Posted on 05/28/2023 2:36:44 PM PDT by Rummyfan
It's fun and easy to make fun of Hollywood's creative bankruptcy these days, and its reliance on remakes and reboots and retellings of stories it's told many times before. There are, however, some stories worth remaking; Roland Emmerich's recent Midway (2019) was as strident and bombastic as anything made by Michael Bay, but at least it put the 1976 film of the same name, a star-studded but tedious Sensurround epic, deep in the shadows where it belongs.
Like sci-fi, war films are the major beneficiaries of the digital effects revolution. Some taste and restraint are needed, of course, though they're often in short supply; Russia in particular has recently produced dozens of war films (White Tiger, T-34, Tankers, Stalingrad, The Pilot), usually with scripts of a much lower priority to the filmmakers than increasingly outlandish and improbable visual effects – tank shells in Russian pictures travel in slow motion, the camera trailing and spinning around them as they create outsized damage with impossible accuracy.
But when I see the quality and technical sophistication of films like Dunkirk (2017) and 1917 (2019), I can't help but hope that someday someone will take another shot at the story of the Bismarck, the leviathan German battleship that was the most feared ship on the ocean during the early days of World War 2, albeit only for the eight days of her first and only voyage. There is, of course, a perfectly serviceable film about the Bismarck available on streaming services and disc, but to modern eyes it looks like a relic from the days of model boats filmed in swimming pools.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Johnny Horton....
Thanks.
I remember the am radio hit back then.
IIRC Ajax and Achilles from the original battle were in the movie. Exeter has been sunk in 1942 by the japanese.
And autocorrect nailed the Italian BB.she was Roma, not “corrected” aroma. She was sailing to join the Allies after the Italian surrender.
He died way too young.
“Between that and The Battle of New Orleans i learned history Johnny Horton style.”
John Paul Jones is a good beginning.
https://youtu.be/u-DxwgFtWrM
Jim Bridger
https://youtu.be/OTCEr83vrPE
Battle of Bull Run
https://youtu.be/xI7vBQRuTYg
Johnny Freedom
https://youtu.be/Yq1Q4IOjOY4
And there’s plenty of others.
Did that. “Pursuit of the Graf Spee” was done in the mid 1950’s.
Has anyone seen the 2019 Midway movie? Is it worth watching? I’m actually quite fond of the original.
I’ll have to check it out.
Warspite should have been preserved as a museum ship.
USS Enterprise too. She cut an absolute swath through the Pacific.
And as long as you got me started, the fightingest US battleships don’t get saved because, A. South Dakota doesn’t have a shoreline, and B. Washington is communist. Instead, you get ships like the “showboat”, USS Alabama, saved.
Yeah at least the old USS Texas and New York did shore bombardment duties in North Africa, Normandy, and the Pacific. The captain of the Texas was wounded and I think received a bronze star.
The USS Washington, the ONLY US battleship to actually sink another battleship should have definitely been preserved.
Yeah, well, Das Boot was made that way. Still a Gold Standard of the genre. CGI is no substitute for good production.
Johnny Horton did a song about this!
It’s good but different. I liked the new one, loved the original. A little too much CGI in the new one. Better story lines and bigger stars in the original. You couldn’t assemble a cast with as much gravitas like the original anymore. Heston, Fonda, Holbrook, Mitchum, Coburn, Ford, Wagner, Nelson and Albert.
But don't pass by the 2019 version. The CG realism of the Pearl Harbor in it is stupendous. Also there's far more depth of understanding you'll gain such as the importance of intelligence gathering to the U.S. victory at Midway.
So except for the great actors in the first Midway, the greater context you learn about the battle and especially the super-realism of the latest cinematography will knock your socks off in Midway 2019. And I do agree that the CGI of views from the dive-bomber pilot's perspective were too much.
Let me add that I found a great Youtube analysis of Midway that you should check out: How did the US Navy win the Battle of Midway?
The USS Missouri is anchored at Pearl Harbor.
2019 version was far better and accurate, unlike 1976.
Check out the book “Shattered Sword” which has the correct account of the Midway battle. The 2019 movie has the correct version.
Only thing missing in 2019 was not enough about “Yorktown” whose crew was as fierce and effective as “Enterprise” while “Hornet” was sadly not as effective as her sisters.
For decades, people believed the account that the Americans caught the Kaga, Soryu, and Akagi JUST before all their bombers were about to zoom off the decks— but in reality, (as “Shattered Sword” proved) the Americans’ relentless torpedo bomber attacks forced the Japanese to keep the fighter CAPs on the flight decks and they were never able to get the Japanese bombers spotted on the flight decks for takeoff
Midway 2019 is an accurate retelling of history and way better special effects than 1976. And good acting too.
In Gilbert's film Shepard dictates an order requesting WRNS Second Officer Anne Davis' (Dana Wynter) presence for dinner, but when they emerge from the Admiralty building they discover it's morning, and as the final credits roll the two head off through Trafalgar Square to breakfast. Nudge nudge wink wink.
Tirpitz was hit multiple times by tall boys and had multiple near misses. The first strike they attempted put one right through her deck but they were able to control the flooding. The last time she was hit twice on the same side as they were moving her to a new location and they couldn’t counter flood in time and she rolled over.
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