More of a Firecracker Pop Than An Explosion

Rating: 7/10 (31 May 2001)

Like a bomb, Pearl Harbor had a lot of potential. From the first movie trailer to the endless promotion, it kept building and building to that moment where it can break loose and explode into a fantastic movie, lighting up the big screen. But when that moment came, it merely let loose some crackles that fireworks would make and not the explosion it was very capable of.
The movie begins in Tennessee, 1923. Friends Danny (Josh Hartnett, although this is a younger version of Danny first seen) and Rafe (Ben Affleck, with the same situation) are best friends and aspiring pilots. When the years pass, they've acquired their dream and are now pilots for the military. Soon, Rafe, by order of General Dolittle (Alec Baldwin), is shipped to fight in England, much to the distress of army nurse and Rafe's girlfriend Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale). But in America, Danny, Evelyn, and other army members are shipped to safety in Pearl Harbor (resulting in dramatic irony for us, since we know exactly how "safe" Pearl Harbor really is). Rafe's plane crashes during a fight, resulting in news to Danny, Evelyn, and other friends that Rafe is dead. But after a few months of grieving, Evelyn and Danny develop a love for each other, only to find out later that Rafe is actually alive and coming back to Pearl Harbor, making their romance a part of a love triangle.
Cinematically, this movie was brilliant. The war sequence far into the movie was very compelling and awesome to watch. And one scene I thought was a little overlooked amongst all the publicity was the scenes in the hospital prior to the Pearl Harbor bombing. The blurriness and shaking seen was a great way to show the stress in that hospital.
The acting was great too. Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett really showed us the strength of their acting muscles. Kate Beckinsale also made a very good first impression on me and I hope she'll get some more projects in the future. My personal favorite was Cuba Gooding Jr. as real military hero Dori Miller, a cook who took on fighting the Japanese during the Pearl Harbor attack.
However, the dialogue was something that really bothered me in this movie. It had so many cliche'd lines, especially in exchanges of love. I'm not saying that in order to have a good script, you need great, dramatic, poetic lines. I mean, not every screenwriter is a poet or a classic author. It's just that where corny lines were placed, a much better line could've been used. One big example is when Evelyn and Danny are about to make love behind some curtains. Danny is over Evelyn, and you can almost feel their passion. It seems like it's going to be so romantic. But then, Danny speaks his sentence of love, romance, and passion..."My heart's pounding." That's it. See what I mean? That was one of many scenes where the dialogue's potential was totally wasted.
This movie could've been spectacular. And it was good. Great, even. Better than I had begun to think, what with new views of the movie surfacing. But it could've been so much more, and that's the only thing that disappointed me.
7/10, B-