The Battle of Midway

John Ford, serving as a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, was on Midway Island when the Japanese attacked in June 1942 and was wounded while filming. The result is one of the first American combat documentaries of the war, shot in color and built around the pivotal naval battle that broke the back of the Japanese carrier fleet. The film shifts between the calm of island life, the chaos of the attack, and the recovery of American airmen from the sea. Hollywood voices including Henry Fonda, Donald Crisp, and Jane Darwell narrate, giving the footage a human, almost home-front tone. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.