Great fantasy, lousy history...

Rating: 3/10 (29 May 2001)

As a work of complete fiction, Pearl Harbor works quite well. The plot is fairly interesting, albeit with a fairly slow and drawn-out start to the love story. The special effects are truly stunning - they're believable and there are a lot of them. The problem is, Pearl Harbor isn't supposed to be a work of complete fiction - it is supposed to be a history of a real event, interwoven with a fictional love story.
It is here that Pearl Harbor fails, in the worst possible way. The retelling of Pearl Harbor is one-sided, one-dimensional and hence utterly false. This robs the film of its purpose, and for me destroyed any emotional impact of either the historical or the emotional/fictional aspects it entails.
Probably the worst thing with this film is the intense racism it contains. From start to finish, the Japanese are portrayed as hateful, thoughtless robots with the exception of one character who's portrayed as doubt-filled - but only because he believes the attack may not benefit Japan. Of course, the American side is depicted as heroes and heroines every one...
A few examples of this disparity: pretty much without exception, every single Japanese character in the film has a grimace, scowl, or look of death on his face; Americans are given all of the 'good' emotions (laughter, happiness, sadness, fear, etc. - but never hatred). Whenever an American dies, we're treated to a display of the humanity of the dying character; whenever a Japanese person dies, we see little if anything. (For example, only once do we see a Japanese pilot when his plane is shot down. He falls from the plane but the camera ignores him - he is, after all, only Japanese, not human). Americans only shoot planes and bomb buildings; people aren't "involved". Japanese are depicted as shooting at people instead of the planes they're standing next to; at drowning sailors instead of the ships they're drowning alongside. The whole film is set alongside US flags, US children playing, even Santa Claus gets an appearance. The only thing missing is the apple pie... The Japanese people, by contrast, make only two tiny appearances - some kids playing with a kite in the background of one scene, and a Japanese lady walking in the grounds of a house in another.
I've never been tempted to walk out mid-film before. I was strongly tempted with Pearl Harbor, but didn't because I felt I shouldn't judge the film without seeing the whole thing. Now I've seen it, I find the result to be a very, very poor retelling of a historic event. See it as a work of fiction, or don't see it at all!