Amph What was the last movie you saw? (Ver. 2)

Midway (1976)
Viewing Experience: Streaming (IMDb.tv w/ads via Prime Video)

"Because it is my judgement that this information is factual. I'm convinced Yamamoto's target is Midway."
"If you're wrong, Admiral, if you send our carriers into a Japanese ambush, the entire west coast and Hawaiian islands will be wide open for invasion."

This film isn’t really going for a dramatic or suspenseful retelling of historical events. Instead, it takes a very matter-of-factly (and almost procedural) recounting of historical steps, taken in order through the lens of back and forth tactics.

However, that documentarian approach is something that also runs in conflict with the historical inaccuracies and other fictional aspects of the film. So much of the runtime of the film is dedicated to the historically-inaccurate urban legend of the Japanese armaments being caught on the flight deck that it basically becomes the point of the movie, which kind of defeats the purpose of trying to make the film into a documentary.

That issue is further exacerbated by entire subplots involving fictional characters who actually do not matter to the story and are never its focus (unlike, say, other POV characters such as Jack and Rose in Titanic). And all of THAT is made even worse by the storytelling decisions. The most egregious example is a spoiler for the film’s ending, but given the combination of fiction, history, story focus and execution, I honestly don’t think this will affect your viewing of the film in any kind of negative manner. But, a warning for the next two paragraphs, just to be safe.



For the finale, Charlton Heston’s character somehow Bill Pullmans his way from the command center into a cockpit (after a last moment reconciliation moment with his son, of course) for the final assault. He gets to deliver the killing blow to the final carrier, but randomly crashes during his landing attempt and then dies. And the film basically just ends. There’s one brief bit at the end with the Japanese, but, effectively, the American story (and Heston’s character’s storyline) ends there. And you barely register that he died. The main character. So, not only does the audience not care about him, it’s like even the movie itself doesn’t care about him, either.

It all feels so arbitrarily tacked-on to give this fictional character a heroic victory and tragic death at the last second. It kinda just feels disgusting because it seems so rushed and completely unnecessary. Just to give the star a war film star moment. Even more so, if you consider that there probably is a real pilot that that killing shot’s credit is being taken from.



The film is limited by its use of historical stock footage and footage from Tora! Tora! Tora!. And while I don’t want to hold the effects limitations of the era against it, such stock footage is considerably overused which makes me suspect they were just trying to use as much as they could to pad the film out. But that results in a lot of anachronistic craft appearing in addition to complicating visual continuity between shots. So, the visual narrative is often lost- the attack on the main Japanese carriers is rendered very confusing and indistinguishable from each other.

To its credit, though, while those segments (and the various fighter pilots as well) are easily confused, they do a good job of visually distinguishing between the different command areas across the various ships during the conflict. It also doesn’t try to paint the Japanese as one-note villains, though it does skirt into cliched propaganda territory on occasion, such as with them speaking so admirably of their American opponents. Still, it’s a slightly more nuanced approach than you would expect from the genre and era.



The film also has one hell of a cast: Charlton Heston, Toshiro Mifune, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Pat Morita, Glenn Ford, Clyde Kusatsu, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, Cliff Robertson (Uncle Ben in the Raimi trilogy), and Tom Selleck. Basically, in any given scene you’ll recognize at least two or three people in the room.



Though it is damn weird to hear the voice of The Ghost Host / KARR 2.0 / Burgermeister aka Paul Frees being used to dub Toshiro Mifune. I wish his original performance was available somewhere and could be restored just for comparison, even if it would mismatch the other Japanese character performances around him. But it kinda feels like it defeats the purpose of casting such a legendary actor in the first place. I feel like, if his accent would mismatch the other actors, you have them change THEIR performance, not Mifune’s.

Lastly worth noting that John Williams provided the score for the film- one of four films he scored between Jaws and Star Wars (alongside Black Sunday, the western The Missouri Breaks and Alfred Hitchock’s final film, Family Plot). It has a very proto-1941 feel to it. Speaking of audio, worth noting that the film was also one of the only four films released in the Sensurround audio format.

Midway is a film with a very dry, distant, documentarian feel to it. It’s like the characters are functioning as surrogate History Channel narrators. It’s not unwatchable but it is rendered pretty uninvolving as a result and really doesn’t need to be sought out.




The Princess and the Frog (2009)
Viewing Experience: Streaming (Disney+)

“Voodoo? You mean to tell me all this happened because you were messing with the Shadow Man?”
“He was very charismatic!”

A nice throwback film that tries to fit into the Disney films of the early 90’s and, generally, succeeds. It’s very
slow to start and doesn’t quite achieve the gravitas of those older films, but brings a unique signature by swapping out the big broadway Disney approach for a more jazz-centric musical style befitting the setting.

The musical sequences all each bring an interesting visual variety to them as well, which is refreshing. And it’s capped off with an almost Looney Tunes-like style to the humor that makes it stand out as something more modern than the 90’s films. It mixes very well with some creepy visuals that almost evoke a Tim Burton feel at times.



Good selection of characters- and I really enjoyed that characters who could have easily turned antagonistic, one-note characters did not. Showed good restraint on the part of the creators to let them remain positive characters.

Watching the film knowing now that this film will be the source of Splash Mountain’s new theming in the future, I can’t help but wonder if it was planned to potentially replace it from its inception. There are a remarkable number of elements that line up with the Brer Rabbit elements from Song of the South that the ride is based on: sticker bushes, riverboats, pursuit by characters of varying size and intelligence wanting to eat them, etc.



Not a top tier Disney film but not a bottom tier, either. This one sits comfortably in the middle while containing enough refreshing qualities (in additional to nods to past Disney classics) to recommend.

Also, that is either one very durable bug or one really padded shoe sole.




Frozen II (2019)
Viewing Experience: Streaming (Disney+)

“We’ve always feared Elsa’s powers were too much for this world. Now we must pray they are enough.”

Very strong entry into the modern Disney animated library that surpasses the original film. No longer constrained by being a loose adaptation of an existing work like the first film, Frozen II expands the mythology of the series with an original and exciting adventure that mixes fantasy and superhero genres. The well-developed characters are paired with very strong visuals throughout the entire journey, as well.



The only real shortcoming of the series continues to be in the below-average music. Much like the first film, there are one or two stand-out songs surrounded by unwaveringly unmemorable compositions without any variation or catchy hooks. Most songs have peaks and valleys in how they flow. These songs are all valleys. Actually, no, that's inaccurate. That implies high points at the bookends of the valley. These songs are salt flats. They’re not unpleasant, but they are the equivalent of musical exposition meant to move the story along rather than to entertain.

Into the Unknown being the true musical standout here- obviously positioned to be the analog to Let It Go for this film. But while it doesn’t quite reach the heights of that song, it’s not just a single standout musical moment but rather worked into the story of the entire film. So, on the whole, it ends up being more effective even if it will never get the same out of radio play. Into the Unknown’s main visual sequence also seems like it was specifically designed for the sole purpose of being recreated as a water/laser projection/fireworks show at Walt Disney World.



Plotwise there are some flaws. Some minor (Olaf knows about a key plot point that he wasn’t around to hear about), some major (the implications of the dam’s creation doesn’t make sense in regards to how Arendelle is built), but it’s pretty solid for the most part. And, hey, magic, I guess?

Also, I know Disney has done this before, but I took particular note of how the end credits have sectional titles/groupings. Other films kinda do this too, but I really like the implementation here.



Overall, despite the continued use of frustratingly mediocre music, it’s definitely one of the top animated Disney films and definitely worth checking out. I regret I wasn’t able to catch it in 3D in theaters too, as it seems like it would have been particularly effective there, judging by my recollection of seeing the trailers in 3D.




“Mrs. Stark? I don’t feel so good…”

 

I mentioned the Sensurround towards the end with the John Williams note .

i guess I haven’t seen anything with Mifune dubbed. It’s a great voice, of course, but I just associate Paul so closely with his other roles that it stands out more as an obvious dub.

To continue the Knight Rider associations/comparisons, it’d be like having Ken Watanabe dubbed by Peter Cullen. It’d still be awesome, but you’d know something was up.



“Let them fight.”

 

And, just as a footnote, I figured I'd share some of my uncle's comments on the film and my review, as he's a WWII buff and has done a lot of historical research over the years (also contributed model work to the Intrepid museum as well) and met a few of the individuals involved (including several Midway veterans). This way, you can judge my review in its proper context.

"That is considered one of the crappiest action war movies ever made. Stick with recent one - not perfect, but light years better than this piece of dreck."

"None of the positive comments in this review hold much water and it certainly does not change my opinion that the 76 Midway is for ****, with one of the biggest laughs being a USN jet fighter from the 1950s crashing into the fantail of a carrier upon landing."

So, again for context, apparently my review was too positive.

And, though I haven't reviewed it yet for comparison, he did elaborate on a couple details, both pro and con, from the 2019 Midway:

"The recent "Midway" has flaws, too, including the fact that they barely mention the USN Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft or the missions flown from Midway Island, itself, but those are only noticed by WWII geek historians like myself. The movie also accurately depicts the appalling technical performance of USN torpedoes early in the war, which was one of the biggest scandals in US military history."