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The Worst Film Ever

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There was a Battle of Midway. Japanese carriers Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu were sunk. Japanese cruisers Mikuma and Mogami were involved in the battle. Plenty of actual carrier ops footage was used in making this film.Other than that, NONE of what happens in this movie is true.I gave this garbage a 3 (instead of a zero) solely for the operations footage.

It's early 1942 and the US Pacific Fleet is on the ropes with most of it's warships sunk and destroyed at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese sneak attack on December 7, 1941. Now with the Japanese moving westward towards the Hawaiian islands and possibly California Washington and Oregon the US Navy under the command of British Admerial, how the hell did he get into the movie?, Cedric Hardwicke plans a strategy to lure the Japanese Pacific Fleet into a trap set for it at Midway Island.With one lone US aircraft carrier zig-zagging all throughout the South Pacific Admerial Hardwrick plans to confuse the Japs into thinking that the US Navy is on the run thus letting its guard down and head for Midway Island thinking that taking the island would would be nothing but a a cake walk. With the overconfident Japs not knowing that the entire US Pacific Fleet is waiting for it and ready to spring a bear, or shark, trap on it! The only problem is that the men of the carrier task force, especially the navy pilots, are to be kept in the dark about the operation making them feel,in avoiding contact with the enemy at all costs, like a bunch of gutless cowards!The flight commander of the carrier task force Cmdr. Bingo Harper,Don Ameche, knows what's going on in his orders to avoid contact with Japanese Navy but has a lot of trouble trying to get his pilots to follow his orders. The Navy fly-boys are itching for a chance to mix it with the Japs but are now almost on the brink of mutiny in them being kept at arms lengths even if their attacked by Jap Zero fighter in being ordered by Harper to turn tail and run. It takes a whole lot of patience and following orders by the head of the carrier flight crew Lt. Cmdr. Edward Moulton, Dana Andrews, to keep both his cool and sanity in having a number of his airmen shot down and killed by the Japanese Air Force without as much as fairing back at them! We also have in the movie Academy Award winning actor and now carrier fighter pilot Hallam "Oscar" Scott, William Eythe, ready to rough it with the Japs more then, what a jerk, being safely back in Hollywood making films with him kissing GI pin-up girls like actresses Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth! This is obviously to show the audience that even Hollywood, the land of make believe, is pulling its weight in the war by having top male stars like Clark Gable & Tyrone Power on he front lines risking their lives fighting Fascism!Finally after sailing around in circles for almost the entire film the carrier task force gave its pilots the order to go into action as the Japanese fleet was within sight of Midway island as the trap was strung on it! Lot of great action, mixed in with a number high emotional, scenes as the US Navy took it to the Japs and put an end to their dreams of conquering the entire Pacific; Up until or even past the US West Coast! As it turned out it was British Admiral, again how the hell did he ever get into the movie?, Hardwicke's brilliant plan to give the Japanese the false feeling on invincibility that lead to their disastrous defeat, losing almost all their combat aircraft carriers, at Midway which turned out to be the turning point in their grand and expansionist plans in the Pacific.

The movie itself is entertaining and rather predictable at times. Kind of like the movie mill war stories of that era. The roll played by Don Ameche was not a Don Ameche roll. Ameche is better known for his humor, IE: The Bickersons and Cocoon. The roll of a sad, by the book Navy officer must have been a stretch for him, but he did it in perfection. He became a dark shadow in scenes where he just walks through and always alone. The lonely man, hardly cracking a smile. Everyone hating him, tough to the point, lonely, misunderstood and doing the job he was appointed to do. It makes you wonder how many men had to be this way during any war. Ameche should have won an Acadamy Award for his role in this movie.

Picked this up as a cheap DVD recently.Part (small) documentary, part film, part propaganda. Various readers have commented on the accuracy of the aircraft etc, but as WW2 was still going on when this was filmed I guess they made use of what was available.Follows a familiar theme of other WW2 films made whilst the war was in progress - Wake Island, Air Force etc in that historical accuracy is sometimes lacking, but as a flag-waver at the time it probably had the desired effect.Although born some time after WW2 ended, as a story of life aboard a carrier it looked quite realistic to me. It was only the battle scenes where it seemed to lose its way, but this was nothing to do with the quality of special effects. Probably a bit too jingoistic.Some good performances, particularly Don Ameche. It stands the test of time well, and a film that should not be forgotten and that I will certainly watch several times more.