A Great Movie, Despite Soap Opera Elements

Rating: Null/10 (23 January 2002)

Although I question whether or not this movie should indeed have been titled `Pearl Harbor,' the movie by this name was nevertheless a splendid one. I question the title merely because dozens of historical romance novels have put equal or greater emphasis on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, without using this title.
A fine evening of entertainment on video, `Pearl Harbor' was no doubt a spectacular experience on the big screen. I regret now not having seen it at the theater. I would definitely recommend it. Little else can be said without revealing gradual plot lines. Therefore .

SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW!

Whether to try and wed war and romance has been a quandary Hollywood (and other world cinema capitols) have struggled with for decades. Only a few - usually those set in submarines, like `Run Silent, Run Deep' - manage to avoid romance all together, instead focusing on rivalries or friction between commanders and subalterns, etc.
Inevitably, history and military buffs bemoan the insertion of any fictitious romantic plotline and characters into the script. Often these are plastic, irritating intermissions between the `good stuff,' such as in `In Harm's Way' and `Midway.' At other times they tend to mislead the casual watcher and cause much confusion as to fact and fiction (i.e., `Titanic.')
Although I haven't gone back to double-check for historic accuracy, I don't think this will be a problem with `Pearl Harbor.' The main fictitious plot line surrounds pilots Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) and nurse Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale). McCawley and Walker are obviously based loosely on real life Lieutenants George Welch and Ken Taylor, who drove over 100 miles an hour to reach a subordinate airfield, from which they managed to take off and make some havoc for the attackers.
Of course, Hollywood being Hollywood, a bizarre soap opera love triangle develops and dominates the film when bombs are not falling. Rafe and Danny have been best friends since childhood, with the apparently slightly older Rafe always looking after Danny. This relationship is turned upside down when Rafe is presumed by all (including the military) to have been killed while volunteering in England. Danny, sharing his grief with Rafe's true love, Evelyn, eventually falls in love with her - only to see Rafe return, as if from the dead. Sound corny? Well, I guess it beats seeing McCloud slap around Police Woman in one of the other Pearl Harbor adaptations.
In any case, the lovers of war movies and the historians (I count myself among both groups.) never get enough action footage or enough military strategy, amidst the kissing and betrayal. Still, about the only real negative I can say about the love theme is that it takes so long to develop. Still, by the time the Japanese finally get around to doing what the audience has waited for, most of us DO care about a few of these characters to some extent, including the boys' stuttering friend Red Winkle (Ewen Bremner) and his fiancé Betty Bayer (James King). Outside of the nurse-fly boy romance subplot is black USS Arizona cook Dorrie Miller (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), whom I believe is a real life character - or based closely on one. Miller, who had to box to earn respect in the white man's Navy, takes up an anti-aircraft gun on the stricken battleship and earns his own share of glory.
This brings us to the other debate on war movies. Is war sensationalized, trivialized or glorified? I would say `Yes and no' in this case. One cannot help but be inspired by the gallant effort of the two friends and some of their fellow pilots (based closely on real life sequences) to get planes off the ground in the most deadly of circumstances. Col. Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin) is inspiring in his candor and determination to avenge Pearl Harbor. And, while I have seem more convincing Roosevelts, Jon Voight at least captures the individual determination to strike back that FDR possessed in the black hours and weeks that followed the attack. The nurses, too, find their `finest hour,' after weeks of giving shots and meeting soldiers and sailors on the beach. Amidst flying glass, screams of the dying and gushing blood, Evelyn and her crew show that men weren't the only heroes of the day.
Yet I don't think war was glorified or sanitized here. In fact, the special affects, attention to historical detail and some new, brave looks at death and disaster may have given `Pearl Harbor' a leg up on many war films. As torpedoes and bomb hit, ships blow up and sink. Men burn; men bleed; men drown. Zeroes strafe the water for survivors; Zeroes strafe the hospital; Zeroes strafe the pilots racing to their waiting planes. I'm sure on the wide screen a fireman would be out of his seat more than once, as flaming plane fuselages and other debris fly right past the camera.

Director Michael Bay does not shy away from the hellish aspect of war. The U.S. Navy was caught flat-footed and, even in times of preparation, men die gruesome deaths in battle. With `an entire navy at anchor,' in FDR's stunned words, the results are worse. We see men drown; we see men trapped inside sunken ships who will not get out; we see hideously burned patients in delirium as gallant clergymen try to give a last bit of comfort. Bay should be commended for balancing all of the components of the film and coming up with a cohesive and satisfying whole. My only complaint with the video is that the subtitles for the Japanese dialogue are MUCH too small to read on the small screen. (I had to put on my reading glasses and sit in front of the TV like I would my computer, to read them.) Still, that beats having Borris Badenov's voice come out of Admiral Yamamoto's mouth, as it did in `Midway!'
True, the Battle of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Doolittle Raid were dramatic enough that they needed no fictitious love triangle to sell the story. With Hollywood, though, one takes what one can get. What you GET from this film are some spectacular and very accurate battle scenes from angles never before attempted, some earthy, brave portrayals of the agony and hellishness of war, and strong performances by the main characters. I would call `Pearl Harbor' a real winner.