Another puff piece from the master of puff

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2001)

Given the choice between producing a popular film and a great film, producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon, Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, ConAir) will always choose the popular film. He is nothing if not consistent. His films always make lots of money and seldom deliver much more than slick eye candy for the masses. Bruckheimer has a golden opportunity to depart from his blockbuster mentality with this film, but he goes with his business instincts rather than taking a chance with a filmmaker's approach. The result is another big budget crowd pleaser with a cotton candy plot and terrific battle scenes, aided by impressive digital effects.
The script by Randall Wallace of `Braveheart' fame is the biggest problem. Wallace is clearly capable of writing an engaging script, but that obviously isn't what the boss wanted. It seems that Bruckheimer has Titanic envy and tries to use the same formula of wrapping a piece of history around a love story. Either that or he is trying to follow in the footsteps of `From Here to Eternity', the much acclaimed 1953 story that occurs as a prelude to the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, FHTE did not pretend to be a story ABOUT Pearl Harbor, and only included the attack as another disruptive event in an emotionally tumultuous story. While FHTE was a gripping and powerful story of love, hatred, lust and honor, PH is a trite and predictable love story that serves an interminable prelude to 30 minutes of terrific battle scenes. The inadvertent love triangle between best friends could have been predicted by a teenager (which seemed to be the target audience of this film, based on the PG rating and the sappy dialogue). And of course the resolution of the dilemma is just as neat and obvious. Personally, I would have preferred it if they had killed Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) in the attack and given Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Danny (Josh Hartnett) an opportunity for some real soul searching as they went on their top secret mission. But such nuance is far too risky for Bruckheimer.
Director Michael Bay (Armageddon, The Rock) isn't known for his subtle and insightful direction of human stories. Bay is known for his explosions, and predictably the human story is bungled while the battle is extraordinary. Bay directs a period piece without much regard for understanding and reproducing the 1940's. It seems all he cares about is the military angle. The costume design and hair for the girls costumes was merely good while the military costumes are perfect. Mostly, the '40's feel is missing. The music is all wrong. It should have been big band music instead of the standard blockbuster symphonic compositions which did not fit the period at all. Various details are overlooked, like the fact that well more than half of young adults of that era smoked. Not one character in the film smoked, nor was there a single cigarette to be found in the nightclub scene. Rent any film from the forties and fifties and notice how many people smoke. Everybody. Another thing that is incredible is the fact that Evelyn, who was having morning sickness on December 7 is not showing in mid April, more than four months later. Perhaps if she were 200 lbs I could believe that, but the lithe Evelyn would have shown more than a little pooch by then.
Also missing are the colloquialisms of the day. Not a single `swell', `dame', `jeepers' or `ain't' in the whole film. No Brooklyn or Chicago accents. Everyone speaks perfect twenty first century Funk and Wagnall's College English.
The battle scene is a marvel of action filmmaking. It is highly realistic as a depiction of the battle, but there was a lot of cheating that didn't escape the notice of WWII buffs. It is pretty amazing that Bruckheimer got so much cooperation from the US government in being able to film in the Harbor. The government even loaned the production company numerous mothballed ships. Unfortunately, a lot of them were ships designed and built after WWII and they didn't bother to clean them up in post production. They built a complete digital world and left post WWII ships in the picture. That is just poor attention to detail in a film that is all about detail. Still, by any standard, this is fantastic action sequence that could not have been more realistic than had one actually been there.
The acting is mixed. Beckingsale is excellent as Evelyn. She creates a very appealing romantic figure. Ben Affleck is too moody and sarcastic in the role. Josh Hartnett is much better, coming across as far more sincere and relating to his character better than Affleck. Affleck seems content to play Ben Affleck in uniform rather than trying to actually flesh out a character.
Cuba Gooding Jr. gives an excellent performance in a minor role. Veterans Alec Baldwin and Jon Voight do a marvelous job as Colonel Doolitle and FDR.
I rated this film a 6/10 on the strength of the visual effects. It would have been much better if it had been about Pearl Harbor instead of being a schmaltzy love triangle story that coincided with the attack. The entire event that is Pearl Harbor is shrouded in intriguing questions. Did Roosevelt know about the attack in advance and allow it to happen to get us into the war? Many historical facts indicate that was the case (it is thought to be more than just lucky that the aircraft carriers weren't in the harbor that day). What was really going on in the minds of the Japanese? Were the diplomatic efforts of the US designed to force the Japanese into attacking us as a matter of honor? As much as I despise Oliver Stone, this film would have been substantial if it had been done in his docudrama style (without the historical rewrites of course).
Instead we have another puff piece by the master of puff. Thanks Jerry.