Despite the painful dialogue, an entertaining film.

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2001)

I have been wanting, for months, to go see this film on opening night. My father raised me with an appreciation for history, and I wanted to see how Hollywood would portray this event.
I was somewhat disappointed in the love story. I was able to predict almost from the beginning how it was going to turn out. The producers of this film definitely succeeded in playing on my heartstrings, although the dialogue was a little difficult to listen to at times (Ben Affleck's character being particularly grating).
The action (read: blowing up) scenes were breathtaking, amazing, and nail-biting, although by the time I'd seen the 1000th dead sailor scene I was crying. It got to the point where I felt that they were playing for sympathy and not for story.
I think the movie went on for far too long. It could have been a perfectly adequate film in just over 2 hours; instead, it clocks in at 3 hours. After a while my husband and I found ourselves looking at our watches and wondering when we could get up to go to the bathroom.
Bottom line, I do recommend this film -- especially if you know something about Pearl Harbor day, because the movie takes considerable artistic license with history and it would be good to know what the real story is when you're on your way to see this movie. It is a very good look at this historical event, however. I think it got its point across, and even if it took a sappy love story to make us care about the characters and what happened to them and countless others, I think the job was done right.