Since Sports Are Now On - What Are You Watching?

It's a bit corny and the cast is a who's who of B-list actors, but it's incredibly historically accurate.

My main concern going into the film was the broader context of the war to that point. I wanted people to understand America had been getting their ass handed to them by the Japanese in the Pacific for a while before the Battle of Midway. There were several factors that made the difference in the battle. Grit and fighting spirit and all of that is fine, but it was a triumph of wartime intelligence gathering, solid strategic planning and execution, and incredible feats of engineering beforehand-- such as getting the USS Yorktown repaired and battle ready in 72 hours as opposed to two weeks. And enough can't be said of the luck involved in winning this battle. McClusky's group showing up at just the right time, after heading toward the Japanese fleet on a hunch; the Japanese strict adherence to their radio silence policy may have cost them dearly.

This was the turning point in the War for the Pacific, the Empire of Japan had rolled over Allied forces all over southeast Asia and the Pacific before Midway. Midway was a devastating loss not only strategically, but also in the continued ability of Japan to wage an offensive war. From there on the Japanese would be on the defense. Anyway the film depicted all of this sufficiently, by my estimation. I just didn't want people wandering into this movie and thinking, "Well of course America won. America always wins." It's an insult to the combatants on both sides to view this battle as some kind of route in a slow march of inevitability. It was a hard fought turning point in world history, I don't think I'm overstating that at all.

Now all that said, this isn't Saving Private Ryan. It's certainly got more in common with old school 'rah-rah America' type films, but the Japanese are also treated respectfully (Though it does go out of its way to accurately depict how terrible they were regarding treatment of prisoners. The Nazis have a deserved reputation for war crimes, but our Eurocentric culture in America has almost given the Japanese a pass on their wartime human rights record when it comes to the public consciousness at least. I advise anyone reading this to learn more about Japanese atrocities before and during WWII.) It's more of a pure action movie with a the according tension and drama you'd expect, but it isn't a post-modern think piece. It's what it needs to be and honestly I'm surprised it was made. I didn't think this kind of film had an audience anymore.

On that note, I couldn't help but appreciate the irony behind the making of this film. It had substantial financial aid from Chinese investors. So you have this film about a battle between the US and one of our staunchest allies today in Japan, partially funded by investors from a country who were fighting against the Japanese in WWII but are now one of our major political adversaries. Must have made for some interesting banter when securing funds. "Yes sir, we'll make sure to include scenes that depict how horrible the Japanese were to the Chinese."