Fairly well done

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2001)

When PH came out, I thought I read somewhere about the differences between it and "Tora! Tora! Tora!" Funny, but the stories mesh fairly well. Both include the African-American cook who heroically climbs into an anti-aircraft gun to defend his shipmates (in PH he's a central character; in TTT he's just a few seconds of film). Both focus on the bomb that sank the Arizona. Both focus on what the U.S. might have known in advance of the attack.
TTT has a more documentary feel, and as such, its information seems more reliable. PH has much greater visuals.
And PH tries to graft a love story onto history. I thought James Cameron pulled it off well in Titanic. Here, the love story seems out of place. In Titanic, the DeCaprio-Winslet tryst was functional to the plot -- it led the viewer to all parts of the mighty ship. The PH love triangle does little more than add a little spice to what would otherwise be a heckuva film. Or maybe without the triangle, the movie becomes TTT.
But what I think PH does better than TTT is in visualizing the heroism of the soldiers, sailors and nurses who were under attack. You can't walk away from Pearl Harbor without a deep, abiding respect for the men and women of World War II.