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Midway (2019)

hbenthow

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"Midway" is a 2019 movie about the WWII battle of the same name. It's directed by Roland Emmerich and stars an ensemble cast featuring Patrick Wilson, Ed Skrein, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, and Dennis Quaid.


The reaction of most critics has not been positive, but my mileage differed from theirs. Yes, it's a big, bombastic movie with some of its dialogue sounding like it came out of a Sgt. Rock comic book, and it wears its patriotic heart on its sleeve. But for me at least, it came across earnestly in a way that reminded me of old-fashioned war epics from 60 or 70 years ago. It often felt (not so much in style as in spirit) almost like a movie made during the WWII era in which it is set, albeit with more modern stylistic choices and much more advanced special effects than were available then.

In terms of historical accuracy, it stays remarkably close to the facts for a Hollywood movie. Sure, there are some minor tweaks here and there for dramatic purposes (although not as many as one would be temped to think) and a few things are omitted in order for the movie to stay about two hours long, but it's actually quite accurate overall. Unlike Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor" or the lackluster "Midway" (1976), it exclusively follows actual historical figures rather than fictional characters and avoids adding in a sappy love story. It does a good job of getting across the historical context of the battles portrayed (Pearl Harbor, Doolittle Raid, and Midway), and even portrays the Japanese in a fair manner that does justice to the complexity of the various factions within the Japanese military.

The cast was good, with everyone putting energy into their performances. The cinematography was well-done, with everything being shot in a clear manner so that you can easily see what's happening at all times. There's no Michael Bay-style shaky-cam. The movie does a great job of portraying just how dangerous the aerial combat was, and the degree of bravery that was required to take part in it. The battle scenes are executed in a way that makes the peril feel palpable, at times giving the audience a pilot's-eye view of what it was like to dive into a hail of anti-aircraft gunfire. The special effects were of mixed quality, with some being obvious CGI (probably due to the relatively limited budget for a movie of this kind), but that didn't bother me because the scenes were so suspenseful and gripping that it didn't matter that they didn't always look perfectly real.

Obviously, it isn't everyone's cup of tea. But I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys unapologetically old-fashioned war epics or Roland Emmerich's past work. In fact, I think that it might just be Emmerich's best movie so far. It's a passion project that he has been trying to get made for decades, but which no studio was willing to greenlight. He decided to make it independently, and managed to raise $76 million from various individuals and an additional $24 million from mostly Chinese investors (making it one of the most expensive independent movies ever made, but lower-budget than a studio-funded version likely would have been). Due to its independent nature, it's free of the usual studio tampering, making it essentially an auteur project from Emmerich.

Here's an excellent in-depth review (by someone who made a Midway documentary) that I'd recommend:

 

Gaith

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Thanks for the review! Despite Dr. Kermode's displeasure, maybe I'll check it on on Discount Tuesday the 26th (I'm seeing Dark Fate this Tuesday).

When it comes to historical movies especially, I value the San Francisco Chronicle's Mick Lasalle, as he seems to have a better handle on history than most reviewers, and he doesn't disappoint here:
 
There’s an intangible but unmistakable thing that can happen. You’re watching a movie from another era — in the case of “Midway,” 1942. There’s a nightclub scene. A woman is singing, backed by a big band. There are soldiers and USO girls, and couples are dancing, and you think …  no. Wait. That doesn’t seem right. That’s not 1942.
 
This happens throughout “Midway.” Those are not people from 1942. The soldiers don’t look lean and hard and from another time, as they do in the newsreels. And why does an officer tell an enlisted man, “You gotta suck it up”?

[...] It’s also probably a mistake in strategy that Wes Tooke’s screenplay keeps checking in with the Japanese side of the battle, with the officers and men on the enemy ships. Yes, the idea is to give an overview, but the notion that the other team had good guys, too, removes some of the urgency and rooting interest. It dims our recognition that these lovely, nice fellows would have loved to have bombed Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco.
 
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