Roland Emmerich's excellent rendition of the iconic naval battle

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2019)

Although one probably cannot talk about the Battle of Midway and the Invasion of Normandy (D-day) in the same breath, they are, respectively, the most significant turning point in the European theatre and the Pacific theatre of World War II. In terms of seas battle "Midway" may not match the Battle of Leyte Gulf in size and intensity, but it turns the tide after Pearl Harbour.
The movie "Midway" (2019) is a delightful surprise in resisting the temptation to succumb, like most other Hollywood war movies, to blatantly stereotype characters or shallow melodramatic romances.
After a brief prelude of an earlier sojourning of naval intelligent officer Edward Layton (Patrick Wilson) in Tokyo, the movie plunges right into the infernal of Pearl Harbour. In addition to very good CGI scenes, there are also some detailed, gritty depictions. One scene shows a half-stunned man trying to stand up by grapping half-collapsed railings, only to have his palms seared by the red-hot metal.
I am not going into any detail of the events. The crux of the story is on how, after the devastating Japanese unannounced attack of Pearl Harbour, Chester W. Nimitz (Woody Harrelson) was selected by President Roosevelt be the commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet, with the most difficult job of turning the tide of the U.S. naval campaign against the Japanese. It was essentially achieved by sinking four major Japanese aircraft carriers by air strike, after luring them into a trap.
The captivating "subplot", if you will, is the intelligence support from a group headed by Layton. With the technology available at the time, this involved a substantial combination of experience, intuition, as well as brilliant logical analysis of often scanty information. In the movie there is an interesting analogy of a wedding when the invitations are sent (the bait to lure the Japanese fleet), the banquet is ready (air striking power standing by) and waiting to see when and from where the guest would arrive. At the eleventh hour, with so much at stake, Nimitz says to Layton that he needs more specific information. After a brief pause, Layton recites the precise time, longitude and latitude. When things unfold and scouting report finally come, Nimitz beams at Layton, saying that everything is within a few percentage points of the prediction. Without missing a beat, Layton replies "I'll Endeavour to do better next time, sir."
It is with something almost skin to joy watching a Harrelson as I have never seen before, so contain and measured to the extent of under-acting. This feeling is particularly accentuated by seeing him just a week ago in "Zombieland: double tap". To the general audience, Nimitz is probably the only name familiar, and perhaps even more as a mega aircraft carrier than as a person. But then, in the end credits, it is quite uplifting to see that all the characters are real, with the image of each actor fading out, replaced by the real person and a brief bio in text. And this is such a remarkable cast. Wilson is always solid, if not spectacular. We also have Dennis Quaid, Luke Evans, Aaron Eckhart, Ed Skrein and, on the Japanese side, Tadanobu Asano, prolific on the Hollywood screen and best recognized probably by Marvel fans as one of Thor's four warriors.
"Midway" (2019) is not to be missed by war movie buffs as well as the general audience.

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