Midway (1976) vs Midway (2019)

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2020)

For the life of me, I barely remember why I shied away from seeing the 1976 version of the dramatization of this epic battle in the Pacific. I figured it was one of those horrible Hollywood star-studded turds, like The Towering Inferno. Even all those years ago, I had decent taste in movies and books.
I recently watched both films back-to-back and I was very pleasantly surprised with the 1976 version. It was a lot less corny than the 2019 movie which places most of the story on the hot-shot pilot who did his best Tom Cruise impersonation throughout.
I liked this snappy line from a conversation between the navy captain played by Charlton Heston and the intelligence analyst played by Hal Holbrook. They were talking about what little of the Japanese radio conversations could be deciphered by Holbrook's men.
"One word in ten? For Christ's sake, Joe, you're guessing."
"We like to call it analysis."
The 1976 version relies a lot on stock footage of real air attacks and naval vessels. I have to say that this looked better than the special effects of the modern film. The old movie also did a much, much better job of explaining the tactics and the course of the battle from start to finish.
I like the fact that the modern movie has the Japanese actually speaking Japanese, although both films treat the enemy with a great deal of magnanimity, something you wouldn't see in films before the 1970s.