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!

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),