Battle
of Midway Movie - November 2019
Our Council
is not normally in the business of promoting Hollywood movies, but this
message from the Director of Naval History got our attention:
From: Director
of Naval
History
To: Senior Navy
Leadership
Finally,
Hollywood decided to make a $100 million dollar movie about real heroes
instead of comic book heroes. In this case, the heroes are
the pilots, aircrewmen, submariners, sailors, intelligence
officers/code-breakers and senior commanders who against great odds and
at great sacrifice turned the tide of the Pacific War against the
Empire of Japan at the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942.
Although the movie is not perfectly historically accurate, the
producers went to great lengths to be as accurate as possible given
time and resource constraints, and it comes far closer than any other
movie about naval combat (and is way more accurate than the 1975
“Midway” movie or the more recent “Pearl Harbor.”)
Whenever
a Hollywood producer wants U.S. Navy support to make a movie, they are
required to submit the script to the CHINFO West office in Los Angeles
for review. If the script concerns a historic topic, it is
then forwarded to Naval History and Heritage Command for a review of
historic accuracy. I admit to getting pretty excited when I
first read the script a couple years ago, because, although not
perfect, it got so much right. Even better, in my view, it is
a great depiction of the incredible courage of those who fought in the
battle, on both sides. It depicts the heroic sacrifice of the
torpedo bombers and the incredible work by the dive bombers, and also
incorporated the important role of the submarine NAUTILUS. It
also nailed the Intelligence contribution to the battle. It
also presented a balanced view of the Japanese side as well.
Although there is some fictitious inter-personal conflict for “drama,”
the characters in the movie are real people who did the incredible
things depicted (sometimes a little exaggerated and out of proper time
sequence) but the valor was very real.
I
recommended strongly that the Navy and DoD support the production of
the movie. NHHC provided substantial archival, research and
technical assistance (such as ship and aircraft plans, squadron
markings, etc.) to assist the special effects teams. (I’d
always been frustrated with previous Navy historical movies – cheesy
ship models or anachronistic ships, but the current state of computer
simulation provided the opportunity for more realistic depiction –
although in some scenes the special effects guys get carried away, but
they are still pretty incredible; the first scene of USS ENTERPRISE
(CV-6) will blow people away.) With the help of NHHC
historians, I provided feedback on the script and initial cuts of the
movie. Given that state-of-the-art CGI costs about $1M per
minute, some of the requested changes could be made and others
couldn’t. The weakest part of the movie is the depiction of
the important contribution of the Midway-based aircraft (the 1975 movie
left them out completely.)
After
the movie has been out for a while, I will publish my list of
historical discrepancies. In the meantime, I am re-issuing my
Battle of Midway H-gram (with some updates based on some feedback I
received – If you want to start a historic food-fight, the
controversial role of the HORNET’s dive bombers is a good way to do it)
for those who want to “bone up” on the battle.
Despite some
“Hollywood”
aspects, this movie does real credit to the United States Navy.
Please see
attachments for
more on the Battle of Midway.
Very
respectfully,
Sam
Samuel J. Cox
RADM, USN
(retired)
Director of Naval History
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We have loaded Admiral
Cox's 5 attachments on our site here; each is a "PDF" file that you can
download and read if you choose; great details and insights
for amateur naval historians and for those just interested in this most important of battles:
