New Midway Movie. Meh!

[Clay Mosby]

Finally decided to watch the new remake of Midway. That's a couple hours I won't ever get back. Not impressed. I found the acting and dialog choppy and forced, and the scenes of personal activities very slow and boring.

 

But what really bothered me was the special effects. The CGI was beyond fake looking, and was it just me, or on several aerial shots of the carriers with SBD's on deck were the planes way too large for the scale of the ship. They looked more like the B-25's on the Hornet.

 

Much, Much preferred the 1976 version with Heston, Fonda and Ford.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

Thanks for the warning.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

I agree, the original was a lot more entertaining, it had better color also.

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

Agreed. The remake of "Midway" was hokey, and I was disappointed in the special effects...or lack thereof. There may actually be some remakes of movies that are not bad....but this ain't one of them!

 

I also have to say that the movie: "1917", about some British soldiers, in world war 1, is even worse. Yes, it is graphic, in some scenes, but the story is so lame. 

I kept waiting for the story to get interesting, and for the big moment. Yep...I kept waiting.  

I can't believe I watched the whole thing.

 

 

[Widder, SASS #59054]

I agree Clay.   MIDWAY has always been one of my favorite movies with Heston, Ford, etc.....

 

About the only interesting part of the new Midway was when the Japanese recovered 2 of our pilot crew members

and tied weights to them and threw them overboard alive.   I have read that this actually happened to those guys.

 

..........Widder

 

[Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381]

I found the movie very entertaining. I've watched it twice.

[Sixgun Sheridan]

I too found it entertaining, but I knew from the very beginning that I'd have to check my OCD for historical accuracy at the door. It was good to see a CGI version of the Big E, but at the same time they used the exact same CGI model for the Lexington at Coral Sea. But then again the planes in the 1976 movie were taking off from angled carrier decks.

 

If you want to see historical accuracy in a war film watch something made by the British.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

IT Qualifies as a "Why Bother."  After all, no matter the re-telling, the story always ends the same way 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

I like it and watched in the theater and since on the tube. I think it definitely superior to the 1976 version. That one must have been one of the last "all star cast" war movies of the era. A whole gang of stars takes away from the story.

 

The "scenes of personal activities" were short and to the point. Contrasted with the subplot in the old movie about the Japanese girlfriend, which was distracting and, I think, pointless to the Battle of Midway.

 

The CGI was somewhat overdone, but good. If you don't do CGI, all you are ever going to be able to do in such a movie is show archival footage, which isn't actually the movie, and is the same thing over and over.

[Clay Mosby]

2 hours ago, Widder, SASS #59054 said:

I agree Clay.   MIDWAY has always been one of my favorite movies with Heston, Ford, etc.....

 

About the only interesting part of the new Midway was when the Japanese recovered 2 of our pilot crew members

and tied weights to them and threw them overboard alive.   I have read that this actually happened to those guys.

 

..........Widder

 

I was wodering about that. I found that scene incredibly disturbing, to the point I almost stopped watching the movie. The barbarity of it stunned me.

[Sixgun Sheridan]

1 hour ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

The "scenes of personal activities" were short and to the point. Contrasted with the subplot in the old movie about the Japanese girlfriend, which was distracting and, I think, pointless to the Battle of Midway.

 

The 1976 movie was essentially a sequel to Tora Tora Tora, which, ahem, "bombed" in the theater. Critics pointed out that one reason was the fact that the movie was too documentary in nature and featured no romance sub-plot anywhere, thus boring moviegoers. As a result they had to add the Japanese girl sub-plot to the Midway movie just to spice things up.

[Doc X]

1 hour ago, Clay Mosby said:

I was wodering about that. I found that scene incredibly disturbing, to the point I almost stopped watching the movie. The barbarity of it stunned me.

 

Pick up the book "Race of Aces" about the AAF air war in the pacific. It's a good read about several of our top aces and details a lot about the treatment of allied POW's and downed aircrew by the Japs that I'd never heard of before.

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

3 hours ago, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

 

IT Qualifies as a "Why Bother."  After all, no matter the re-telling, the story always ends the same way 

With all of the historical revisionism happening these days, retelling the story of our stuggles against the Axis Powers is a worthy effort.

 

As far as I'm concerned,  it goes under the heading of "'Lest we forget."

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

The barbarity was also shown to captured sub crews. Beatings, and worse. Injured men tossed overboard

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

4 hours ago, Clay Mosby said:

I was wodering about that. I found that scene incredibly disturbing, to the point I almost stopped watching the movie. The barbarity of it stunned me.

Then you best not read up on what else they did to Allied prisoners- much less what they did to the Chinese or the Koreans. 

 

A lot of Pacific veterans carried an animosity for the Japanese right to their graves.  I know my Grandfather on my Dad's side (a Guadalcanal and Solomon's Campaign veteran) surely did.

[Mud Marine,SASS#54686 Life]

The true "Hero" of the Midway battle was Lieutenant Commander Rochefort., the cryptologic officer. The ring knockers hated him, like they hated the cryptologic analysts like me. Rochefort was treated really badly in assignment, promotion, etc. I saw the writing on the wall and got out.

 

Now that I am really old, an El Rey, I see Yogi Berra's "It's deja vue all over again" . My analyses of the 1950s were ignored and shredded. so, on a personal basis, it's heartening to see the past with China, Korea and Vietnam and the devastation of the product of the Chinese Army's biological lab. "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

 

I stay dimly in touch as the Idaho State Commander of the National Association of Atomic and Nuclear Veterans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Widder, SASS #59054]

I knew this bit of Midway history, but I had to Google the name because I forgot it.

 

Anyhow, 'Richard Best' was the only pilot with bomb hits on 2 of the Japanese carriers.   If history serves me correct, he might be

THE ONLY U.S. pilot in history to do such a feat.

 

Thats an incredible accomplishment considering all the planes shot down and all the bombs that didn't hit their mark.

 

..........Widder