Went to see Midway...

[Bear Paw Jack]

Been a while since I’ve been to a movie. Went with some friends to see Midway. I had heard it was good, but I really enjoyed it. It told a great story. One of the better movies I’ve seen in years.
Anyone else seen it?

 

[GunnyGene]

No, but saw the first one. My father was in that fight, on board the USS Astoria (CA-34), as well as the Coral Sea, and Savo Island battles where the Astoria went down.

Excerpt:

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/USS_Astoria_(CA-34)

Battle of Midway

The heavy cruiser remained in Pearl Harbor only until the 30th. On that day, she returned to sea with the hastily repaired Yorktown to prepare to meet yet another major thrust by the Japanese fleet – this one aimed at Midway. Air searches from that island spotted the enemy's Midway Occupation Force — made up of transports, minesweepers, and two seaplane carriers – early on 3 June.

The remaining six, however, succeeded in attacking Yorktown, and three of those scored hits. One of the three hit the carrier's stack, causing fires in her uptakes that literally smoked Rear Admiral Fletcher and his staff out of flag plot. At about 1310, he shifted his flag to Astoria.

Yorktown's damage control parties worked feverishly, and by 1340 she was again underway under her own power, albeit at only 18 to 20 kn (21 to 23 mph; 33 to 37 km/h). At about 1430, the second attack – composed of 10 Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers escorted by six Zero fighters – came in and eluded the weak CAP.

The following day broke with Yorktown still afloat, and efforts began to salvage the battered warship. Though the Japanese had abandoned the Midway attack and had begun retiring toward Japan, submarine I-168 had been given orders to sink Yorktown.

During the early summer of 1942, she completed repairs and alterations at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard and carried out training in the Hawaiian operating area.

 

[GunnyGene]

Charlton Heston, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, among others. Btw, 1976 wasn't that far back. :wink:

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Yep not that far back :wink: I saw it with my Son and with the surround sound in the movie it shook you when they dropped bombs and when the Raiders were starting to launch for Tokyo.

 

[Daveboone]

I saw it and enjoyed it. The CGI was much better than I expected....the scenes where you are behind the dive bombers just as they dip into the dives, with the sound were great...you got a great sensation of being right there.
My only critiques were that it seemed they edited a bit too much out. The effort to pull the Yorktown together so quickly, and getting the Enterprise up to the other two flat tops was lacking, and I recalled little mention of just how terrible the American losses in the the first wave (100 percent ) seemed glossed over. They center on the single flat tops crew (I forget the squadron leaders name) but you don't realize it was a group effort of all the flat tops to score on the Jap carriers. Also, almost no mention of the final Japanese attack on the Yorktown, which result in its loss...actually finished off by torpedoes by the US after the battles conclusion.
I particularly liked at the beginning where they show a discussion between Yamamoto and the US consulate which sets up the reason for the Japanese attacks later, and his great reluctance for the war in general.

 

[375supermag]

Hi...
I saw it the first weekend it was released. I thought it was pretty good. It seemed fairly accurate historically speaking. I have read a couple of accounts of the battle but it was years ago.
My military history focus is on the European Theater of operations. I have studied that in detail but I only have a broad overview of the Pacific Theater with some deeper study if some of the island battles but it has been some years since I have read extensively on the Pacific Theater.

 

[SAJohn]

Wendy and my youngest son are the same age.

Gordon W. Prange wrote the definitive books on Peal Harbor "At Dawn We Slept" and Midway "Miracle at Midway".

We won at Midway partly because of a big dose of luck. They had us outnumbered 2 to 1. Our first attack of a Japanese carrier was with torpedo bombers coming in a low level. The Zeros were at high altitude over their Carrier to protect it from dive bombers. The Zeros came down to help destroy all of our torpedo bombers. Just by chance our dive bombers, from another of our Carriers, arrived over that Carrier while the Zeros were still at low altitude thus allowing our dive bombers to attack the Japanese Carrier which was busy changing out ordnance on the flight deck.

Also, the Japanese had divided their forces leaving their Carriers with little surface ship protection. This is generally a bad idea, just ask Custer.

I have not seen this movie so I do not know if it covered my above comments.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Daveboon [I particularly liked at the beginning where they show a discussion between Yamamoto and the US consulate which sets up the reason for the Japanese attacks later, and his great reluctance for the war in general.]

I did too!!!

 

[Valmet]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it OP. As someone who hardly ever goes to the movies, Midway is on my list.

 

[Pierow]

Yep not that far back :wink: I saw it with my Son and with the surround sound in the movie it shook you when they dropped bombs and when the Raiders were starting to launch for Tokyo.

Jim,

They called it Sensurround and wherever Midway played they had to install those special speakers right in the aisles. I was 11 and my brother 9 when dad took us to see it. I think it was Glenn Ford's line which I never forgot, "The wait-and-see-ers will bust your ass every time!"

Pierow

 

[WestTex]

I enjoyed both versions, but enjoyed the current film more than I thought I would.

The current one has some great individual stories set against the bigger backdrop. Stories of real men I had not known about before.

And at the end it shows their real photos and what happened to all those brave men.

 

[powder smoke]

Can not remember the last time I was in a movie theater been at least 35 years!
Linda and I been tuned out to Hollywood for many moons!
Aren't they special! NOT! I refuse to contribute! ps

 

[vito]

I'm glad I read this thread. I had seen the coming attractions for "Midway" and was afraid it would just be too many CGI, over the top scenes, like a "Transformer" movie (which I thought were terrible but I had to take the grandkids to see). I think I will try to see this film next week when my wife is out of town because she has no interest in "war" movies.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

I enjoyed both versions, but enjoyed the current film more than I thought I would.

The current one has some great individual stories set against the bigger backdrop. Stories of real men I had not known about before.

And at the end it shows their real photos and what happened to all those brave men.

OK You guys. For you that have not gone to see this movie YOU ARE MISSING out on a great movie/history lesson. I have see the first one several times and I think this one is as good if not better.
Even though a lot of CGI was used it was very well done.
And for those that don't like war movies well this is more of a history lesson as a fake war movie.
Yes I have read many accounts of the battles that took place at this time period, but still learned a lot from this movie.

I think I will try to see this film next week when my wife is out of town because she has no interest in "war" movies.

Son's wife and MIL went with us and thought the movie was GREAT and they new nothing of the history of that time period.
They asked us many question about the early battles that took place.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I thought it was good enough I saw it twice. I know there are some sticks in the mud here but it's a shame to miss a good one when you have a chance to see it. Not a lot of good movies made, and if you don't support the good ones, don't complain when they quit making them.