Midway
Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Written by: Wes Tooke
Starring: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Luke Kleintank, Jun Kunimura, Darren Criss, Keean Johnson, Mandy Moore, Alexander Ludwig
Action/Drama/History - 138 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 6 Nov 2019
Written by: Wes Tooke
Starring: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Nick Jonas, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Luke Kleintank, Jun Kunimura, Darren Criss, Keean Johnson, Mandy Moore, Alexander Ludwig
Action/Drama/History - 138 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 6 Nov 2019
Director Roland Emmerich operates in a known style. He is flash, everything is more, and believes if it is not smacking the audience in the face, then they won’t see it. He is not Michael Bay, but they apparently took the same film school electives. Emmerich doesn’t do subtlety. He made a film about the threat of climate change and it was The Day After Tomorrow. Combine these tendencies with his fascination of U.S. lore and appreciation of turning points and ideas which unite the amber waves of grain and you get Independence Day, The Patriot, and now, Midway. There is not much difference in swarming alien spacecraft wiping out American landmarks and mass squadrons of Japanese Zeroes turning Pearl Harbor into a smoking hole.
Refreshing the who and how regarding Midway for new audiences is a worthy goal, especially for a Veteran’s Days release. However, Emmerich is more concerned with archetypes and fireballs. He opted for the Saturday matinee ‘golly gee’ version instead of a more sober accounting - Starship Troopers instead of Saving Private Ryan. What better way to mark time and place and get us thinking about previous generations than to alter the Lionsgate logo into sepia tones. The dialogue is also filtered through the stereotype lens. This is how films teach us to believe folks talked back then - mostly in campy zingers punctuated by lofty pronouncements of honor and glory. I have a hunch most chatter was as inane as it is today.
Refreshing the who and how regarding Midway for new audiences is a worthy goal, especially for a Veteran’s Days release. However, Emmerich is more concerned with archetypes and fireballs. He opted for the Saturday matinee ‘golly gee’ version instead of a more sober accounting - Starship Troopers instead of Saving Private Ryan. What better way to mark time and place and get us thinking about previous generations than to alter the Lionsgate logo into sepia tones. The dialogue is also filtered through the stereotype lens. This is how films teach us to believe folks talked back then - mostly in campy zingers punctuated by lofty pronouncements of honor and glory. I have a hunch most chatter was as inane as it is today.
Let’s meet the stock characters, I mean, real life men these cartoons are based one. First up is dive bomber pilot Dick Best (Ed Skrein, Alita: Battle Angel). Dick is a hot head. He rolls his eyes at his command structure who are too risk averse, he snaps at the torpedo boys as elitist preppies, and he lands on an aircraft carrier with his engine cut out just to see if he can do it. I wonder if that situation will pop up later. Back at Pearl Harbor is the man who knew the attack was coming, if only anyone in power would have listened to him, Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson, Aquaman). Layton takes it personally - he knows it was his fault alone the Japanese snuck in. Therefore, if he pulls all-nighters, rolls up his sleeves, and only talks in firm, declarative sentences, he will convince the next round of Admirals that Midway is the next target.
Layton is trying to convince Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson, Solo: A Star Wars Story). Nimitz is open for suggestions. Harrelson convinces us Nimitz accepts how gargantuan his task is and doesn’t care about rank, but about getting it right. As analytical and strategic thinking as Nimitz is, Admiral “Bull” Halsey (Dennis Quaid, Kin) is just as here and now, oil greasy, and seat of his pants. However, even the most buttoned-down, squared-away, by the book nerd pales in comparison to the composure and formality of a Japanese officer. Emmerich and writer Wes Tooke recognize both sides of the battle are worthy of study and both sides were as brave as the other. Admiral Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa) warned Ed Layton back in 1937 not to box Japan into a corner. He also utters the cliché about awaking a sleeping giant.
Apparently, the Japanese military was so formal, the good ideas and prescient thoughts from more junior officers could not possibly trump the aged and wise Admiralty. Nimitz may have listened to everyone in the room, but in Japan, the only one in the room was the Admiral. Emmerich is not shy from painting a picture that gritty Jersey boys and ‘aw-shucks’ Texans personally shoved their down home logic through the skulls of alien invaders who believed themselves ethnically superior to the western rabble and were carrying out the vision of the divine Emperor. At least the Japanese are not nameless and faceless ‘others’. They are not demons. They love their homeland as much as the Americans love theirs. No way this sort of familiarity and empathy for the other side gets made back in the 1950s or ‘60s. We see their motivation for the surprise attack and the looks of reticence among some. Emmerich omits what was most likely the bloodlust of others though.
And all the greatest hits are here. Sunday morning, December 7, is an early visual extravaganza. This is followed by the Doolittle raid, a bit of the Marshall Islands, and finally, Midway. Emmerich recreated an almost near scale replica of the USS Enterprise and constructed aircraft such as the extinct SBD Dauntless and the TBD Devastator - the American aircraft involved in Midway, but which no longer exist in any real fashion in 2019. The visual effects of dive-bombing a Japanese aircraft carrier is visceral and seems completely insane, but these scenes are exactly why Emmerich chose to make this film. It wasn’t to juxtapose the similarities between the Americans and the Japanese soldiers or to convey the awesome strategic shift in the Pacific Theater Midway enabled; it is to show tracer rounds and flak booms as bombers raced down to launch their payloads and most likely meet certain death. That is Emmerich’s film. No subtlety, all chaos. That’s fine - that sounds like a film for folks whose favorite kind of history comes in frantic doses and slogans - nothing too wordy or serious.
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