Midway (2019)

Midway is a throwback war picture, square and proud of it. Roland Emmerich approaches the Battle of Midway as a series of naval collisions and briefing-room exchanges, with just enough historical detail to satisfy the Naval History and Heritage Command and just enough dialogue to keep the model ships moving. The film celebrates instinct, fortitude, and a certain midcentury American stoicism. It does not pause to interrogate those virtues. That absence is not a flaw in its own terms. It is simply the film's operating system.

On the representation front, the film makes a few gestures. Darren Criss appears as Joseph Rochefort, a white historical figure, and the casting passes without comment. Japanese roles are filled by Japanese actors, and the Japanese commanders receive a measure of dignity. The ensemble remains otherwise white and male, with women confined to wives waiting at home. No same-sex material appears. No body positivity, neurodivergence, or climate concern enters the frame. The film has no interest in class warfare or racial justice. It wants to show carriers burning and pilots diving.

The picture is old-fashioned in a way that reads as conviction, not calculation. It does not lecture. It does not revise the historical record to flatter modern sensibilities. It does not ask the audience to atone for the past. It asks the audience to watch planes fall out of the sky. That is the whole transaction. The result is a war film that feels like a museum diorama with a larger effects budget, which is either reassuring or exhausting depending on how many briefing rooms you can endure.