The 1976 movie is better in most respects

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2020)

I will try to watch this movie again, and maybe I'll have a better experience the 2nd time, but there are obvious problems with this movie, including the casting. In the 1976 movie Admiral Nimitz was played by Henry Fonda. In this movie Admiral Nimitz is played by Woody. Since when has Woody ever been a serious actor, known for playing serious roles in serious movies? Why stop with Woody, why not cast Bill Murray to play Admiral Nimitz?
As with most great battles throughout history, a proper telling of the story needs to reveal the key decisions by the leaders, the turning points in the battle, the extent of good vs. bad outcome of the various decisions, and the extent to which dumb luck and mother nature had a hand in determining the outcome. We, the audience, want to be educated by a movie of this type, not entertained per se. This movie seems unable to make up its mind what it wants to accomplish. The extensive use of CGI does very little to enhance the telling of what happened in the battle of Midway. I'm not suggesting that this movie should have been a documentary of the kind you see on the history channel. Although many of the documentaries on the History channel are easier to sit through than this was. The IMDB viewer ratings are essentially the same for this movie vs. the 1976 movie, but this is a reflection of the fact that the modern audience was mostly born after 1990 and doesn't want to watch any movie that isn't filled with special effects. The producers of this movie could have made a better movie than the 1976 movie, through judicious use of more modern technology. This clearly is not what they set out to do, as evidenced for one example by the choice of Woody to play Admiral Nimitz. Some of the other actors in the 1976 movie: Charlton Heston, Glenn Ford, James Coburn, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Robert Wagner. Around half of the actors playing the major roles in this 2019 movie are pop music starts with no experience playing serious roles and not having the right stuff for the audience to take them seriously as military leaders. Another decade from now this movie will be largely forgotten, and the 1976 movie will continue to be televised on Memorial Day and on the Fourth of July. And don't get me wrong about Woody. I'm a fan of Woody. Just not when cast as Admiral Nimitz in a movie about the battle of Midway.