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"army men" at 9:15. At that point I've determined this review was one step above 3 day fecal matter.
Was "Red" Best the son of Dick Best? If so,I missed his command of VF-31 by one skipper. (I arrived when Cash had it and was there through Burch.)The current movie has serious flaws, nearly all avoidable.
But
It is VASTLY better than the 1976 atrocity with Heston, Fonda, Holbrook etc.
I was fortunate to know four of the people depicted in the new film: Dick Best, his daughter, his back-seater, and Jimmy Doolittle. Of those, Dick is the best (!) portrayed although Emmerich owes him a posthumous mea-culpa for the absurd stunt early in the film, an intentional dead-stick trap aboard Enterprise. Chief Radioman Jim Murray was the senior chief of VB-6, far-far from the edgy newbie in the film. (Barbara: kinda odd, seeing someone you knew and admired depicted as a child.) The thespian who plays General Jimmy is too tall with too much hair but is immensely better than the profane prettyboy alecbaldwin in the egregious "Pearl Harbor" (which was only partly saved by the dogfight and Kate Beckinsale.)
You are so right on target. I didn't realize that many A6M2 fighters could be shot down so easily. I will check out your recommendations.Watched Midway (2019). I expected to be disappointed and was but then I'm too anal about details to be a good film critic.
The actual battle has so many extraordinary stories that it's somewhat difficult to choose which to high light. If one is forced to select just one or two participant's eyes through which to experience the battle it is certainly Dick Best and perhaps one of Nimitz, Layton or Rochefort for the critical intel component. Nimitz (Fonda) and Rochefort (Holbrook) were prominent in the original 1976 Sensurround epic fiasco with its ridiculous fictional subplot. So, focusing on RAdm Layton (who wrote the illuminating And I Was There) was appropriate. On the other hand, the necessity of casting the Yorktown in a supporting role when it and the performance of its airwing were also significant contributors to the victory was disappointing albeit necessary considering the attempt to put the Best story center stage. Some homage to the Yorktown is about the only redeeming aspect of the 1976 film.
My teeth grated at seeing dozens of B-26's bombing from medium altitude. I guess the motivation was to cut CGI costs by casting the B-26 as a stand-in for the B-17s that were in such numbers and bombing from high altitude. Seeing Dauntless Gunners destroy dozens of A6Ms was absurd as was the number of SBDs destroyed during their attacks by AAA and fighters. While the Hiryu was aggressively defended by a dozen or more Zeros, they were caught out of position by SBDs attacking from up-Sun and off the anticipated threat axis and only able to shoot down three Dauntlesses.
For somewhat more aviation-related accurate depictions of that stage of the war and the Midway battle, I recommend two recent films: Against the Sun and Dauntless. The former film is an account of the fight for survival by an Enterprise ditched TBD crew lost, January 1941, The latter is a hypothetical depiction of a similar case with a factual Dauntless crew shot down during the Midway morning attack on June 4. If you want to see something about the VP contribution to he Midway battle see Dauntless.