movie review - Midway
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
My son and I watched this flick for a school assignment. He had to read a book from a certain period in history and then watch a movie that told a different story from the same era. The book was about a couple of British kids who are sent to Canada during the war. Midway of course, is the story of the mutual destruction of the US and Japanese fleets in the Pacific spanning from the Pearl Harbor attack to the battle of Midway.
What this movie does reasonably well is to put you in the time and setting. It's very much a story of brave (white*) men stoically doing their duty in the face of an implacable enemy. It's also the story of good men in the Japanese military seeing the unbelievably stupidity of what's coming and doing everything they can to prevent it. I think the movie also captures the two cultures reasonably well.
What irritated me about it, however, was a stylistic element that I've seen in many TV shows and movies of late. Things feel rushed and it feels like the makers have forgotten to "show, not tell". When I saw this in abundance in a Spike Lee movie (of all places) I thought, "Boy, something has changed." This effect was so bad in the latest Star Trek that I had to stop watching. I think it seems to come in whenever modern writers think they have to switch out of story-telling and into Delivering The Message. I'd really rather that they didn't do either.
Not recommended. I certainly won't be re-watching.
*There is only one Black person in the movie, seen fleetingly. This seems inaccurate but .. Hollywood.