Midway2019

On the sliding scale of war movies, Emmerich’s Midway is obviously no prestige film like The Hurt Locker or Saving Private Ryan. It belongs more to the school of the original Midway, with Tora! Tora! Tora! as its exemplar. Tell the story of a battle, offer up some sketched-out characters, played with aplomb, add a dash of soap opera and fire when ready. On that scale, for what it’s worth, Midway is a much more solid piece of entertainment than the Pearl Harbor directed by Emmerich’s fellow master-of-disaster Michael Bay.

中途岛海战是二战中为数不多的几场够资格被称为「命运之战」的战役之一。双方都拼尽全力，不计牺牲，钢铁、勇气和运气汇聚成了最后的命运决战。美国海军航空兵开着俯冲轰炸机，前仆后继地轰炸日本航母段落，是很久没有在银幕上看到过的最佳战争场面了。 决定战斗胜负的可能是钢铁和技术，决定战役胜利的因素还要加上勇气和运气，而决定一场战争胜负的，则是信念和实力。在中途岛之战中，所有的钢铁和勇气都只是信念的注释，运气只是那些牺牲的必然结果，运气永远站在实力这一边。

Midway will never be mistaken for a classic, and even box office success for the $100 independent production looks dicey. Stretches of the film work beautifully, though, and the sinking feeling for Japan’s forces is painted with sympathy, not schadenfreude.