Balls of Steel indeed. Those were men.
Funny, I very much enjoyed the recent movie iteration of “Midway” (though I likely would have liked it even more if they had exhumed James Cagney and brought him back!)
I had read enough and knew all about Aviation Machinist Mate Bruno Peter Gaido who jumped into a parked SBD on the flight deck to fire at a plunging Japanese aircraft, which sliced his aircraft in half! When I saw the movie, walking out I heard someone say (a younger person) “That can’t be for real...”
I had to laugh at that. It was like the time I walked out of seeing Apollo 13 in the movies, and a young teenage couple were in front of us and the girl said “I’m glad the movie ended that way!” as if it didn’t actually happen in real life...:)
Midway was surprisingly accurate. There is not much to criticize about it, historically. Though picking an America-hater like Woody Harrelson to be Nimitz was a joke.
Back when DVDs were cutting edge technology, I bought a copy of, "A Bridge Too Far," which had some added features including a, "making of," documentary. In the film, Anthony Hopkins plays LTC John Frost who commanded the battalion of British paratroopers that went, "a bridge too far," and got trapped in Arnhem. The real John Frost was hired as a technical consultant for the film.
In an interview with Hopkins he related how in one scene he had to run across a street between a house the British had fortified, and a train station being used as a field expedient hospital for his wounded. The street was covered by German fire, and so Hopkins ran, ducking and dodging across the street. The real John Frost intervened, scolding Hopkins and telling him no British office worth his measure would ever let his soldiers see him ducking and dodging like that as it would induce panic. Frost stated that if they wanted to portray the scene as it actually happened, Hopkins should walk upright, move quickly, smartly and directly to where he intended to go, oblivious to the bullets and explosions around him.
The film makers rejected the reality suggested by Frost under the assumption the audience would not believe it.