As a history fan who has been a student of the battle of Midway since childhood, I was eager to see the new movie aptly named “Midway” based on the battle. I’ve watched the movie twice now and would like to share a few thoughts on it and perhaps explore the story a bit further. I’m certainly not a naval history expert, but I am a student of the battle and a fan of studying history.

Firstly, I’ve been widely critical of the trend in modern war movies to focus on the individual suffering of those involved in a battle to the exclusion of explaining the broader context of the war in which the story is set. Midway rises far above this bar. In fact, it spends so much time setting up the battle that the actual battle of Midway only gets about 30 minutes of screen time.

In this regard the movie does well getting important details like Admiral Yamamoto’s reluctance to attack the United States, the conflict in the Japanese high command, the significance of the Doolittle raid, the importance of the American intelligence and code-breaking efforts in setting the table for the battle, and the poor quality of American torpedos in the the early months of the war. It even shows Yamamoto’s concerns about leaving Admiral Chūichi Nagumo in command of his carrier force and his trust in the greater competence of Admiral Yamaguchi who perhaps should have been in commend and was ultimately to parish in the battle.

When it comes to the battle itself, the filmmakers correctly show the critical role played by the submarine USS Nautilus and include but don’t dwell on Nagumo’s famous moment of indecision and the ill-fated attack of Lindsey’s torpedo squadron. The movie correctly emphasizes the heroism of Dick Best, Wade McClusky, and the Dauntless dive-bomber crews who ultimately would strike the decisive blows. They include Yamamoto’s last-ditch effort to lure the American carriers into range of his battleships for a night fight and the horrible treatment of captured American pilots and Chinese civilians by the Japanese soldiers and sailors.

I realize that some liberties will always be taken in film, but I do think the movie misses a few elements. The battle of Coral Sea in the prelude to Midway was depicted but the full significance of the battle was not explored. Because of the action in the Coral Sea, Japan was deprived of the services of the Zuikaku and Shōkaku at Midway. These two aircraft carriers were part of the the six carrier “Mobile Strike Force” that attacked Pearl Harbor and had they been present at Midway, they would have given the Japanese an overwhelming advantage in pilots and planes which very well might have been the difference between victory and defeat for Japan. The USS Yorktown on what was to be her final voyage, also receives little attention. The excellent work of her aircrews in sinking the Sōryū and the heroic attempts by her crew to save the ship once she was hit by dive-bombers from Yamaguchi’s final attack are worthy of commemorating. Just as Yorktown was slighted, so was her commander; in their efforts to depict Admirals Nimitz and Halsey as the core American leadership, the film does a disservice to the two admirals who were actually in field command at Midway, Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher on Yorktown doesn’t appear at all and gets no mention for his leadership at Coral Sea and as the man who was actually in tactical command of the American forces for most of the fighting at Midway. Fletcher’s handover of command to Admiral Spruance when he realized that his ship was effectively out of action is a great example of leadership. Fletcher was no fool and he realized that the victor of Midway was going to be a popular hero back home and in the eyes of history, but he did not let that cloud his judgement. He did what his counterpart Nagumo could not bring himself to do by relinquishing command and allowing Spruance to continue the fight and to go down in history as the winner of one of the great naval engagements in history. This leads me to the greatest figure slighted by the movie. Admiral Raymond Spruance was unquestionably the right man at the right place to lead the American forces at Midway. Spruance is depicted by the movie as a colorless figure placed in command by Halsey’s illness. While these events are true, they don’t do justice to perhaps the greatest carrier Admiral in American history. Spruance’s decisions on the timing of attacks and in breaking off the action at the end of the June 4th were brilliant and he would go on to a flawless record of carrier command in the war in the pacific.

As far as film-making goes, Midway is certainly far from perfect, the story is a bit choppy, the dialogue labored and the film leans too heavily on special effects to suite my taste. Still as a depiction of historical events it is solid and while it’s heroes may lack the flash of the Avengers, or of those from a Galaxy Far Far Away, they the are real men and women who lived real lives, conquered real fears, and accomplished real feats of heroism.

Many of these heroes were in their late teens and early twenties when they strapped into the 10,000 lbs of metal, gasoline, and bombs that was the Dauntless dive bomber, took them off of moving ships and flew over hundreds of miles of open ocean towards what they hoped were the coordinates of the enemy fleet. They wandered around trying to find the enemy all the while hoping they had enough fuel to return home and then dove through clouds of enemy fire and while under attack from the fearsome Zero fighters to drop their bombs. Then, they would turn around and pray they had enough fuel left to make it home and could actually find their home carriers. These men are worth remembering and their story is worth experiencing. Midway does them justice.