A masterpiece

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2001)

Some people like Michael Bay, some don't. As far as I'm concerned, he does with Pearl Harbor what he has done with his two previous projects, "The Rock" and "Armageddon" to make them blockbusters - he gives us spectacular action sequences, interesting characters, and polishes each shot, each scene, to a fine finish. Yes, the movie has characters that are somewhat two dimensional and yes, the movie uses a tragic historical event as the backdrop for a cliche-ridden romance, but why is it that no one complained when James Cameron did that with the much inferior "Titanic?" Take a look at some of the classic war films - "Bridge Over the River Kwai," "From Here to Eternity" - you will find highly glossed Hollywood romances and big explosions, but if they were dissected with the unblinking cynicism that modern-day critics use, they would be attacked with as much fervor that "Pearl Harbor" has been. See this movie for what it is - a big, glossy, Hollywood epic that has been unjustly panned, and enjoy it for what it is, not what others say it should be.