poor fact, worse fiction

Rating: 6/10 (24 June 2001)

It is almost impossible to mix historic fact and actual personalities from the past with fictional characters and plot. The last one to do this really well was Leo Tolstoy, although Herman Wolk did a pretty good job in "The Winds of War." If you want to see a love story set against the background of military life at Pearl Harbor just before December, 1941, then you can't top "From Here to Eternity." If you want to know how and why the attack took place, see "Tora! Tora! Tora!" If you want to know the true story of Doolittle's raid (even if Spencer Tracy looked no more like Jimmy Doolittle than Alec Baldwin does), see "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." If you want to see great World War II air combat (with no computerized effects) see "The Battle of Britain." If you want special effects and computerized air combat, see "Star Wars." -- JONCHA