Still, it seems almost miraculous that an unabashedly patriotic movie like this would come out today. I loved watching these heroes in an age of snowflakes in which students feel unsafe on campus because Ann Coulter is going to speak.
It definitely feels like a movie from a different era. The ‘76 movie used a lot of stock footage (though new to my eyes at the time) wheras the new uses CGI throughout. I’m surprised at how much was packed in. The time flew and it didn’t feel as long as it really was.
As much as I like Heston, I got the feeling he over-acted his role with emoting and all in the original. Mitchum nailed it for me.
Final note: Dennis Quaid plays Admiral Bull Halsey and steals every scene he’s in. Woody Harrelson grows on you as Admiral Nimitz. The newer crop of young actors playing the pilots and tail gunners I’m not familiar with but were admirable as devil-may-care flyboys.