‘Midway’: Roland Emmerich’s failed attempt to reach the benchmark of his Oscar-winning inspirations
It’s easy to forget just how much money Roland Emmerich has made by blowing things up. The German director is among the 20 highest-grossing filmmakers of all time thanks to the likes of 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, and his highest-grossing venture, Independence Day. His films aren’t always great—the 1998 Godzilla remake is desperately waiting to be unmade—but he knows how to deliver on big moments. In many ways, he embodies all of Hollywood—the good stuff and the bad.
One movie that rarely comes up when discussing Emmerich’s work is the 2019 Second World War drama Midway. The film chronicles the early days of America’s involvement in the conflict, culminating in the Pacific Theater naval battle of the same name. Ed Skrein, Patrick Wilson, Luke Evans, Woody Harrelson, Nick Jonas, and more fill out a star-studded cast that was paid for mostly by individual investors. With a budget of over $100million, it is one of the most expensive independently-funded films of all time.
The two World Wars are subjects that have been done to death in movies, something Emmerich was keenly aware of when planning this project. “I said that we have to look at the world around us; people have to be reminded of this,” he said while justifying its existence to Discussing Film. He then took an opportunity to go after three more contemporary films covering similar grounds—Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Sam Mendes’ 1917, and Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbour.
“Dunkirk was about a retreat,” he explained. “There’s hardly any Germans in there. Even 1917, which is a movie I love, is only about the atrocities of war. It’s not about what the war was about. It was a personal story of two brothers and friendship but in times of battle. But I had a feeling that it was about time for somebody to make a movie more about freedom. That’s why I wanted to also include Pearl Harbor, it was the kickstart of all these events. I was amazed at how, after the big surprise attack of Pearl Harbor six months later, the most decisive battle of the Pacific war was already won by the Americans. It was one of the biggest turnarounds in World War II.”
As well as these two 21st century war movies, Emmerich was also inspired by the 1977 classic A Bridge Too Far. He even wanted William Goldman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter who penned the movie, to work on Midway, but their collaboration collapsed when the movie lost its studio funding. Goldman sadly passed away the year before Midway’s release.
“When you look at that film, it has a very similar structure,” he said of the Richard Attenborough-directed epic. “It also shows the Germans very well and their problems. It has a lot of characters and it’s one big operation. You see not only the operation itself but also the planning of it and what led to it… A Bridge Too Far is probably my favourite war movie. I loved it as a kid and still love it today.”
Despite his best intentions, Midway doesn’t stack up to the movies Emmerich used as reference points. Well, it’s better than Pearl Harbour, but that isn’t hard. It was a passion project for the director, so he probably wasn’t too fussed about it flopping at the box office. His investors, on the other hand, were not such big fans.
