The Battle of Midway (1942)
John Ford's own color footage of the June 1942 naval battle, shot from the roof of Midway's power plant as Japanese bombs fell around him and the base scrambled to defend the atoll.
Ford and his cameraman were wounded filming the Japanese air raid firsthand, so the scorched, unsteady footage in The Battle of Midway is real combat rather than reenactment; Franklin Roosevelt reportedly ordered it into every theater in the country, and it won the first Academy Award ever given for Best Documentary Short.
Background
The Battle of Midway consists of color combat footage shot by the director John Ford, who was serving with the Navy at the time and filmed the June 1942 battle from a vantage point on Midway Atoll as Japanese aircraft bombed the base around him. Ford and his cameraman were both wounded during the filming, and the shaky, sometimes chaotic camerawork in the finished film reflects that it captures a real attack rather than a staged reenactment.
What to watch for
President Franklin Roosevelt reportedly ordered the film shown as widely as possible in American theaters, believing its firsthand, unglamorized view of the war would be valuable for public morale and understanding. Watch for the rawness of the footage and for how directly it puts the viewer inside a real battle, a striking contrast to the more polished combat sequences typical of wartime feature films. It won the first Academy Award ever given for Best Documentary Short Subject.
