First published in "Movie Island Awards", address: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Iq6r6sZDDvNm8qJjcbHMfg
Roland Emmerich, the "disaster film master" who has directed "2012", "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Independence Day" series, brought the military-themed war epic "Battle of Midway" this month.
Friends who are familiar with World War II may know that on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the US military declared war on Japan. Since then, World War II has reached its largest scale. In Europe, the front lines of the Soviet Union and Germany are the main battlefields in Europe. , Asia is the Chinese people's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression as the main battlefield in Asia, and in the Pacific Ocean, the United States and Japan are confronted by sea and air. It is precisely because of the participation of the US military that the end of World War II was accelerated, and the core battle of the US-Japan confrontation was the Battle of Midway.
If John Ford's "Battle of Midway" shot in 1942 was a real shot of the war and faithfully recorded the war, and "The Battle of Midway Island" shot by Jack Meister in the 1970s focused on the war on Midway, then "Battle of Midway" is a detailed presentation of the Pacific War under different conditions of the times. Of course, it is impossible to judge which movie is more excellent in presenting the battle, but the breakthrough and innovation of "Battle of Midway" at the audio-visual level is very to Emmerich.
Roland Emmerich was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1955. That year, a heavy snow swept across Germany. Being born in such a natural environment, coupled with the unrest in East and West Germany for many years, gave him the most direct and profound perception of the flash of humanity in extreme situations in his childhood. Therefore, the performance of the extreme human situation has become the most characteristic part of his films.
In this film, Emmerich's in-depth presentation of the war is even more evident. At the beginning of the movie, Tokyo, Japan, in the heavy snow, the American officer failed to catch birds. The heavy snow foreshadowed the situation in the world, and also implied that the relationship between the United States and Japan reached a freezing point in that era. The conversation between Leiden and Yamamoto was even more thought-provoking.
"80% of Japan's oil resources come from the United States"
"Don't push us too hard"
All American soldiers would never have imagined that Japan, which relies on its own national oil resources, would attack the United States. Just like when the Pearl Harbor attack happened, the correspondent used a telegram to make an "enemy attack, pay attention, this is not an exercise."
Indeed, the U.S. underestimated the possibility of a Japanese attack, which paved the way for the film's later presentation of the triumph of Layton and his intelligence services.
The description of the war scene in the film is very realistic. The pilot's first perspective is used in the air battle. Although it is not a 3D effect, the audience can still feel the on-the-spot effect of the hail of bullets, whether it is the Japanese army in the entire destroyed scene of Pearl Harbor. The shuttle of the bombers, or the heroic behavior of the American fighter jets in the Battle of Midway Island, both gave the audience full tremors. At the same time, they also simulated the real scenes of the most sinister wars, which are very in line with the special environment that Emmerich has always created.
Then, the film presents the plot in three lines, one is the preparation of Dick Best's front-line pilots, the other is the war strategy formulated by the commander-in-chief Nimitz and Leiden, who is in charge of intelligence, and the other is the offensive wrestling of the Japanese navy. Three lines, the May 1 exception presents the human condition in the most extreme cases.
Midway Island is in the middle of the Pacific route between Asia and North America, hence the name Midway Island. In addition, it is 1,135 nautical miles away from Pearl Harbor. It is an important military base and transportation hub for the United States in the Central Pacific region, as well as the gateway and outpost of the US military in Hawaii. Once Midway is lost, lips will die, and Pearl Harbor, the base of the US Pacific Fleet, will also be lost.
Its importance to the U.S. military is self-evident. Therefore, the entire film is full of tension. First, Captain Royce, a friend from Best University, died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Later, Doolittle led an aircraft group to bomb Tokyo. It was gone forever, which made his whole person in the anger of revenge, but as more and more comrades were killed and wounded, he began to be afraid. As the squadron commander of the sixth squadron of the bomber, he began to worry that the country and the people would be The hope in him was inserted into the film with scenes of Best and his wife, Ann, to show the pain the war brought to all Americans.
Before the Battle of Midway, the U.S. military had only two aircraft carriers that could be put into combat in the Pacific: USS Enterprise and USS Hornet. USS Yorktown was wounded in the Coral Sea. The ship was repaired and hurried, and finally arrived at Midway and rested there.
The Japanese aircraft carriers involved in the war: Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu (sunk), Hosho (with Yamamoto's main force), Ryūchō, Hayabusa (in the direction of Aleutian). In addition, Shōkaku and Zuikaku were damaged and repaired in the Coral Sea.
There is a huge disparity in strength, and this is how despair is presented.
In this desperate atmosphere, the director chose Best, the pilot who sank two aircraft carriers in one day in the Battle of Midway, as the entry point, not only because his wife and daughter were in Pearl Harbor, but also because of the warmth of his family, which can show the war. The brilliance of humanity in. And such a wild and uninhibited person has experienced the biggest character growth and transformation in the war, forming the most complete character arc in the film. From the initial fear of war, to learning to take responsibility for oneself, learning to lead others, and learning to forge ahead, with thoughts and commitments to wives and daughters (put photos of wives and daughters on the operating table before each flight), relying on Responsibility to the country and the people, he won this difficult victory beautifully, even if he was injured after the war, he could no longer fly in the blue sky.
In the Battle of Midway, the US military lost only one aircraft carrier, 1 destroyer and 147 aircraft, and 307 people were killed; while Japan lost 4 large aircraft carriers, 1 cruiser, 332 aircraft, and hundreds of experienced pilots and 3700 sailors. The Japanese navy has since gone to failure.
The other line, Nimitz and Leyton, under the pressure of losing the war, guessing at the movements of the Japanese, hesitating between Coral Island and Midway, and finally under pressure, through the combined efforts of Rocher Ford and the intelligence services , before finally deploying troops on Midway, thus completing the decisive side.
In terms of depicting the Japanese army, it did not use the positive and negative duality of good and evil to describe it, but like Hannah Arendt's classic description of human nature "banality and evil", the moment when the Japanese generals finally sank into the sea with the aircraft carrier was also Enough to make a lot of people cry.
It can be said that "Battle of Midway" presents the war completely, and the explanation of the causes and consequences also makes this war more memorable. At the end of the film, the character prototypes of Nimitz, Leiden and other characters appear one by one. It enhances the persuasive power of the film.
But in just two hours to discuss the US-Japan-Pacific War, I always felt that the historical motivation behind it was not clearly explained, why the United States remained neutral, and Washington’s intrigues. Emmerich only explained these superficial facts, but did not tell the author. thinking in depth.
Emmerich presents the fact of war, but it is the choice of human beings in extreme situations, the counterattack of human beings, the self-defense of human beings and the solidarity of human beings. We are all victims of war.
View more about Midway reviews
