One of the most atrocious excuses for historical fiction in recent memory

Rating: 2/10 (7 December 2011)

Stating that this film does not accurately depict history is unfair to the numerous historical fiction works that have preceded and followed it. Others have said it; I'll say it again: This film is an abuse of artistic license. Bay (in increasing order of egregiousness) colors planes inaccurately, misrepresents both Americans and Japanese as one-sided extras, throws in a romantic plot with no sympathetic characters, lifts a story from history without acknowledgment (more on this later) and dares to title this bloated mess "Pearl Harbor."
An elaboration on the third point, that of the plot: it is only 30% about Pearl Harbor, I would estimate. The female lead is wholly unsympathetic in her actions, the two male leads are nearly indistinguishable, and again, it has nothing to do with Pearl Harbor. The plot even continues after the attack to the Doolittle Raids...with a male lead taking part in those, too!
Now, the "lifted story": During the attack on Pearl Harbor, two American pilots, Kenneth M. Taylor and George Welch, managed to get airborne and between them downed six Japanese planes. This event is used in the film...except that the two valiant pilots were replaced by the aforementioned indistinguishable male leads, and the credits treat the event as fiction, with no acknowledgment to Taylor or Welch. Having an event fabricated for the film would have been less disrespectful than this.
The only relatively good parts of this film are the soundtrack (reminiscent of a Hans Zimmer score) and Jon Voight's performance as President Roosevelt. I can honestly say that he was the best performance in the film. These are the two elements that keep me from giving this a 1.
As I write this, it is the 70th anniversary of the attacks, and this abomination of a film is 10 years old. I found it appropriate to review this horrendous film on this day, as a kind of respect to those who were disrespected by this film.