Midway had Roland Emmerich at Dick Best. That’s right. One of America’s greatest heroes, one of the reasons the United States won the Battle of Midway, is named Dick effing Best.If ever a character and setting were a perfect fit for a Roland Emmerich film is Midway’s Dick Best. ‘Murica!
Dick Best (Ed Skrein) was a pilot located in the Pacific during WWII. In between Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, our naval fleet needed time to mobilize and get out to the West Coast. That left defense of the Pacific Ocean to Best, and Coimmander Chester Nimitz (Woody Harrelson). Nimitz, unlike his predecessor, started listening to our clever Intelligence officer Edwin Nayton (Patrick Wilson), who had lived in Japan, and knew how to decipher and decode all Japanese messages that the US intercepts. Nayton determines that Midway is where the Japanese plan to attack after Pearl Harbor, and Nimitz sends Best and the fleet to defend the islands against the entire Japanese fleet, and eventually turn the tide of the war in the Pacific.
Roland Emmerich by the way, is the guy who inspired Michael Bay with movies like Independence Day. When you go see a Roland Emmerich film, there’s only one question you should be asking yourself: do you want to see an epically scoped battle sequence? Plot and characters mean nothing: Aaron Eckhart is in this movie for 3 minutes and is never seen again for example, in a storyline that has zero relevance to Midway’s plot. But we didn’t go see Independence Day or 2012 for hard hitting complex character development: we go to see the White House blow up, or a “supervolcano.” In Midway, Emmerich introduces us to naval aerial battles, and all the crazy action associated with them. Thankfully the goal of these battles is simple: take down the aircraft carriers, which would cripple any success of a naval victory. Easier said than done though: the carriers are defended by warships, other planes, kamizake pilots, and sometimes secrecy in execution. Even something as simple as taking off from an aircraft carrier is a barrier the US Navy has to overcome to simply succeed in this “simple” task. So what was America’s most effective strategy to bomb an aircraft carrier? Dive a plan directly toward the carrier, and release the bomb at the last possible minute and hopefully pull up and save yourself at the same time. That type of terrifying, batsh*t piloting clearly thrilled Emmerich to film and the audience as well by proxy. We’re right there in the pilot seat with America’s best Dick, as he does everything he can for the country he loves. If you wondered what it’s like in that pilot seat, Midway will deliver for you, if not, just save your money.
Midway is American propoganda, praising the heroes of yesteryear and their amazing feats. My only real wish is that the movie found a way to have a more double entendre title with a title character like Dick Best. Maybe The Best Dick on the Runway? Dick’s Hangar? Dick Best: Dive Bomber? I could keep going…