Midway (2019)

Directed by: Roland Emmerich | 138 minutes | action, drama | Actors: Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Mandy Moore, Luke Kleintank, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Keean Johnson, Nick Jonas, Etsushi Toyokawa, Tadanobu Asano, Darren Criss, Brandon Sklenar, Jake Manley, Jun Kunimura, Nobuya Shimamoto, Brennan Brown

Since 1990, German director Roland Emmerich has tried to film his passion project: the naval battle of Midway, the turning point of the Second World War in the Pacific (Pacific Ocean), which took place at the beginning of June 1942. The American Pacific Fleet manages to crush the Imperial Navy of Japan here. And that only six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which involved the United States in the war.

Emmerich just couldn’t get his vision of Midway across to the major studios. Now in 1990 he was still a fairly unknown filmmaker, but even after blockbusters like ‘Independence Day’ (1994) and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, the studios didn’t want it. In the end, he scraped together the desired 100 million dollars through all kinds of investors and in 2019 he was finally able to bring his vision to the silver screen. The result can be continued, but it is clear that no great storyteller has been lost to Emmerich. He knows how to portray the action beautifully, but his characters remain one-dimensional without character development. The result is an old-fashioned Hollywood spectacle – with tough American heroes and mostly honorable Japanese – that builds up to a thunderous climax, the battle itself. Emmerich thus largely (and admirably) adheres to historical facts.

However, the mediocre computer-generated effects, especially the obvious “green screens”) are quite distracting and regularly give the feeling that you are looking at the scenes from a game. The film also has little eye for the bloody consequences of the battle – against the trend to portray war in a ‘realistic’ way. Except for one charred body, the film stays neatly within the lines for a mild film review. In itself the lack of blood and severed limbs is not disturbing, but it gives the film a rather clinical and stylized look. It reinforces the idea that you’re watching a game, rather than actual acts of war that killed thousands of soldiers.

‘Midway’ effectively opens with a meeting between embassy attaché Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson) and Japanese Admiral Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa) about the possibility of war between their countries. Layton condemns the Japanese attack on China, while Yamamoto, a Harvard-educated, warns the American not to cut off oil supplies to Japan. Four years later, Japanese aggression in Asia continues: they have now conquered the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and Indochina (now Vietnam). President Roosevelt has imposed an oil embargo. The militaristic Japanese government sees only one way out: launch a decisive attack on Pearl Harbor to eliminate the American fleet in the Pacific. Then the film loses focus after a few minutes: both the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent retaliatory attack on Tokyo under Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle (Aaron Eckheart) are extensively portrayed. Doolittle then lands in China due to lack of fuel, creating a dramatic scene as the Japanese start looking for the American pilots. It would have made more sense to start after the introductory scene with the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, when the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise enters the ruined harbor and omits the Doolittle action altogether. The latter is a curious scene that belongs in another film and that adds nothing to the story. Could it have something to do with the Chinese investors in the film? Plus, the special effects are at their worst here, which isn’t a strong opening to get into the movie. (By the way, both episodes were also featured in the equally mediocre ‘Pearl Harbor’ (2001) by the other explosion king Michael Bay).

Fortunately, the film then gains momentum in the prelude to the crucial battle at Midway. The name Midway was not chosen by chance: the atoll and the islands that together are called Midway have been in American hands since the 19th century and are strategically located between Hawaii and Tokyo. The Imperial Japanese Navy is considered invincible. Not only do they have four aircraft carriers (Kaga, Akagi, Soryu and Hiryu) and eight battleships (plus support from submarines and smaller ships), but they have a well-thought-out strategy that could have easily succeeded. The Americans have only two aircraft carriers (the already mentioned USS Enterprise and the USS Hornet), but are also steaming up a third, the badly damaged USS Yorktown after emergency repairs. What the Japanese don’t know, however, is that Layton’s team has cracked their codes and, despite the encryption, deduce that they are on their way to Midway. This allows them to be intercepted there by Nimitz’s ships. The mistakes of Admiral Nagumo (Jun Kunimura) also play an important role.

An attempt had already been made to portray the battle in the 1976 ‘Midway’ of the same name. Here, however, an absolute top cast became entangled in all kinds of fantasized and melodramatic storylines and fictional characters. In any case, the characters in this film all really existed: such as commanders such as Admiral Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson), Admiral “Bull” Halsey (Dennis Quaid), the former attaché Layton, now stationed at Pearl Habor as an intelligence officer, and the arrogant pilot Dick Best (Ed Skrein). The latter also has a wife, Ann (Mandy Moore) through whose eyes we follow some of the events. However, the actors do not get much space: Quaid is only allowed to growl, Moore sets a template of the standard faithful wife of a soldier and Skrein makes the clichéd transition from reckless hero to more thoughtful hero. The Japanese commanders are formal, stoic and talk a lot about their honor. Well, in Emmerich’s vision of Midway there is little room for nuance. But all the more for action.

It is only in the last part that you can see why Emmerich was so eager to make this film. The attack on ‘Midway’ is presented energetically and with great verve. Although the computer-generated effects are not entirely convincing here too, the almost suicidal task of the Americans – especially that of the dive bombers – including that of Dick Best – is excellently portrayed. A minor distraction is that Emmerich is here paying tribute to director John Ford, who happens to be (with good luck or a tip from a military connection) on Midway shooting, gets caught up in the action and makes a documentary about it (‘ The Battle of Midway’, 1942)

Meticulous and historically largely accurate, the attack waves – with time indication and all – are spectacularly displayed. Emmerich unleashes the adrenaline by making the best use of all possible camera angles to stay as close as possible to the explosions, hectic pace, near-death experiences and most importantly the sound of battle. Whistling bullets, exploding planes, depth charges and the screeching sound of the bombers: it’s an overwhelming assault on the senses.

The Blu-ray version has all kinds of interesting extras, including about the course of the battle, how the film was made and a tribute to the codebreakers.