Actually, a lot of the aerial stuntwork possible in earlier films has been banned by pretty much all airspace control bodies since the 80s. This was the incident that prompted that:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/actor-and-two-children-killed-on-twilight-zone-set
Additionally, many of the warbirds used for filming in the 50s-70s no longer exist. So these days, it’s CGI or nothing.
Should you go see it, there are two scenes in it that you might class as rewriting that are actually historical. First, the scene where a guy jumps into a grounded US aircraft and starts shooting at an attacking Japanese bomber from the backseater machine gun position, finishing off the damaged attacker, which slices the back of his aircraft off when crashing. That really happened, they didn’t make that up for dramatic reasons. The other thing you might kvetch about is the depiction of the Japanese carriers - it has recently (last decade or so) found out that the depiction of them being caught with their strike aircraft on deck was a lie. When the US strike aircraft arrived, the Japanese strike aircraft were already airborne and away. The Japanese had their combat air patrol craft already airborne and only a couple of reinforcement craft on deck per carrier. A Japanese “historian” invented the full flight decks and was parroted by Western historians. Japanese historians have debunked this as of several decades ago and only recently did the West discover their information had been wrong.
The book that covers the above and that the new film was based in part on: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005NIQ8SM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
His name was Bruno Gaido.
He was later shot down during the battle; he and his pilot were picked up by a Japanese destroyer. They were interrogated for a week, then weighted down and shoved overboard.
If I remember the full story, the Kempeitai officer aboard the ship had to do the dirty work himself. The rest of the crew refused to participate.
Not entirely true. The Japanese air commander felt that a second strike on Midway was needed. Planes already being armed with torpedoes had to have them taken off and refitted with bombs. This was underway when McCluskey’s planes appeared, the Japanese mechanics had bombs and torpedoes all over the place. They were sitting ducks.
“Shattered Sword” is a very meticulous book. Long but fascinating.