War = Entertainment???

Rating: 1/10 (30 June 2001)

I just got out of Pearl Harbor and, after already reading negative critics, I have to say that it`s worse than I have expected. Maybe because I´m European and not that pro-American (do I have to be?), I´m looking in an not that naive way on American history. After reading the great (American!) book "Lies my teacher told me" by James W. Loewen I have an impression how poorly the Americans deal with their own history and with the history of other nations. Pearl Harbor is just another example because it leaves out important facts and simply does not tell the true story. This movie is not controversial - as in my opionion a war movie should be - it just confirms the view of the general American audience. I heard that director Michael Bay said in an interview that he tried to treat the Japanese fairly and to make the audience understand why they attacked. Well, how he showed the Japanese (threatening, emotionless except some scenes, but in general, they´re the BAD!) confirms once more the image that the standard American has - the Japs are evil! By the way - during the attack on Tokyo show at the end of the movie - the Americans killed about 10 times as much people than the Japanese killed at Pearl Harbor. These are just the relations - the film does not show the terror and fear the Japanese people felt. Pearl Harbor lets the audience feel that that attack was right and that the Americans had the right to kill! I think the only wise sentence of the movie is spoken out by the Japanese admiral who says "A brilliant man will find a way not to fight a war." - this is so right for both the Japanese and the Americans. After all, all the comedy and the jokes made the film seem so ridiculous. I just cannot imagine that in the horror of war, someone can behave in such a way. A war film cannot be entertaining. I recommend the book "Empire of the Sun" by James Graham Ballard, and the film based on the novel by Steven Spielberg. It shows how war in the Far East was for millions of Chinese, Japanese, English and American: it was a war without good or bad and without any heroes. It was merely a fight for survival.