Best Naval Aviation movies

[Jim123]

Time for this old clip again.

 

[Mos]

Just saw it. When I first saw a trailer for this some months ago, I didn't think it'd be any good but it ended up better than I expected. I think it was fairly faithful and respectful to much of what happened, based on my limited knowledge.

I think the main weakness of the film is that it tries to tell a lot of story that was outside of the battle itself, as a way of explaining the background of the battle, but I think they spent too much time on things like the Pearl Harbor and Doolittle raids, leaving less time for otherwise excellent details that were directly related to or part of the Midway battle. I can understand that film makers can't get every cool detail about the battle into a 2+ hr film, but the PH and Doolittle raids are worthy of their own films (as we've already seen), and we could've seen something closer to the ideal if they didn't try to fit so much from those events into this one. Nonetheless, I do like the film for what it is and recommend it.

 

[Flash]

It has all the right aviation players. Wildcat, Dauntless, Devastator, B-25, and even the B-26 makes appearances (but way too many from my recollection).

IIRC there were only 4 at the Battle of Midway, two were lost, and they only did a single strike carrying torpedoes so you are probably right. One of the surviving B-26 pilots claimed to have flown right over the entire length of a Japanese carrier at mast height, did that make it to the film?

 

[Griz882]

IIRC there were only 4 at the Battle of Midway, two were lost, and they only did a single strike carrying torpedoes so you are probably right. One of the surviving B-26 pilots claimed to have flown right over the entire length of a Japanese carrier at mast height, did that make it to the film?

In a way, yes. The movie shows the B-26 strike (but with too many aircraft). As they get blasted out of the sky one of them, on fire and going down, appears to dive right for a Japanese carrier, missing only when the gunners blast it away. A Japanese officer remarks on the bravery of the American's, but the admiral dismisses him noting that "Americans aren't that brave."

 

[Pags]

SJS did a Flightdeck Friday on the B-26s at Midway back in 11, the post includes a nice painting of a B-26 flying down the flightdeck of an IJN CV:
http://steeljawscribe.com/2011/06/0...ial-midway-maruaders-a-shore-based-strike-pov

Four appears to be the right answer.

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

Four appears to be the right answer.

Yes at Midway there were 4 with torpedoes (two lost) but there were B-26 torpedo attacks at the same time off Aleutian Islands where the IJN Ryujo had been attacked by B-26 with torpedo Mk13 dropped as if it was a heavy bomb - a torpedo hit the flying deck and went off without detonation. Maybe it was this airplane



I saw the "Midway" yesterday and I have to tell: the only real reason that makes the movie worth to see it is the director's trying to restore the name of Lt Richard Best in society's memory.

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

the post includes a nice painting of a B-26 flying down the flightdeck of an IJN CV:

A torpedo sight on B-26? Very interesting. Look, seems to be the only B-26 success as torpedo bombers came with No 14 Sqdn RAF in 1943 in Mediterranean with British MkXII torpedoes but with no torpedo sights (even dedicated Bristol Boforts had no torpedo sights generally).

The most impressive (and fantastic too) moment of the movie is, IMO, the bomb Lt Best put on IJNS Hiryu right at "hinomaru" red circle. Actually Best was among the last of 24 attacking Dauntlesses and never insisted he scored a hit on Hiryu. First scored bomb (and evidently the only halftonner) landed on the bow lift of the ship had been dropped by 6-S-11, (pilot Ens. Richard Alonzo Jaccard, radio/gunner RM3c Porter William Pixley)

 

[Uncle Fester]

Got to go see “Midway” yesterday. Overall I was impressed and satisfied. There were a few cheesy lines (“This is for Pearl Harbor”...? For real?) but not nearly so many as the trailers suggested. The VFX were excellent. No, it wasn’t an introspective meditation, but it was very well done.

I wish they’d tried to tell more of the whole story of the battle; there were a lot of amazing stories left out from the other air groups besides Enterprise. But on the other hand I guess you do need to focus on a few characters and story lines to keep the narrative coherent, and there’s certainly worse choices than Best and McClusky.

But every time Best was on screen I heard “Where the fuck you at, Francis!?”

 

[Austin-Powers]

They left out Ensign Gay, that bothered me.

 

[HAL Pilot]

No they didn’t. He was floating around and was strafed by a Zero before watching the carriers go boom.

 

[GroundPounder]

They left out Ensign Gay, that bothered me.

I saw a letter from a Mr. Richard Fetter from Ft. Lee, New Jersey with the same complaint.

 

[Max the Mad Russian]

You know what? Ens Gay was then in a brown cowboy boots. He confirmed that in his memoir.

 

[Griz882]

They left out Ensign Gay, that bothered me.

He was the guy who looked a lot like Brandon Sklenar...(hint, tall guy to the right). I wonder if @mad dog can identify his watch?

 

[Sonog]

I just watched Midway (2019), and I was very disappointed. I think the film was a very, very cheap studio production to make money (they basically took Michael bay's pearl harbor and went sequel mode on it) and then proceeded to go cheap CGI melodrama. Outside of the basic plot of the battle they spent absolutely minimal detail on historical accuracy, and instead opted for a really, really bad video game version of the battle of midway. I saw this coming from 50 miles away when Roland Emmerich was at the lead.

 

[wiseguy04]

I still prefer the Charlton Heston version. Less CGI, better acting, and a little more focus on the strategic problems of both sides.