Dauntless-The Battle of Midway

Just watched the movie Dauntless.  It was supposed to come out at the same time Midway did in 2019, but never made it to a theater near me.  The headlining stars are Judd Nelson as Ray Spruance and C. Thomas Howell as Browning Capt. of Enterprise.  The rest of the cast is no one that I've heard of or recognized.  If you're expecting a movie about the SBD and it's role in the battle, this isn't the movie for you.  Instead it concentrates on a Dauntless crew, Vandiver and Kearney, that flew off Enterprise on 4 June 1942 and was shot down.  While the movie flips between the events of the battle of Midway and the crew's ordeal of being lost at sea. To be honest, it wasn't a bad movie.  It did its job and kept me interested for the 97 minutes it was on my screen. The CGI was okay, the Dauntlesses and PBY's looked like Dauntlesses and PBY's.  As far as I could tell, they did an okay job on the ships as well.  They seemed to keep within the realm of the actual aircraft's physics as the aircraft seemed to move realistically (especially when compared to Midway).  One thing that did bug me was that as Bombing 6 was making it's dive, several Dauntlesses were shown with the trapeze holding the bomb extended for about 10-15 seconds before the bombs were released.  I don't know if that's accurate, but I always thought that once the bomb was released, the trapeze would swing the bomb clear of the prop and release the bomb. I could be wrong.  Historically, it keeps to the timeline of the battle pretty well, but the experiences of the crew in the water (actual people) is hard to say as neither survived.  Would I have seen this if it came to a theater near me, yes.  Would I have been disappointed if I paid full price? Most likely.  Would I recommend it?  Yes, but with some caveats.  If you're looking for a movie that tells the Midway story from a different point of view, this could be for you.  If you have an interest in movies about the battle of Midway, sure.  If you're a stickler for detail, probably not the movie for you.  If you're interested in watching it for free, it's available for free on IMDB TV or tubitv.com/movies/537387/dauntless-the-battle-of-midway  You may have to put up with some commercials on Tubi, but it's free.