Love Story, not History

Rating: 3/10 (9 February 2004)

This movie is much more a fictional love story than historical fiction. Consequently, history and authenticity frequently suffer in order to bend the story around Pearl Harbor. Fortunately, the early reviews of this movie panned it and so I didn't pay to see it until it was on TV.
It starts off with the two heros meeting with Lt.Col. Doolittle a couple of years before the war. Doolittle, a WWI veteran, returned to active duty in July 1940 where he was assigned to implementing war production. He did not command any squadron until he formed the B-25 raid on Tokyo so he could not been involved with the two heros. Secondly, when Doolittle formed his squadron he used already trained bomber pilots. The two heros were experienced fighter pilots and would never have been transferred to bombers.

The movie further departs from what happened on the Tokyo raid. First, it states that Japanese patrol boats were sighted 400 yards away. That didn't happen and no enemy boat would ever have gotten that close to the American Fleet. In fact it was Japanese fishing boats spotted four miles away. The decision to launch the raid early did not come from Doolittle as shown in the movie but from an overly cautious Admiral Halsey. The movie shows the Doolittle planes flying in formation as they bombed Japan. In fact, each plane flew separately to different targets in Japan. The surprise was so great that unlike in the movie none of the planes were fired upon by Japanese anti-aircraft guns. One plane did encounter Japanese fighters but the fighters flew by. At that time the American insignia included a red meat ball in the center of a white star, similar to the meatball on Japanese planes and the Japanese who believed that it was impossible for American bombers to reach Japan probably thought they were Japanese planes.
Further, no two planes landed close together as depicted in the movie. For viewers who want a more authentic version of the Doolittle raid, see "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" or watch the History Channel.
If one wants to see a more accurate movie about Peal Harbor, see "Tora, Tora" which focuses solely on the Pearl Harbor Raid. Unfortunately the movie "Pearl Harbor" gives a shallow overview of the attack and what preceded it and it lacks accuracy. The special effects showing the attack are superior to that of Tora, Tora, but we have such inaccuracies of using air cooled anti-aircraft machine guns on the ships when the guns were water cooled. The two heros did not fly from Hickam Field as shown in the movie but from Ewa Field which was not under attack. No fighter ever got off of Hickam Field.
Generally speaking authenticity went to hell in this movie and so did the movie with a silly love story.