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Midway


Utah Bob #35998

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I was planning on seeing it yesterday.

But honestly, with all this banter of advertising here on the Wire, I am now really looking

forward to seeing it next week.

 

Regardless of the intent, putting it on the Wire will make some of the Non-movie goers intrigued

enough to go see it.

 

God bless all my Veteran Pards..... and thank you for YOUR service and sacrifices.

 

..........Widder   (USN)

 

 

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Re: Hollywood and military accuracy,  I recall when Top Gun came out, I was one of the Army guys going through the Naval War College at the time and naturally among a number of Navy pilots.  To the man, they complained about the inaccuracy of this and that.  They finally got a chance to talk with the Captain, a Top Gun Graduate himself and the technical advisor for the movie.  Well, he listened to all their complaints and had to agree that there were many inaccuracies but his final response was one for the books,  "Men, I had a hard time keeping them from making it into a musical!!!"   :lol:  I thought that was great!

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3 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Were there technical errors?  Of course.  It's a movie. 

What I want to know is, was anyone carrying or using a Winchester 92 instead of the proper rifle for the time? I really hate when they do that in a movie. Hell, John Wayne fought the Civil War with a ‘92! :P:lol:

 

 

Thank you for the movie review, Hardpan.:D

 

I think I will go see it this weekend. 

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1 hour ago, Widder, SASS #59054 said:

I was planning on seeing it yesterday.

But honestly, with all this banter of advertising here on the Wire, I am now really looking

forward to seeing it next week.

 

Regardless of the intent, putting it on the Wire will make some of the Non-movie goers intrigued

enough to go see it.

 

God bless all my Veteran Pards..... and thank you for YOUR service and sacrifices.

 

..........Widder   (USN)

 

 

Bravo, and thank you for your service, Widder. :) :FlagAm:

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I think it's called, how to change history through the eyes of hollywierd. 

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2 hours ago, Smoken D said:

I think it's called, how to change history through the eyes of hollywierd. 

 

And I don't disagree.

But a good deal of any WWII history that some of us are aware of has been produced by Hollywood.

 

Luckily, many have sought other venues that allow us to know more of the facts than the fiction.

 

If it were left up to Hollywood, I would have thought John Wayne was in the Navy, the Marines in the

Pacific AND in the Army on D-Day..... ;)

 

..........Widder

 

 

 

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6 hours ago, Colonel Dan, SASS #24025 said:

Re: Hollywood and military accuracy,  I recall when Top Gun came out, I was one of the Army guys going through the Naval War College at the time and naturally among a number of Navy pilots.  To the man, they complained about the inaccuracy of this and that.  They finally got a chance to talk with the Captain, a Top Gun Graduate himself and the technical advisor for the movie.  Well, he listened to all their complaints and had to agree that there were many inaccuracies but his final response was one for the books,  "Men, I had a hard time keeping them from making it into a musical!!!"   :lol:  I thought that was great!

Directors only listen to the military technical advisors when it suits them, doesn’t impact the budget, and won’t change the fantastic script. ;)

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7 minutes ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

Steven Spielberg listened to Dale Dye for Saving Private Ryan. Ended up with a brutally realistic movie. 

For the. Battle scenes yeah. A lot of the other stuff was.....well, Hollywood. 

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1 hour ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

Movie’s about to start. Shall give my review when it’s over. 

I’ll certainly trust your review over some Entertainment reporter who majored in cinema arts and minored in common sense. ;)

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I’m no Roger Ebert, but here’s my take on Midway, the movie. 

 

If you consider CGI to be an abomination to cinema, don’t go. Personally, I thought they used the technology pretty well to complement the cinematic experience. Much better than in Red Tails if anybody saw that flick. 

 

If you want perfect historic and technical accuracy, stick to the zillion books and documentaries. 

 

If Woody Harrelson puts your knickers in a knot, stay away. Personally, I think he’s decent at acting, that’s what my admission price paid him to do, and he did a fine job portraying ADM Nimitz. 

 

At evening’s end, I’m glad I went. It was a great story told with a fair balance of accuracy and cinematic license. The heroes were portrayed as the good guys they were in real life. The Japanese of that era were accurately painted also. 

 

And wouldn't you you know it, the Good Guys won again, 77 years later. 

 

I might even see it again with my buddy. 

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1 minute ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

I’m no Roger Ebert, but here’s my take on Midway, the movie. 

 

If you consider CGI to be an abomination to cinema, don’t go. Personally, I thought they used the technology pretty well to complement the cinematic experience. Much better than in Red Tails if anybody saw that flick. 

 

If you want perfect historic and technical accuracy, stick to the zillion books and documentaries. 

 

If Woody Harrelson puts your knickers in a knot, stay away. Personally, I think he’s decent at acting, that’s what my admission price paid him to do, and he did a fine job portraying ADM Nimitz. 

 

At evening’s end, I’m glad I went. It was a great story told with a fair balance of accuracy and cinematic license. The heroes were portrayed as the good guys they were in real life. The Japanese of that era were accurately painted also. 

 

And wouldn't you you know it, the Good Guys won again, 77 years later. 

 

I might even see it again with my buddy. 

Oh no! You did not mention Red Tails. I had so much hope for that movie.:(

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Whats worse:

 

1.  judging a movie based on a professional writers critique, OR..... 

 

2. judging a movie based on one of the stars personality, OR.....

 

3.  judging a movie because 'Hollywood' is in the entertainment business.

 

After all, the Longest Day had Fabian in it..... :lol:

 

Thanks Charlie Harley.   Me and the Bunkhouse Boss plan to see it next week.

 

..........Widder

 

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Movies are entertainment. When the movie has inaccuracies in a field in which the viewer may be familiar, it can Unfortunately interfere with the entertainment. Sometimes it’s difficult for us who are knowledgeable about the facts of historical events to suspend disbelief and enjoy the experience. We have to constantly remind ourselves that it’s merely a good story.

It is too bad that so many people don’t realize they may be watching a somewhat skewed or not entirely accurate story. In some cases it may cause them to delve into real history a bit. It did for me as a young boy.

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55 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

 

And don't forget Ricky Nelson in Rio Bravo....

 

Just watched Rro Bravo and read the trivia on IMDB and it said Ricky Nelson added one million in additional box office take to the movie. The whole intent was to pull in younger audience.  

 

Son just texted me that he seen it today.  I take from his review that he liked it. 

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52 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

In some cases it may cause them to delve into real history a bit. It did for me as a young boy.

I had the coincidence of visiting Philadelphia and Independence Hall shortly after the Nicholas Cage movie “National Treasure”.  

In talking with a park ranger, she said a large number of kids came asking about the movie, but it gave the park staff a chance to tell the real history of the place. 

The ranger completely supported the movie and the curiosity it catalyzed.

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Well, I doubt I will travel to Japan to see if Godzilla really messed up the place.

But I still love the movies about him.   And King Kong ain't far behind.

 

But I decided to never be an astronaut after seeing Alien..... :o

 

..........Widder

 

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46 minutes ago, Warden Callaway said:

 

Just watched Rro Bravo and read the trivia on IMDB and it said Ricky Nelson added one million in additional box office take to the movie. The whole intent was to pull in younger audience.  

 

Son just texted me that he seen it today.  I take from his review that he liked it. 

Ricky Nelson turned 18 during the filming 

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12 hours ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Oh no! You did not mention Red Tails. I had so much hope for that movie.:(

It was a good movie with great performances. The CGI flight sequences just felt cartoonish. George Lucas tried to do too much with the animation technology of the era. 

 

Don't let me shy you away from watching. 

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23 hours ago, Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 said:

My feelings exactly.  If it's ANYTHING like PEAR HARBOR I will pass on it.

 I understand that a lot of you folks want complete accuracy, especially in things military or historical......but I had a good time watching this film.  Couldn't tell you if the insignia on the fly-boys' jackets were correct, or if the planes were displaying the correct emblems - but I had fun.

If you demand full accuracy in films, you will be continually disappointed.  Sort of like expecting that a candidate will live up to every campaign promise.  

 

LL

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32 minutes ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 I understand that a lot of you folks want complete accuracy, especially in things military or historical......but I had a good time watching this film.  Couldn't tell you if the insignia on the fly-boys' jackets were correct, or if the planes were displaying the correct emblems - but I had fun.

If you demand full accuracy in films, you will be continually disappointed.  Sort of like expecting that a candidate will live up to every campaign promise.  

 

LL

You are correct, of course, but I find it wrong when Hollywood messes around with real history and tries to make a real event into a video game or a chick flick.  That is why I have not gone to a movie in years, but rather wait ti it comes out on DVD and then choose.

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According to Google, "Saving Private Ryan" was based on a true story, but the movie antics and such

were fictional.

Basically, all we really know is that all the brothers had died and various measures were taken

to make sure the last brother didn't get killed.

 

Apparently, everything else was Hollywood at its best.

 

Remember, the winners get to write history..... ;)

 

..........Widder

 

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I just saw it today. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a huge WW2 Pacific War nerd. Because of that I have a hard time enjoying war movies because I pick apart every single detail they get wrong. As a result I went into the theater expecting a train wreck. Instead it was a fender bender at worst. Yeah there were a few obvious historical accuracy goofs, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared and was WAY better than Ben Affleck's Pearl Harbor. In fact it was more accurate than the 1976 movie with Charlton Heston. At least 80% of it was historically and technically accurate and I think that's about as good as we're going to get from Hollyweird.

 

The CGI wasn't the best, but it was a fairly low-budget film and it was better than I expected. The Dauntlesses all looked like Dauntlesses and the Devastators looked great as well. Oddly I didn't see a single Wildcat, but I didn't even realize it until after the credits rolled. Acting was fairly good. I wish they hadn't picked Woody Harrelson to be Chester Nimitz, but to his credit he did step out of his usual goofy personna and acted like we'd have expected Nimitz to act like. The Japanese characters did okay, perhaps not as likable as those in Tora Tora Tora and Midway, but not nearly as wooden as Pearl Harbor's.

 

They did waste quite a bit of run time showing the Doolittle Raid, which almost felt like they stuck scenes from a separate movie into the film. I have a suspicion that it was done (along with the scenes of the Chinese helping them to safety and mention of the 250,000 civilians murdered in retaliation) to please a potential Chinese audience. Since a Chinese film company helped finance the film that also makes sense.

 

Overall, I say to forgive its faults and go see it.

.

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Well, I went and saw the movie......but I didn't go to critique it or give a fact vs fiction assessment.

 

I liked the movie.   The ending was the best part when they showed REAL pictures of certain

American service men and also gave credit to them by listing the medals and honors 

bestowed up them either because of Midway or their service during WWII.

 

..........Widder

 

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Capt Baylor liked it. That’s good enough for me.

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People are dissing the movie because a newspaper review got someone's rank wrong?

 

I saw it, I enjoyed it. I give it a 6 out of 10.

 

Possible minor spoilers below:

 

It moved through events pretty quickly, from a little before Pearl Harbor, to Pearl Harbor, to the Doolittle raid to the intel on Midway to the actual battle. 

As someone said, there is not a romantic sub plot to muck things up. 

Some articles I saw said a lot of the historical aspects are correct, including the contributions of the 10 main characters. Though the actual battles are probably a little too dramatized. 

I think it could have done a better job of comparing the Japanese losses at Midway to the American losses. 

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