Midway

Midway (2019) covers the six months from Pearl Harbor to the battle itself. Two efforts sit at its centre: American intelligence breaking the Japanese code, and the dive bombers flying off the carriers. Roland Emmerich keeps the scale large as usual, but this time he does not bolt on a fictional romance. The real story is in the financing. Emmerich first took the project to Sony in the nineties and was turned down over the budget. Years later, when no major studio would greenlight it, he raised the money himself: 76 million dollars from individual investors and another 24 million in equity, mostly Chinese. At a 100 million dollar budget it became one of the most expensive independent films ever made. It grossed 127.4 million worldwide. With marketing costing roughly another 40 million, it was treated as a commercial disappointment. Military historians liked it. Rear Admiral Sam Cox, director of Naval History and Heritage Command, said that Hollywood aspects aside, it is still the most realistic film about naval combat ever made. It runs 138 minutes. Good for: the Second World War, naval and aerial combat, and viewers who care about historical detail. Less good for: the characters are thin and the dialogue explains things; the film covers events rather than people. The digital work sometimes tips into looking like a game, and across 138 minutes no real emotional hold develops.