Style: Historic World Warfare Two Motion
Director: Jack Smight
Starring: Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Robert Mitchum, James Coburn, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner, Edward Albert
Operating Time: 131 minutes
Synopsis: It is 1942, and the US Navy is weakened and reeling after the assault on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune) desires to press Japan’s benefit and plots an assault on the Halfway Atoll within the Pacific. A cryptographic unit led by Commander Rochefort (Hal Holbrook) breaks sufficient of the Japanese code to permit Admiral Nimitz (Henry Fonda) to plan a high-risk ambush, committing all the Navy’s plane carriers. The trusted Captain Matthew Garth (Charlton Heston) is assigned to the USS Yorktownalongside along with his son Lieutenant Thomas Garth (Edward Albert). With each nations holding nothing again, tense surveillance maneuvers precede an epic battle, with the destiny of the Pacific Warfare at stake.
What Works Properly: This can be a grim-faced and square-jawed recreation of the seminal World Warfare Two naval battle, crammed with star presence and spectacular {hardware}. The storytelling represents either side and seeks the small particulars that form historical past, together with a damaged radio stopping a vital transmission, malfunctioning electronics leading to misplaced torpedo bombs, and essential battlefield selections made inside the fog of conflict and using on intestine intuition. Director Jack Smight admirably interprets unfolding battle techniques into understandable plot factors.
What Does Not Work As Properly: A wedged-in romance between Lieutenant Garth and his interned Japanese-American lover is a clunky distraction. Equally clumsy is a hodgepodge of ineloquently inserted historic footage borrowed from different Hollywood productions and unrelated battles. Some stars like Robert Mitchum and notably James Coburn lend their presence to just some scenes earlier than cashing their cheques.
Key Quote:
Admiral Nimitz (to Captain Garth): We will not commerce them provider for provider, Matt.
