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!...

© 2011 Oxford University Press. Cover photo, US Navy On October 5, 2011, the Oxford University Press published Craig L. Symonds' The Battle of Midway as part of the publisher's Pivotal Moments in American History series.  Based on official American and Japanese historical records, interviews with survivors of the naval campaigns of early 1942, and publications of the period, Symonds' take on one of the most famous - and decisive - battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations explores territory that has been explored by countless writers (including Walter Lord and Gordon W. Prange) and at the same time explodes myths that have been accepted as fact for the past 60 years. The naval Battle of Midway (June 4-6, 1942) has long been considered to be one of the most important naval battles of the Second World War. Almost six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, almost 200 Japanese ships, including four of the six carriers that had launched planes against Hawaii ...