Midway Review

The Battle of Midway was one of the important naval battles of the Second World War. It was the battle that turned the tide of war for the Americans in the Pacific.

America has suffered from a surprise attack from the Japanese Navy. As America reels from the attack the Japanese military expand across Asia and the Pacific. With the Americans outmanned and outgunned their commanders, intelligence officers, and pilots and sailors prepare for a fight against the odds.

In recent years war film has mostly focused on smaller stories or looking at regular soldiers on the grounds. Some films, like Saving Private Ryan and Dunkirk, used fictional characters to view major events. The 2019 version of Midway was a throwback to war films of the ‘60s and ‘70s – big scale films that look at a major battle from many avenues. And this was the best feature of the film because it showed the battle from different viewpoints.

The fear of going into Midway was that this film was basically going to be Pearl Harbor 2.0. Both films were made by divisive directors known for making bombastic, special effects-heavy films. Both films looked at some of the same events, like the Pearl Harbor bombings and the Doolittle Raids. However, Pearl Harbor was basically a romantic film that happened to have some impressive war sequences but was utterly disrespectful to history. Midway was much more historically accurate. I personally enjoyed the American intelligence efforts to find out where the Japanese Navy planned to attack after Pearl Harbor and small details like the Japanese needing to change weapons during the battle.

The respect for actual historical events was more surprising because of its director: Roland Emmerich. Emmerich is best known for making disaster films like Independence Day, The Day After the Tomorrow, and 2012. When he made a historical film, The Patriot, it was basically Braveheart II. It was a film that aimed to make the British look as evil and stupid as possible. And his Shakespeare film Anonymous used a baseless conspiracy theory. Midway focused on real people and real events, so the filmmakers had to be respectful.

Emmerich’s disaster films often use a cast of thousands because he has many characters dotted around America and the globe. So it wasn’t much of a jump for him to make Midway because classic war films like The Longest Yard, A Bridge Too Far, and Tora Tora Tora looked at many characters on the Allied and Axis sides. Emmerich did this with Midway as American and Japanese commanders planned and prepared for the famous battle. Like the aforementioned films, Midway attempted to be balanced with its portrayals of commanders on both sides, especially Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa), who’s seen as one of the best naval commanders of his generations.

Whilst Midway was respectful to history it did have one glaring problem: the screenplay. The film was written by Wes Tooke whose previous writing experience has been a few TV episodes. It seemed like Tooke referenced the big book of war clichés when writing because it was hilariously predictable. This film includes scenes like Admiral Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) stating he doesn’t envy the man who has to command the Pacific Fleet, then finding out he has the job; various moments with characters saying he they want revenge for Pearl Harbor; and many characters stating that someone else is the best at what they do.

Dick Best (Ed Skrien) and Wade McClusky (Luke Evans) have the closest thing to a character arc. They have different personalities and viewpoints and slowly grow to respect each other. Best started off as a gung-ho man who craves revenge for his buddy who died during Pearl Harbor but becomes more sombre when he gets promoted.

Midway does bring up storylines that could have been cut from the final product. An example was the Doolittle Raid and James Doolittle (Aaron Eckhart) landing in Japanese occupied China. This storyline seems to be inserted into the film to satisfy the Chinese inventors rather than being narratively important. It was a similar case when the film referenced John Ford being at Midway to film a documentary.

Many classic war films practical effects and even films like Dunkirk and Saving Private Ryan used masses of extras and real equipment when possible. Midway used mostly CGI and green screen. It’s understandable because large scale naval warfare is difficult to film but the CGI did make Midway feel weightless compared to other recent war films.

Midway does not have the emotional heft that other recent war films have had, but it does satisfy an itch war films that look at the commanders.