Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
The Japanese attack on Midway in June 1942, filmed as it happened. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, in 2006.
John Ford's Oscar-winning short documentary captures the Battle of Midway with raw, on-the-ground footage shot under actual combat conditions — an extraordinary and dangerous feat of filmmaking. The cinematography is genuinely exceptional for its historical authenticity and visceral immediacy, with Ford himself wounded during filming. Novelty is high because this is one-of-a-kind wartime documentary filmmaking under live fire, a singular artifact of history. The narrative structure is loose and propagandistic by design, limiting plot cohesion, and there are no 'actors' in the traditional sense, though the voice narration is performative and emotionally manipulative in the style of the era. The ending is triumphant but conventionally patriotic.