Dauntless (2019)

[Scott Rose]

Official DAUNTLESS Trailer



At first I thought this was the MIDWAY movie, but apparently it is a different one altogether. I'm a little confused.

It looks interesting once you get past the CGI.

[sandiego89]

Does look interesting (with the usual potential stinker warnings/cautions a la "Pearl Harbor", or potential meh warnings like Unbroken). Date flashing on June 4, 1942 and ENTERPRISE reference implies Midway. Perhaps based on Ensign Gay?

Fingers crossed.

Might want to correct your thread title as it reads "Dauthless"- almost thought it was Star Wars related....

[k5083]

I couldn't even finish the trailer.

August

[PinecastleAAF]

Wow that looks like a stinker, worse than Red Tails and Pearl Harbor combined. The script writing is just dreadful.

[phil65]

What about Air Strike..?

Phil

[Dan Jones]

It's a shame that the CGI is gonna wreck it considering how many SBD's, Wildcats, and TBF's could be gathered up and flown. I wonder if the politically correct police put women on the Big E this time?

Last edited by Dan Jones on Wed Jun 05, 2019 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Matt_in_NC]

I couldn't even finish the trailer.

August

I'm right there with you on that one!

[steve dickey]

Does look interesting (with the usual potential stinker warnings/cautions a la "Pearl Harbor", or potential meh warnings like Unbroken). Date flashing on June 4, 1942 and ENTERPRISE reference implies Midway. Perhaps based on Ensign Gay?

Fingers crossed.

Might want to correct your thread title as it reads "Dauthless"- almost thought it was Star Wars related....

It seems that is what they are portraying but didn't he go down in a Devestator and his gunner killed??

[JohnB]

Correct, VT-8 flew TBDs and TBFs, not SBDs.

[sandiego89]

Plot summary from the imbd page:

"By June 1942, the Japanese Navy has swept across the Pacific. In an effort to change the course of the war, a United States carrier group is positioned off the coast of Midway, tasked with springing a trap on the enemy. During this pivotal battle, the two-man crew of a U.S. Navy dive bomber is forced to ditch in the sea. Set adrift, the men look towards their comrades for rescue; namely, the ragtag crew of a PBY Catalina, who are sent to search for survivors. Amid the vast openness of the Pacific, with days passing and the chance of rescue fading, the men are forced to face their own mortality."

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8685520/pl ... _=tt_ov_pl

[Dan Jones]

I hope some Hollywood @ss isn't butchering the story of SBD crew Ensign Frank W. O'Flaherty and his radioman-gunner AMM1/C Bruno P. Gaido. They were captured by the IJN during the battle and murdered.

[Russ Matthews]

I hope some Hollywood @ss isn't butchering the story of SBD crew Ensign Frank W. O'Flaherty and his radioman-gunner AMM1/C Bruno P. Gaido.

No. I don't think so. The main focus would seem to be VB-6 pilot Norman Francis Vandivier, as one of the other characters states his full name in some rather awkwardly forced dialogue around the 00:24 mark. Ens. Vandivier failed to return to Enterprise after a dive bombing attack on Akagi during the battle of 4 June 1942.

My guess is that most of the action footage appeared in this trailer and that the rest of the movie is a kind of low budget "Open Water in WWII" speculating on the last days/moments of this doomed SBD crew. Plus there seems to be a "No man left behind" coda tacked to the end that appropriates VADM Marc Mitscher's dramatic order to illuminate Task Force 58 at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and transposes it to Midway two years earlier.

[jamesintucson]

I hope some Hollywood @ss isn't butchering the story of SBD crew Ensign Frank W. O'Flaherty and his radioman-gunner AMM1/C Bruno P. Gaido.

No. I don't think so. The main focus would seem to be VB-6 pilot Norman Francis Vandivier, as one of the other characters states his full name in some rather awkwardly forced dialogue around the 00:24 mark. Ens. Vandivier failed to return to Enterprise after a dive bombing attack on Akagi during the battle of 4 June 1942.

My guess is that most of the action footage appeared in this trailer and that the rest of the movie is a kind of low budget "Open Water in WWII" speculating on the last days/moments of this doomed SBD crew. Plus there seems to be a "No man left behind" coda tacked to the end that appropriates VADM Marc Mitscher's dramatic order to illuminate Task Force 58 at the Battle of the Philippine Sea and transposes it to Midway two years earlier.

They didn't have to transpose anything. Spruance gave the same order to TF16 at Midway. At a point I might add where it was probably much riskier to do than it was at Philippine Sea since he was lighting up the last two carriers available in the Pacific.

James

[Russ Matthews]

They didn't have to transpose anything. Spruance gave the same order to TF16 at Midway. At a point I might add where it was probably much riskier to do than it was at Philippine Sea since he was lighting up the last two carriers available in the Pacific.

D'oh! You are absolutely correct, James. I was too focused on the first day of the battle (and on trying to be a wise*ss). Thanks for reminding me of Spruance's gutsy call .. and respect to the "Dauntless" filmmakers for getting their research right.

[Spitty]

Wasnt there a book called Dauntless that had a lot of that story in there?

I hope some Hollywood @ss isn't butchering the story of SBD crew Ensign Frank W. O'Flaherty and his radioman-gunner AMM1/C Bruno P. Gaido. They were captured by the IJN during the battle and murdered.