Unparalleled incompetence

Rating: 1/10 (1 September 2006)

Upon hearing that we would be viewing this movie in our history class, I winced at the idea because I had not heard good things about the movie. However, I was one of those people who decided to try new things, and since we were watching it for history class, I figured it might have some promise. We watched the movie, and after only a few minutes of hearing Ben Affleck's and Josh Hartnet's dialogue, I felt ready to run out of the classroom. Yet I was only to discover that what began as a corny action movie later revealed itself to be an offensive masterpiece.
The historical accuracies in this movie are slim to none. Michael Bay even uses freighters and equipment (targeted by the depicted villainous Japanese soldiers) that would not be developed for many years to come. The story's sappy romance and incredibly false acting (save for a much appreciated Cameo of Cuba Gooding Jr.) stands out as a complete annoyance in the movie, yet serves to take away the equally idiotic video-game-like plane fights.
But what really is most unsettling is the overall mood of the film: it's an action-filled, romantic, heroic buddy movie. And it's also World War II. This film gives memories to the old John Wayne war movies and it's campy, almost unrealistic attitude with almost a bit of nostalgia, until you realize that this was made in 2001, a time when most people have realized that the subject of war, especially World War II, is not to be fitting for an entertaining popcorn movie. That in itself leaves the viewing standpoint completely uncomfortable, and almost wondering, with lines such as "I think World War II just started!", if the ignorance shown in this movie could possibly be real. The movie is false, campy, sappy, and in many views offensive to veterans who have experienced war firsthand. In addition, the film shows almost no respect to those who died in Pearl Harbor by showing overly dramatic death sequences quickly cut to make room for more time of Ben Affleck with his hair blowing in the wind.
Overall, a complete lack of focus on a film as a whole and disregard for important events to make room for intense action sequences. A film hopefully forgotten.