Depressingly popcorn

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2002)

I was born quite a few years after December 7th, 1941, but had I survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and then watched this movie today, I would probably react with a mixture of disgust and despair. Then again, maybe I would have only been as bored as I was without the benefit of experience. "Pearl Harbor" is a movie that uses World War II as a backdrop for a love story of astonishing banality that contributes to one of the most witless experiences I've had.
The movie is three hours long, but it would have seemed long at two. Hell, it would have seemed long at 45 minutes, which is the length of time at the center of the movie that is focused on the attack itself. "The day that will live in infamy" still evokes strong emotions from those who lived through it, but from the movie's perspective it did little but provide a set piece for an action movie. The special effects by Michael Bay are impressive, indeed; we see Japanese fighter planes divebombing the ships in harbor, flying between them at high speed, while those on the ground flee in fear or shoot from the decks. Most of this is pitched at the level of a video game, especially when the two heroes, Danny and Rafe, climb into their own planes and proceed to start shooting down every enemy plane they can. Unlike Spielberg's earlier "Saving Private Ryan" which had convincing footage of the landing at Normandy but also a moral context, "Pearl Harbor" is completely lacking in insight. Instead, the attack becomes nothing but appalling visions of slaughter for benefit of entertainment.
The dialog in the movie is truly amazing, but not for it's good qualities. Take Evelyn's consolation to Rafe, whom she loves, as she explains her motives: "My heart belongs to Danny, but I'll never look at another sunset without thinking of you." Thanks a whole lot. Of course, that's after Jon Voight has woodenly tried to portray President Roosevelt standing up defiantly from his wheelchair after being told by his cabinet that a military assault on Japan is impractical, and stating, "Gentlemen, do not tell me what cannot be done!" As I understand it, history does record him saying something to this effect, but I doubt it came across as lamely as it does in this movie.
The Japanese are given the "hindsight is 20-20" treatment: Admiral Yamamoto, who orchestrated the attack, muses anxiously that "I fear that all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant." They act as if seeming unlikely to have attacked, had they not been called upon to do so in service of the plot. It's as if the filmmakers were afraid of seeming callous if they depicted the Japanese as actually having Imperialism as a motive. The Japanese continue to make movies about Hiroshima and Nagasaki without sympathy for the American perspective and justifiably so: it was a defining moment for them, just as Pearl Harbor was a defining moment for Americans. I cannot recall a film about the Enola Gay in which Truman is heard to say "I fear all we have done is unleashed an apocalypse on an unsuspecting city."
The movie pays token respect to African-Americans with its depiction of Dorie Miller, the black cook aboard one of the carriers who grabs the controls of an anti-aircraft gun during the attack and shoots down several enemy planes. Curiously, despite the location being Hawaii, I did not notice a single person of Polynesian descent during the entire movie.
Nothing about the movie offers up any historical perspective on the events that take place. I attended the film with a friend who afterward defended it as a "popcorn movie". To describe this movie about the tragic loss of three thousand lives in the same terms as those used by critics in referring to "The Mummy Returns" is no less depressing for its accuracy.