off the attack and go home, Nimitz says he wants the 4th carrier*

W: They’re going all or nothing.

A: Yup.

 

*Yamaguchi says they win or lose with 6 fighters and 10 torpedo planes. Tomonaga’s plane is damaged and only had one fuel tank operational, he says to hell with it and flies away*

W: Gotta respect both sides.

 

*Japanese fleet prepare to attack Yorktown again*

W: It seems like they’re focusing on one carrier when there’s three.

 

*Tomonago spots the Yorktown and the Yorktown shoots down a bunch of planes. Tomonaga kamikazes into the Yorktown. American pilots report the Yorktown is in trouble. Yamaguchi thinks its down to one carrier against one*

W: They don’t know there’s 3, not 2

 

*Hiryu is the only carrier left for the Japanese force. Matt himself leads the charge to destroy the Hiryu. After its destroyed, Yamamoto on a battleship says he’s the only one who has to apologize to Hirohito for the failure to win Midway. Matt crashes his plane on the deck of the Enterprise and is dead. Gay is rescued alive*

W: I wonder if he was a real Captain.

 

*Tom is carried off the ship alive with Haruko next to him. Nimitz and Joe lament the loss of Matt. Nimitz “Yamamoto had everything going for him. Were we better than the Japanese or just luckier*

W: I say just luckier.

A: Uh, they took liberties with the movie.

W: Like what?

A: Faulty bomb switches never happened.

 

*Movie ends with a quote from Churchill*

W: Nice to see you too.

 

Mr. America’s Assessment: I give it a 7.5, I really liked it. It was historically accurate.

The Warlock’s Assessment: I give it an 8, I agree on that and it was riveting. I like how they portrayed the Japanese as honorable and admirable rather than in the 1940’s movies that portray them as sneaky, scheming heels.

Final Grade: 8 out of 10 – Outstanding.

 

*Warlock rises from his chair*

W: Happy now?

A: Yes.

W: Good

*He turns to the camera*

W: Now get outta here before I give ya a slap!