A Heads Up For You….

| November 9, 2019

If you’re thinking of going to see “Midway”, the current remake of the original film from 1976, don’t.  The original movie, with Robert Mitchum as ADM “Bull” Halsey, Henry Fonda as ADM Nimitz, and Toshiro Mifune as ADM Yamamoto, was done well and was well received.

The Military Times review says everything about this version. Perhaps more. It is drek, and apparently farcical drek.

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/11/09/everything-about-blockbuster-midway-sinks-faster-than-japanese-carriers-at-midway/

Maybe theaters should pay us to see movies like this. Even then, and with free popcorn, I still wouldn’t go.

Read the review. If you can quit laughing, find ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!” or the 1976 “Midway”, or even some real footage online. Navy Photographers Mates were on the job, too, you know.

Here’s the trailer for “Tora! Tora! Tora!”

Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", War Stories

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David

I don’t think they liked it. Hard to tell, though.

Anonymous

Best war movie review I’ve ever read in Military Times (catch-all for Army Times, Marine Times, etc.) bar none though.

FuzeVT

Favorite line:
Visuals and sound were so unconvincing that the sudden emergence of Optimus Prime from a Hawaiian volcano shouting, “USS Arizona, roll out!” would not have come as a surprise.

TRS

Certainly, one of the better negative reviews. Thanks.

SgtBob

Well, you know that all persons of color have, at one time or another, been forced into war because of white privilege. Should you believe different, then it’s off to the reeducation camp with you.

5th/77th FA

Yep, Roger that SgtBob, going all the way back to before the Rev War. And we all know how the 54th MA and the USCT were forced at bayonet point to have the privilege of following the white ossifers at Batt ree Wagner and the Crater of Petersburg. Don’t forget the 6th, 9th, & 10th Cav Buffalo Soldiers either. /s/

Thanks for the heads up on the linky Ex. I had considered catching this at the motion picture house. If I forego seeing it there I won’t have to refinance the Firebase.

11B-Mailclerk

The Buffalo Soldiers were the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments and the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments. (The 24th and 25th were formed from the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st regiments)

The Other Whitey

Most of the commenters seem less than impressed with the reviewer. As for me, I still plan on giving it a shot. It’s made by the same guy responsible for “Independence Day,” the “ice age because global warming” movie, and the “giant iguana in NYC who’s allegedly supposed to be Godzilla.” Obviously that guy doesn’t do movies like “Tora Tora Tora*.” From what I can tell, it looks as though he has made a real effort at providing historical context to a less-educated millennial audience. Granted, that effort will be like a slideshow punctuated with stuff blowing up, and cheesiness is Roland Emmerich’s stock in trade. Look at it this way, if it’s at least better than “Pearl Harbor” [gag], then it’s already undoing some long-standing damage.

Some things are definitely going to be bullshit. The trailer shows a TBD flying with a torpedo and a pair of 500lb bombs; the TBD could carry both, but not at the same time, at least not for any usable combat range. SBDs could and did dogfight successfully, but a hammerhead turn as seen in the trailer is not in the SBD’s repertoire if the pilot wants to live. Things like the fleets being too closely spaced are excusable as narrative license to show the scale of the forces involved more effectively than a bunch of icons on a map.

It may still suck. I’m sure even if t doesn’t I’ll be rolling my eyes a few times. But I’ll give it a shot. If I find myself agreeing completely with the MT reviewer, I will eat my crow.

* According to Them Interwebz, Michael Bay apparently wanted to do “Pearl Harbor” [gag] as more or less a shot-for-shot remake of “Tora Tora Tora” with modern CGI. The producers insisted on the bullshit love story (and Ben Affleck in general) over his objections. Bay says he tried to walk out altogether, was threatened with a breach-of-contract lawsuit, wasn’t consulted for the final editing, and hated the finished movie when he saw it. It’s on the internet, it must be true!

Cameron Kingsley

Nothing wrong with being fair. I hope you enjoy it TOW.😊

11B-Mailclerk

Never underestimate the power of a studio to trash a great concept or franchise.

Star Wars –
The Disney Debacle Awakens

timactual

My movie review (definite spoiler alert)—

Woody Harrelson. ‘Nuff said.

gitarcarver

I must be one of the few people who thought that the original “Midway” needed to be consigned to the briny deep.

AW1Ed

You and me, gitarcarver. Same with Torax3.

Thunderstixx

I hate the original Midway.
That movie was the beginning of the preachy, wah, wah, wah we hate America and you shoulod too, after all they put his girlfriend and her family in a fenced in area because they were Japanese….
AFTER we had just been the victim of a surprise attack by…..
Wait for it…..
The Japanese…….
Oh, and then later we dropped those nasty bombs on them too just to get even with them because we’re the big bad America and we hate everything about it crowd in Hollywood….
If anyone thinks we shouldn’t have dropped those two bombs needs to read anything by James D Hornfischer, especially the one I just finished, “The Fleet at Flood Tide”…..
I just can’t stand the big bad airplane driver whining like some antifa punk when his mom tosses out his latest edition of the weekly wipe for morons…..
That movie sucked, probably worse than any other movie I have ever seen, simply for that character, and to have Charlton Heston play his Father was beyond ridiculous….
The real Heston would have thrown his ass overboard at the first whine…..
So if this Midway is ANY bit better than that one, I’ll be watching it, Monday, Veteran’s day in the movie theater…

11B-Mailclerk

If you cut away from the stupid proto-sjw stuff, it is much better.

26Limabeans

Midway and Tora Tora Tora had great footage.
The photography told the story.
The actors played the part. And well.
I have not been to a movie theater in decades.
“South Pacific” was good.

11B-Mailclerk

Much of the Midway footage was actually re-cycled from Tora! Tora! Tora!

If you watch them back-to-back, it is especially noticeable.

cc senor

Well, Midway had that surround sound going for it that was supposed to make you feel like you were in the middle of the action. I’m not sure about elsewhere but at Aberdeen PG that meant extra speakers spaced around the theater for machine guns firing on screen. Not impressed, but it also wasn’t the worst movie I watched in that theater back then.

Combat Historian

A bunch of footage used in “Midway” were also ripped off from the 1956 movie “Away All Boats” starring Jeff Chandler about an attack transport being tormented by kamikazes off Okinawa in 1945. The “Away All Boats” footage is especially noticeable because since that movie took place in 1945, all the weaponry shown (20mm Oerlikons, 40mm Bofors, twin 5 in. mounts on SUMNER class DDs, etc) were of late war vintage, and none of those ordnance would have been available in mid 1942…

11B-Mailclerk

“Stock footage” is a standard industry practice, further recouping costs by selling the actual and cut stuff.

Good example of use: Midway (1976)

Bad example of use: Airwolf – second series (gack)

MustangCryppie

Bummer.

I may still go see it to find out how they treat my hero Navy Cryptologist Captain Joe Rochefort.

After the battle, Admiral Nimitz brought him in front of the PACFLT staff and told them that Rochefort, more than anybody, helped ensure that we won Midway.

If the review is correct, I’ll probably be very disappointed.

Combat Historian

After Midway, Joe Rochefort was the loser in a big bureaucratic turf war between his Pearl Harbor based HYPO and the Washington DC-based naval crypto intel establishment commanded by the Redman brothers. Rochefort was ousted from the intelligence business and ended up commanding a floating dry dock in San Francisco for the duration of the war. Rochefort could not even perform any more overseas duty, because of his knowledge of CINCPOA crypto intel. It was too bad, because Rochefort was a really brilliant crypto intel guy…

MustangCryppie

Exactly. But Rochefort was true blue Navy all the way. He saluted, said aye, and transferred, eventually ending up at the dry dock.

Now, I’ve been reading the excellent book “Joe Rochefort’s War” and I discovered that the good Captain actually didn’t like cryptology. He much preferred being haze gray and underway. Heck, he might have preferred being sent to the dry dock.

If anyone is interested in seeing one of the least seen memorials on Oahu, go to Building 1 on Pearl Harbor. Walk around the outside of the building and eventually you will see a plaque on the wall of the building. There is a stairwell (closed off unfortunately) next to the plaque which commemorates Hypo Station where the spooks did their work.

If I could go back in time and participate in some actions of WW2, I would do 2 things: be the guy who determined that “AF” was Midway; and be the dive bomber pilot who discovered and destroyed the Jap carriers that attacked Pearl.

Both would be sweet, sweet revenge.

Combat Historian

If you want a really historical, nuanced view of Midway, and as a bonus presented from the Japanese viewpoint, you should watch “Isoroku”, the acclaimed 2011 Japanese biopic of ADM Isoroku Yamamoto, which devotes a major part of the film to Midway. Bet it’s portrayal of Midway was much more interesting than the dreck reviewed here…

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I read the review from Marine Corp Times a couple of minutes ago. Were the actors Americans or un Americans that said they were going to move to Canada if our POTUS were elected but I guess the moving van rates were to high so they didn’t move. I saw a person by the name of woody harelson that was in the defunct flick. I believe that he is one of those shit bird socialists. As I mentioned in past comments, I do not go to the movies. I can’t be objective about a shit bird actor/actress that is great and is also a shit bird socialist and hates this country and everything it stands for. For those whom go to their movies, a lot of the money they make goes to your opposing party.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

I see that cat in the sink has her/him’s favorite bottle so there would be nothing to “Wine” about. ME OW, ouch.

Anonymous

CGI, political correctness, stupid writing/directing/acting…

NEC338x

The Salty Millennial at USNI Blog has a nice TIC review. Better than Simkins’ at Military Times. Saw the movie and could generate a one-pager, back & front, of bullets points with what’s detracting and disappointing. I went in there expecting 21st century Hollywood story telling and not a documentary. Got what I thought I was paying for. Montemayor’s site on Youtube does the breakdown of Pearl Harbor, then Coral Sea, leading into Midway for those who want the details without the flash.

Cameron Kingsley

Had to look up Montemayor after you mentioned him, very detailed coverage of Midway from Japan’s perspective plus a few others. I hope he posts part 2 soon.

Prior Service

I’m a “maybe” on seeing the movie. I read the review already, but have several friends that went to see it and liked it.

The original movie was okay. I almost had a connection because my dad’s squadron at the time was tasked to provide navy pilots to fly the SNJs used to replicate the zeros, but my dad wasn’t one of them.