A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

©2019 Midway Island Productions & Lionsgate Entertainment. Blu-ray cover art © 2020 Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Movies based on historical events, especially ones that depict real battles rather than just using them as the setting for a fictional story, have to strike a balance between telling an entertaining story that will keep audiences glued to their seats and being historically accurate. If a screenwriter emphasizes the elements that fall into the storytelling category - such as delving into a naval aviator's family life after war has been declared - the film can slip too much into soap opera territory. But if a script focuses too much on the historical details, then the average viewer with little to no interest in the minutiae of military operations will get bored. Some of the best films about specific battles manage to find a happy medium between accuracy and pure entertainment. A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day, and even the lesser-ranked Tora! Tora! Tora!...

© 2020 Summit Entertainment. Movie © 2019 Midway Island Productions This review is about the Blu-ray release of Roland Emmerich's 2019 war film,  Midway , and its features. It is not a review of the film itself. Readers who want to find out more about the film can read my review from November 2019 here: Midway film review On Tuesday, February 18, Lionsgate Films released the home media edition of Midway,  a 2019 World War II historical drama written by Wes Tooke and directed by Roland Emmerich, the German filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer best known for Stargate, Independence Day, The Patriot, and The Day After Tomorrow. As is common in the home entertainment industry, Lionsgate, in association with Midway Island Productions, bundled the 138-minutes-long film in a Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack. Midway centers on the Battle of Midway, a clash between the American fleet and the Imperial Japanese Navy which marked a pivotal turning point in the Pacific Theater du...

Midway  (2019) Directed by: Roland Emmerich Written by: Wes Tooke Starring: Ed Skrein, Tadanobu Asano, Luke Evans, Etsushi Toyokawa, Aaron Eckhart, Jun Kunimura, Nick Jonas, Peter Shinkoda, Mandy Moore, Hiro Kanawaga, Woody Harrelson, Patrick Wilson, Dennis Quaid On Friday, November 8, Lionsgate released Midway, a $100 million war film written by Wes Tooke and directed by Roland Emmerich ( Independence Day, The Patriot ) that tells the story of the famed 1942 naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the U.S. Pacific Fleet that turned the tide of the war in the Pacific in America's favor only six months after the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Reportedly, the film, which is not so much a remake of Jack Smight's eponymous 1976 all-star mishmash of fact-based war action and soap opera-like fiction but rather a corrective re-interpretation, was a labor of love for the German filmmaker who gave us Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla (1998), ...

(C) 2016 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Director Roland Emmerich’s 1996 alien invasion film “Independence Day” is a high tech retread of 1950s-era movies such as “The War of the Worlds” and “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.” Co-written by Emmerich with his long-time collaborator Dean Devlin, “Independence Day” pits a motley crew of characters led by Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, and Randy Quaid against a horde of spacefaring aliens and their armada of enormous flying saucers. Set in the late 1990s, “Independence Day” (or “ID4”) takes place between July 2 and July 4. The Cold War is over, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq has been defeated in Operation Desert Storm. With America’s national holiday coming up, much of the U.S. military is on leave, and everyone is getting ready for barbecues, fireworks, and rowdy Fourth of July parties. But out in space, trouble looms as a gigantic flying saucer – described by an alarmed scientist as being “one fourth the size of t...