Midway Movie (2019)

I can thoroughly recommend the new 2019 movie Midway to those who are interested in the subject. I am a person who studies the subject. At this point, I have read probably more than fifteen books on the subject including Gordon Prangue's Miracle at Midway and the new monograph, Never Call Me a Hero by Jack Kleiss, a Dauntless pilot who flew in the battle and scored hits on two aircraft carriers that day and on a cruiser as well before the battle was over.

There was just enough human interest in the movie to make it human. There were some technical errors but there always are. The was a bunch of CGI but none of the stupid non-ballistic Star Wars movements that hampered Red Tails and many other CGI movies and the CGI was, frankly, believable. There was no sex. There were few invented characters.

I expect this movie will turn into a litmus test for viewers in that the movie makers seem to believe in real people who step up to the plate and do what has to be done. There's no nihilism, none of that "life's a b---- and then you die" crap. Just an attempt to portray the events accurately and in a way that maintains interest.

In my humble opinion it is worth your while and worth your money. I plan it add it to my collection.

Bob

I agree completely with Bob.

My wife and I saw it today and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Worth seeing on a large screen.

Regards
Doug

No sex? That's a deal breaker.

On a more serious note, I heard someone say there are no Wildcats in the movie. Doesn't make sense to me why there wouldn't be.

Great movie but disappointed in the uniforms worn through out the movie. They appear cheap still wrinkled out of the box and same ones for all ranks. No creases in shirts and trousers etc. and all the same. Probably had to cut costs some were, Ray

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

No sex? That's a deal breaker.

On a more serious note, I heard someone say there are no Wildcats in the movie. Doesn't make sense to me why there wouldn't be.

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There were lovely CGI Wildcats.


Bob

OK then, so my big real question is.....................is it better than the 1976 version and did it need to be done? That is a damn good movie.

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Originally Posted by Aragorn243

OK then, so my big real question is.....................is it better than the 1976 version and did it need to be done? That is a damn good movie.

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In my humble option this movie is far more accurate and believable than the 1976 film. There is no back-story drama to speak of and there aren't a bunch of fictional characters. They tell the story with the real people who were involved. Personally, I wasn't very impressed with the 1976 movie and as a student of the event, I am really glad a more accurate depiction was created. Someone called it the shortest 2.5 hours he had ever spent in a theater.



Bob

The reason that you do not see fighters in the Midway movie is that Admiral Fletcher would not release but six F4F’s to Commander Thatch. The Admiral retained the remainder of the fighters for defense of his three carriers. Commander Thatch developed the “Thatch Weave” which gave the inferior F4F a chance against the superior ZEKES.
The Thatch Weave required a Fingers Four formation consisting of two 2 plane elements. With only six aircraft, CDR Thatch had only 1 ½ of a Fingers Four and could not effectively protect the SBD’s or the TBD’s
FWIW

There were the Wildcats and Brewster Buffaloes of VMF-221 on Midway itself led by Floyd B. Parks. Some of Parks pilots were fresh out of training. When a rag-tag bunch of Wildcats culled from other squadrons were assigned to his squadron Parks gave them to the newest pilots in the squadron, figuring they would need all the help they could get to just survive. The squadron was tasked with interception of what was going to be a vastly superior Japanese attacking force with a five-to-one numerical advantage. Parks and thirteen other pilots of VMF-221 were killed as they beleaguered the incoming Japanese forces on the morning of June 4th. Only two of their planes were repairable after he action. Parks was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and the USS Floyd B.Parks (DD-844), a Gearing Class destroyer, was named for him.


Bob

For those interested in the facts of the matter this is an excellent review which probably cost about .001% of the movie budget. Did Nagumo really have a choice or were the mistakes made higher up?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo

Yamamoto after all broke the cardinal rule and divided his carrier forces between Midway and Aleutians. Then instead of consolidating the reduced flight crews of Shokaku and Zuikaku into one of those ships, or spreading the crews of his other carriers evenly between all the carriers, he left those two ships in Japan to recover from the Battle of the Coral Sea: three fleet carriers he could have brought to the critical engagement!

As Cmdr. Fuchida sat in his lifeboat watching the Akagi go down he said in loud voice, "If Shokaku and Zuikaku had been here this catastrophe would never have happened!" At that word he wrote later, every hanging head in the boat suddenly jerked upright! :D

Yamamoto, who must have known that the war itself hung on that battle, then lost his only and quite plausible chance to snatch victory from defeat by retreating instead of charging in with his surface ships. Considering how many torpedoes it took the Japanese to sink the Repulse and Prince of Wales, and how low the standard of American training and torpedo marksmanship was, and of course how deadly Japanese naval gunnery and torpedoes turned out to be, he probably had a very good chance of destroying the US carriers before American production made the end inevitable.

He lost his nerve it seems. No wonder he chose "suicide by cop" not long after!