An excellent film if you're looking for a 1940's style WWII film

Rating: 10/10 (14 August 2005)

It's fashionable to bash Pearl Harbor, but in reality it's an amazing piece of film-making and tells a story that sorely needs to be told.
So many people come to this film apparently expecting a modern, cynical take on the story - Quentin Tarentino's "Pulp Harbor," if you will. This is NOT and is not MEANT to be that type of film.
Instead, the film reflects a 1940s sensibility, in which we see America attacked without warning, and what it takes to go from the nearly complete destruction of the Pacific Fleet to the first, largely symbolic attack on the Japanese mainland, the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
Many people find the dialogue and story corny, yet watch most any World War II film made during that era and you'll find the same. Talk to many who were soldiers then and you'll find that people often did speak using the same speech patterns many people find to be trite and sappy today. That's what Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer were trying to achieve with this film, and they succeeded admirably.
Watching this film gives you, if you hadn't already had one, the deepest possible empathy for those who survived the events of that day, the most horrific attack America had ever suffered prior to September 11, 2001.
If what you're looking for is a modern, cynical take on the events of December 7, 1941, this is NOT the movie for you. But if you'd like some understanding of just what happened that Sunday morning, and a feel for how America rose to the challenge that faced her, you will enjoy Pearl Harbor.
Or, watch the trailer. If you can't watch the Japanese Zeroes fly by the kids without getting a lump in your throat, if you are filled with dread at the knowledge of what is about to happen to the Arizona, this movie is for you.