Midway

Yes. The tone of the movie is similar, for sure. It was a move away from outright boosterism (which I like as well) to something more objective. As Kyle rightly notes, the Zeitgeist of today is to show war as basically a splatter-film.

And there was that aspect as well in reality. Did Saving Private Ryan go too far in that regard? It certainly was attempting to show some realism. It had been typical for someone to receive, for example, a knife wound to the chest or belly and then the soldier would just fall down instantly dead. I think Artler could surely tell us that the realities were different.

But do we really want war movies to be turned into orgasmic phantasms of CGI, blood, and comic-book-goofballism? I’m not sure what to call Pearl Harbor in this regard. It’s been a while. It just seemed to be the pussification of war movies. If I had wanted to see From Here to Eternity (which is a great movie, and I love it) with “relationships” up the ying-yang, I’d watch the ones that were well done. Not counterfeit muck with Ben Affleck.

No one could play a noble rat bastard like Burt Lancaster. The exception is the Oscar-worthy performance of Kirk Douglas in In Harm’s Way. Douglas wasn’t nominated. But he should have been.

One of Douglas best roles was as Col Mike Marcus in Cast a Giant Shadow. A true story of Israel's first general in 2000 years. The film Also stars Frank Sinatra an John Wayne. These were the days when it was still ok to have a friendly view of Israel in Hollywood. Marcus was killed by friendly fire on the eve of the liberation of Jerusalem. There is a memorial on the highway leading into Jerusalem. 

My older brother saw Midway today and he liked it. But I would say I don't always share his taste in movies. We'll see.

He didn't think the CGI was over the top. Some negative reviews that I've read mentioned this. And he said there were several tear-jerker emotion moments. He also said that the pacing and build-up in the original 1976 movie was far superior.

He didn't mind Woody as Nimitz but, boy, I have to admit I won't be coming in with a good attitude about that.

"The Finest Hours" did not at all follow what was happening on the bow of the ship. If they did, it was so quick that I missed it.

Not my problem. That was the work of the great Franklin Roosevelt. Still, given what just happened, it was an understandable reaction. Given just how evil the Japanese were during that era, it’s hard to blame FDR for being cautious.

But I really like that subplot from the 1976 movie. I thought it was intelligently handled. And Heston showed how good he was as an actor by making us feel his discomfort as he squirms through command trying to handle this very difficult situation.

I may watch this new version if it ever comes to one of the streaming services that I subscribe to. But Woody Harrelson as Admiral Nimitz? Don’t make me laugh. No….wait. I sort of like laughing at that.

Wiki states:



I wasn’t aware that so little of the internment was regarding Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry. Again, we were fighting for our lives so I’m going to cut FDR some slack. But the interment suggests either racial bigotry (again, regarding what the Japs were doing, not without much justification) or very poor security in and around West Coast military bases. It seems to me tightening internal security would have been a better answer then just throwing them out of the state.

In 1988, Reagan signed into law a reparations bill that gave not only an apology from the government but $20,000 to each camp survivor.

Given what we know that Imperial Japan did during the war, again, I don’t come down hard on Roosevelt. We were fighting pure evil and there was some unfortunate fallout.

I like the way this was handled in the original Midway film. Heston says about Haruko Sakura’s parents:



Part of the justification for their internment was the radical publications that her father subscribed to. Haruko says loyalty to an old boss was the reason he subscribed to them.

And I’m thinking that then and there was the problem. Yes, on paper, her parents were no threat to national security. But isn’t it obvious that this sense of Japanese honor and loyalty could be problematic? Yes, it’s just a magazine subscription, but I don’t think you have to be paranoid to see a problem there.

But that battle has been lost. McCarthyism, Orwell’s book-burning 1984, and the Marxist infiltration of higher education has laid the moral framework for the idea that to be subversive is the greatest trait of true Americanism. Nearly every film Hollywood has produced in the last 50 years has shown that the good guys always are the subversives and the bad guys are the traditionalists. The former are always some form of Attitcus Finch. The latter are always some form of Ebenezer Scrooge.

So I’ll grant that the argument has been lost. Witness the open borders. This stems directly from the inability of decent people to defend basic principles and boundaries. The “open” society is the ideal, the one where there is no judmentalism, no witch is ever burnt in a hysterical Salem, and all beliefs are accepted as equally valid.

I’ve just perfectly described modern liberalism, or at least a big portion of it. The ugly reality is that if you attempt to equalize all things, in order to do so you must start calling bad things good and good things bad. And that is exactly what has happened.

So, yeah, I don’t get too bent out of shape that FDR made some tough decisions when this country was literally fighting for its life in a world full of Nazis and Imperial Japanese fanatics.

On one hand I do agree, however, FDR was a racist, anti-Semite who should not have been in office in 1941. He did possess enough leadership skills to guide the country to victory. The fireside chats were largely responsible for his success. Much like Trump rallies and tweets he went directly to the people. A technique every successful American president has followed since Washington. The failure presidents have been those who didn't trust the people, especially in the 20th century, Wilson, Hoover, Carter, both Bush, and Obama all show the history of not trusting the American people. The current impeachment circus is a prime example of the destine political elites hold for the people.