The Final Assault

Rating: Null/10 (7 January 2002)

Spoilers herein.
My Dad was at the attack on the Pennsylvania, sister ship of the Arizona. He went on to the Coral Sea and then Midway which were the true turning points of the war, setting things up for the brutal island-hopping job of the Marines. He was among the first Americans to go into Hiroshima. My mother was on the floor of Congress when war was declared.
My Dad was killed on duty in 1960 and I am glad he is not here to witness this sad, even vile exploitation: these events romanticized to thrill and amuse us. God help us if we do the same to the Sept 11 attack.
I am a big believer in the power of film, its evolving ability to be the real language of the future. But in these early days of the medium, artists are not just creating films but creating the future of how we think and reason. When the subject is an event like this, it is also coloring how we think of ourselves as a nation.
The responsibility is vast. Not one shred of same is apparent here.