Midway (2019)

Year 13, Day 149 - 5/29/21 - Movie #3,854

BEFORE: It's Memorial Day weekend, not only the start of the summer season, but time to think about fallen soldiers, so a film about a World War II battle, the turning point of the war in the Pacific, seems very appropriate.  I tried to get this one to land on Monday, but this was as close as I could come without disrupting plans for Father's Day films.  Don't worry, I've got another war-themed film set for Monday, as long as I knock this one off today.  

Aaron Eckhart carries over from "The Rum Diary" and provides the link between the Johnny Depp half-week and the Woody Harrelson weekend. 

I'm going out to Staten Island today for a BBQ and beerfest of sorts, called the 5 Boro pic-NYC (get it?) and the food's going to be largely rib-based.  There might be a couple other items there, but essentially it's a rib-fest cook-off situation, and if the weather keeps being a little rainy and/or very cloudy, it could be sparsely attended, which is great, really - more ribs for me.  This may be the one chance I have to get out and party this summer, because I heard back from the movie theater, and their business is picking up, so they want me to come in for training.  I hope to work just a part-time schedule so I don't affect my day job, but there could be an effect on my at-home movie watching, so I may have to trim the schedule down once I get busy.  I've maintained my blogging schedule before whole holding down two jobs, so I know it's possible, but it could get difficult.

THE PLOT: The story of the Battle of Midway, told by the leaders and the sailors who fought it. 

AFTER: I'm not just two days early for Memorial Day, I'm about a week early for the anniversary of the Battle of Midway, which took place June 5-8, 1942.  Damn, now I wish I'd looked it up earlier.  Oh, well - the film starts with the Battle of Pearl Harbor, and then works its way, following the Navy survivors of that battle, plus a few thousand others, over the next six months leading up to the Battle of Midway.  (I kept anxiously waiting for the date on screen to read "May 29, 1942" and yeah, it finally got there, but I forget now what exactly happened on that date.)

Jeez, there's so much important stuff here, starting, of course, with Pearl Harbor.  (Actually, starting back in 1937 with naval intelligence officer Edwin Layton serving as the attaché in Tokyo, having discussions with Admiral Yamamoto that give him valuable intelligence that led him to predict the Pearl Harbor attack, even though nobody believed him...).  There's some great special effects work done here with all the Japanese fighter planes attacking the U.S. battleships, and of course watching the large battleships, like the USS Arizona, getting bombed and/or torpedoed was a stunning, sort of awe-inspiring sight, only in a bad way, of course. Immediately after the attack, the incoming carrier USS Enterprise sent some planes up to search for the Japanese fleet, but was unable to locate it.  

The film then follows the aviators and crew of the Enterprise (and the USS Hornet), as it leads raids against the Marshall Islands and the Hornet provides transport for Jimmy Doolittle's squad, who led bombing raids on Tokyo before abandoning their craft and parachuting into what they hoped was China. Meanwhile, naval intelligence back at Pearl Harbor has finally decided to listen to Edwin Layton, who advises Admiral Nimitz (who ever thought he'd be played by Woody Harrelson?) to trust the intelligence intercepted and deciphered by Joseph Rochefort's code-breaking team, who believe that the U.S. base on Midway Island will soon come under attack by Japanese forces.  

This was the turning point, with the U.S. knowing where the next attack was coming, and more importantly, when, so they could set a form of a trap.  The Enterprise and Hornet were recalled from the Coral Sea, and the damaged USS Yorktown was repaired and made ready for combat at Midway, too. On June 4 the Japanese launched their air attack on Midway, but sustained heavy damage from the U.S. ambush.  The U.S. forces then launched an air attack, plus a submarine attack, on the Japanese aircraft carriers, but it was largely ineffective at first.  However, they apparently prevented the Japanese navy from launching a counter-strike.  

This allowed the U.S. air group to follow a Japanese destroyer back to the fleet, and upon finding the fleet without the Combat Air Patrol there to protect it, the U.S. dive-bombers were able to destroy three of the Japanese ships, the Akagi, the Kaga and the Soryu.  However, this left the Hiryu, which launched a wave that destroyed the Yorktown, which in turn led the Enterprise and the Hornet to launch their remaining aircraft, which destroyed the Hiryu.  Look, I'm kind of taking it on faith here that this is all historically accurate, I honestly don't have time to research the whole damn battle and nitpick this point or that. 

I'm also willing to believe these were real people portrayed here, though it would have been easy to fudge their personalities and such, the film lists these real people's accomplishments and their situations after the war ended, so I'm prepared to roll with it.  Sure, I know some things were probably fudged here for dramatic effect, but obviously they've got to fill in the gaps with something, even if it's the odd gum-chewing rituals of Navy pilots. (Why did someone think that was so important?  Unwrapping the gum, chewing the gum, putting the chewed gum on the plane's instrument panel, who CARES?). 

Similarly, do we really need to know that Admiral Halsey was recalled because he had shingles?  (It's not even true - IMDB says he had eczema.). The recall of Halsey played an important role in the battle, since the Japanese fleet didn't know he'd been replaced by Rear Admiral Spruance, who wasn't as impetuous as Halsey.  The Japanese believed they could lure Halsey into a trap and wipe out one of the most important ships in the U.S. fleet.  Spruance, however, waited for the Japanese to come into range, and withdrew after sinking four carriers, rather than chasing down more of the Japanese fleet, as Halsey probably would have done. 

I think the real star here was the special effects, which really made the battles realistic (again, I assume...).  I've been lucky enough to avoid serving in the military, either voluntary or by force, so there's a part of me that celebrates the feeling that watching movies about war will probably be as close as I ever get to it.  That's part of what Memorial Day is all about, right? 

Also starring Ed Skrein (last seen in "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil"), Patrick Wilson (last seen in "Lakeview Terrace"), Luke Evans (last seen in "Murder Mystery"), Nick Jonas (last seen in "All In: The Fight for Democracy"), Woody Harrelson (last seen in "Zombieland: Double Tap"), Dennis Quaid (last seen in "In Good Company"), Darren Criss (last seen in "Girl Most Likely"), Jake Weber (last seen in "Amistad"), Brennan Brown (last seen in "State of Play"), Alexander Ludwig (last seen in "Bad Boys for Life"), David Hewlett (last seen in "The Shape of Water"), Keean Johnson, Mark Rolston (last seen in "Hard Rain"), Luke Kleintank, Brandon Sklenar (last seen in "Vice" (2018), Jake Manley, Eric Davis (last seen in "Mother!"), Kenny Leu (last seen in "Independence Day: Resurgence"), James Carpinello (last seen in "The Great Raid"), Russell Dennis Lewis, Jacob Blair (last seen in "Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball"), James Hicks (last seen in "Long Shot"), Geoffrey Blake, Mikael Conde, Tim Beckmann (last seen in "Hanna"), Cameron Brodeur,  Tadanobu Asano (last seen in "Silence"), Etsushi Toyokawa, Jun Kunimura (last seen in "Kill Bill: Vol. 2"), Peter Shinkoda (last seen in "The Predator"), Nobuya Shimamoto, Hiro Kanagawa (last seen in "Godzilla" (2014)), Ken Takikawa, Hiromoto Ida, Hiroaki Shintani, Ryuta Kato, Mandy Moore (last seen in "I'm Not Here") Rachael Perrell Fosket, Dean Schaller, Christie Brooke, Sarah Halford, Dustin Geiger, Jason Lee Hoy,

RATING: 6 out of 10 faulty Mark 13 torpedoes