Midway

Our Verdict on Midway

The Battle of Midway is one of the most improbable military victories in American history. Four Japanese fleet carriers sunk in a single day. A numerically and technologically inferior American force breaking the back of Japanese naval power six months after Pearl Harbor. The turning point of the Pacific War decided by a handful of dive-bomber pilots who happened to find the enemy fleet at the right moment and had the skill and courage to exploit it.

The story practically films itself. Wes Tooke's screenplay and Roland Emmerich's direction don't ruin it. That's faint praise, but it's more than a lot of critics were willing to extend when Midway opened in November 2019 to a 41 percent critics score and an 84 percent audience score. That audience-critic gap is telling. Critics saw a film with CGI that occasionally strains credulity and dialogue that serves clarity over poetry. Audiences saw a film that respected the men it depicted and told their story with genuine appreciation for what they accomplished.

The critics were more right about the craft. The CGI aerial sequences in Midway are impressive in their scale and mostly clear in their geometry, but they lack the weight of physical reality. When a Dauntless dive-bomber pulls out of an 80-degree descent toward a carrier deck, the physics looks correct but the sensation of danger doesn't fully land. Compare it to the aerial sequences in Dunkirk, which Nolan shot with real aircraft and practical effects wherever possible, and the difference between digital cinema and physical cinema becomes obvious. Emmerich is working in his preferred mode, digital spectacle, and it shows.

The audiences were more right about the value. Midway takes seriously the things that deserve to be taken seriously. Dick Best (Ed Skrein) is a hotdog pilot who has to find the depth his situation demands. Edwin Layton (Patrick Wilson) is the intelligence officer whose analysis of Japanese communications made the entire operation possible, a man whose work was validated at terrible cost in lives. Admiral Nimitz (Woody Harrelson, quietly authoritative) is a commander who had to decide whether to bet the Pacific fleet on a theory. The Doolittle Raiders, depicted briefly, accomplished the near-impossible and paid a devastating price for it. The film honors all of these men and their contributions without sentimentality.

What Midway does well is something Hollywood has grown increasingly reluctant to do: it celebrates American military competence and courage without apologizing for it, qualifying it, or complicating it with anti-war subtext. The American pilots are heroes. The American intelligence analysts are heroes. The men who chose to press their attacks under anti-aircraft fire that was killing their squadrons are heroes. The film says so plainly and means it.

The Japanese military figures are depicted as competent and honorable adversaries rather than as cartoon villains. Admiral Yamamoto (Etsushi Toyokawa) is shown as a strategic genius who warned that Japan had awakened a sleeping giant. Admiral Yamaguchi (Tadanobu Asano) is shown going down with his carrier with dignity. This isn't woke humanization of the enemy. It's accurate history and it makes the American victory more meaningful, not less. Beating a capable opponent means something. The film understands that.

The cast is game throughout. Ed Skrein doesn't have the gravitas of a traditional war film lead, but he has enough physical presence and enough real commitment to Best's arc that the performance holds. The ensemble, Harrelson, Quaid, Eckhart, Wilson, works as well as any Roland Emmerich ensemble can. The film isn't asking its actors to do complex emotional work. It's asking them to embody real people with dignity and competence. They manage it.

Midway is not a great film. It's a good film that tells an important story with respect and scale. For readers of this publication, that's considerably more than most of what Hollywood is currently producing. The men at Midway deserve the kind of tribute this film attempts. The attempt is genuine enough.

Woke Tropes & Content Analysis

Formula: Weighted Score = Severity × Authenticity Multiplier × Centrality Multiplier

🔴 Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Japanese military leaders depicted with honor and humanity	2	High	Low	0.7
TOTAL WOKE				0.7

🟢 Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
American military valor and competence under fire celebrated	5	High	High	6.3
Intelligence and discipline defeating superior force	4	High	High	5.04
Masculine courage in the face of near-certain death	4	High	High	5.04
Duty to country as clear and honorable motivation	4	High	High	5.04
Family and marriage as anchor for the soldier's identity	2	High	Moderate	1.4
TOTAL TRADITIONAL				22.8

Score Margin: +22 TRAD

Content Breakdown

Is Midway Safe for Kids?