confused

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2001)

'Pearl Harbor' is just the latest example of how Hollywood can screw up a potentially great film. Contains spoilers. The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was a tragedy of mass proportions and that's just what the movie should have been about. The tragedy. In typical American-Hollywood fashion, they take the film too far (and I'm not complaining about the three hour length. A good film will keep me in the chair all day), to the point where the Americans get revenge. Going into the Doolittle Operation was unnecessary. It just goes to show that Hollywood types believe the silly notion that American moviegoers have to feel good at the end of a movie. That's not true. All films don't have to do that. Jon Voight was excellent as President Roosevelt. The relationship triangle between the two male leads and the female lead was poorly done and confusing. It's a bad love story when you don't know who she really loves. And even worse, in the end, she really doesn't choose. ... coming back from the dead is a bad movie cliche. I've never seen that one before. Yeah, right. Cuba Gooding Jr. is an excellent actor, but his character isn't developed at all. He wins a boxing match. He saves somebody. A lot of people were saving others in the film. Was being the first black man to do something the reason? I would have liked to have known more about the Japanese, too. The men in charge of the attack seemed remorseful, but the reasons they gave for the attack seemed insufficient. Overall, I'd say this movie was below average. It will make a lot of money because it's a topic that touches a lot of Americans.