Lesson learned, but not very well

Rating: 6/10 (10 October 2010)

James Cameron's brainwave when filming Titanic, in order to avoid the charge that he was making light of a real life tragedy, was to provide a romance between a fictional couple for audience identification purposes, and then dress it up in the genuine events. In so doing, the identification with the fictional characters drives home to the audience just how harrowing the sinking must have been.
Pearl Harbour attempts to do the same and, to be fair, the Japanese raid, the centrepiece of the movie, is very well staged (albeit marred by moments like Tom Sizemore emerging and popping off a shotgun at Zeroes overhead without even aiming it).
But the fictional characters inserted for audience identification purposes and their plot line - oh dear. Despite having a liking for all three of the actors involved in the romantic triangle, a) this is seriously drippy stuff, and b) there is oh so much of it. I got to the point where I was hoping that the Pearly Harbour raid would polish them all off so that I wouldn't have to endure any more drippiness.
My recommendation is that you should try to catch the hour in the middle.