A Historical Love Story

Rating: 10/10 (3 June 2001)

`Not anxious to die, sir, just anxious to matter' says Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck: Forces of Nature, Armageddon). Primarily Pearl Harbor is a love triangle between Rafe, his best friend Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett: Here on Earth, The Faculty), and an army nurse Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale: Emma, Much Ado About Nothing) set in 1941. This love story takes a violent swing when on December 7, 1941 the Japanese staged a surprise attack on the naval base. The director, Michael Bay (Armageddon, The Rock) did a wonderful job of depicting that infamous day and also tying in a love story making it a wonderful War/Drama/Action movie. This movie is one of the best in a long time.
To begin, this film will be how future generations learn about Pearl Harbor in their history class. It gives a fantastic view on what happened on that fateful day because of the wonderful job Bay did sharing his vision. Bay could not have done any thing more to the movie and he could not have done anything less. The script, by Randall Wallace (The Man in the Iron Mask), was enough to make anyone feel that they were there. Wallace did a wonderful job of tying in a non-fiction event with a fiction love story and making it easier to understand. Even though there were a few minor historical flip ups, such as two Japanese strategists being combined into one and having a hospital being at the center of an attack which did not happen, it did not take away from the historical significance.
Another good part of the movie was many big name actors. Affleck, Cuba Gooding Jr. (Doris Miller), Jon Voight (President Franklin D. Roosevelt), and Alec Baldwin (General Doolittle) built the base of the film but did not overpower any of the lower caliber actors. Voight did a convincing job of portraying Roosevelt and made it believable that he was really there serving his country. There was a lot of tension and love that these actors had for their characters and the other characters around them. The actors acted as if they were there in 1941 and it was very easy to believe. The action and special effects of the battle scene are some of the best ever made. The shots that rang out and the planes flying by made it feel that you yourself were fighting the battle. The camera angles used and lighting put the audience into the action.
From a technical standpoint the movie flowed very nicely and separated the love story from the war story. The sequence of events was very believable from the Japanese planning the attack, to Washington, and back at the base. The moods also flowed very nicely from the tense moments of the war to the sad moments of the love story. The music helped make this transition even better. With a love theme, `There You'll Be', sung by Faith Hill and the score composed by Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, The Prince of Egypt) the music makes the film wonderful and will move anyone to buy the CD, which they will be listening to for years to come. Finally, this is going to be the blockbuster movie of the summer and sweep the Academy Awards next year. This movie gets 4 out of 4 stars. There are things to be learned about the war and yet very entertaining for 3 hours, which does not get long in fact it ends too soon. `Pearl Harbor' has a PG-13 rating for sustained intense war sequences, images of wounded, brief sensuality, and some language. This is how it was and is a perfect way for anyone to learn about the day that started World War 2; Pearl Harbor