Trivia / Midway (2019)

• All-Star Cast: Patrick Wilson, Woody Harrelson, Luke Evans, Ed Skrein, Mandy Moore, Nick Jonas, Aaron Eckhart, Tadanobu Asano and Dennis Quaid.
• Backed by the Pentagon: After the dismal historical failure that was Pearl Harbor, Emmerich had more than a little difficulty getting the Navy Office of Information (the Navy division which provides assistance to films featuring the US Navy or Marine Corps) to help. When he was finally granted an audience, the NOI commander asked what the film would be about, justifiably worried that it would feature another shoehorned Hollywood romance. Emmerich, who along with screenwriter Wes Tooke had done their research, informed him that the main character would be Dick Best. Emmerich said the commander instantly relaxed, saying "Whatever you need."
• Box Office Bomb: In spite of opening atop the box office, the film still came up short, with $56.8 million in North America and $126 million worldwide, based on a $100 million budget.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • IGN sharply criticized a scene in which a crippled B-26 Marauder attempts to crash into Akagi as "reinventing" history to credit the Americans for devising the kamikaze. However this incident actually happened, when one of the B-26s sent to attack the Japanese fleet from Midway attempted to ram Akagi's bridge. It wasn't really a kamikaze-type attack, because it wasn't planned that way. It was done spontaneously by a pilot who knew his plane was going down and went for a Taking You with Me. And this wasn't the first instance of that behavior either - it was somewhat common for pilots all across the world to attempt to ram their planes into something useful if they were damaged with no hope of escape. That B-26 wasn't even the first plane to attempt that kind of strike in the film, as a Japanese bomber tried to do the same to Enterprise much earlier but was stopped from doing so by Bruno Gaido.
  • Critic J.D. Simkins attacked the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue noting that Clarence Dickinson was a three-time recipient of the Navy Cross, the Navy's highest honor remarking "It takes nothing to discover this is incorrect." However, this actually is correct: The Navy Cross is awarded by the Secretary of the Navy, and is the highest decoration that the Navy can bestow (similarly, the Army has the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Air Force has the Air Force Cross). The only higher decoration is the Medal of Honor, which is awarded by The President. Although each service has its own design for the Medal of Honor, it's still the same decoration regardless of branch.
• Doing It for the Art: Midway was a passion project for Emmerich, which he had been working on for nearly 30 years, and the film was substantially funded privately.
• Fake American:
  • Jake Weber, Luke Evans and Ed Skrein are British and play Americans.
  • Alexander Ludwig, David Hewlett, and Jake Manley are Canadians and play Americans.
• Real-Life Relative: A ballroom singer that appears in the movie is Ana Maria Lombo (aka Annie Trousseau), wife of composer Harald Kloser.
• Saved from Development Hell: This was a long-time passion project for Emmerich, who first pitched it to studios in the 1990s, who balked at the proposed budget. In the 2010s, he raised the money independently and finally began development in 2017.
• What Could Have Been: William Goldman was interested in working on the project when Emmerich first pitched it to Sony Pictures in the 1990s.

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