Pearl Harbor 1941.

Rating: 7/10 (11 October 2013)

Fred Zinnemann directed this Academy Award winning(Best picture and director) film set during the days preceding the Pearl Harbor attack, where Robert E. Lee Prewitt(played by Montgomery Clift) is transferred to his new station in Hawaii, where the Captain wants to use him to join his boxing team, as Robert is a renowned boxer. However, he has vowed to never box again, causing the captain to punish him by encouraging others to harass and bully him, including Sgt. 'Fatso' Judson(played by Ernest Borgnine) who also tangles with Robert's only real friend Angelo Maggio(played by Frank Sinatra, who also won an Academy Award). Burt Lancaster plays Sgt. Warden, who begins an affair with the captain's wife Karen(played by Deborah Kerr). Donna Reed also costars as a troubled love interest to Robert.
Interesting, well acted and directed film has an overall story that relies too much on soap opera elements, which will seem pretty trivial by the time the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor(an exciting sequence). Still, a worthwhile film that was immensely popular at the time.