I caught most of this on TCM today and as much of a war film buff as I am, I'm sorry to say that I lost interest in it. TCM is showing way too many films with Walter Brennan in them and I'm losing interest in him after so many films (he was great in Sgt York though). Highpoint was seeing real life combat Navy Ace Wayne Morris, but his acting is nothing like in Paths of Glory (why'd they only make him a LT?, at least make him a LCDR and give his role the meat the high billing has him at). Anyway, pros: some great shots of actual American fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo planes; also, it was cool to show my wife who dutifully watched with me, what goes on in CIC with the plotting of enemy ship sightings etc (thats what I have done on carriers). Cons, very wooden acting, also this script has dialog that explains out loud the actions going on so the naive audience understands to the point that its like a kids cartoon show. Big con was all the same stock footage we've memorized by now (mostly of the kamikaze planes that happened long after the battle of Midway took place) of the planes going down. Pretty much will hold hard hard core war buffs interests but most others will pass on this dated film after a few minutes. I wish someone would remake a movie on the battle of Midway based on the book "Incredible Victory" by Walter Lord. In it it really takes you into so much of the battle with narrative from both sides and includes the Midway land forces, and the daring night attack by our PBY planes the night before the main battle which I found very thrilling and interesting to read about (it's mentioned in the film Task Force but not the film Midway). Mr Lord wrote the book "A Night To Remember" which I think was used for the film of the same name so it wouldn't be a stretch to make a really choice film based on another of his books (Am I the only one noticing the LACK of films made recently in which the Americans clearly win?). Task Force: 6 of 10 to see real war hero actor Wayne Morris (just in something like what he was really doing in the war and a different role than in Paths Of Glory), and cool 40's carrier operations (gotta love those springs that the planes crash into if they don't hook a line, yecch).
Review of Task Force
