Worthy of the hype

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2001)

Billed as one of the blockbusters of the summer, Pearl Harbor provided three hours of entertainment with a few special nuggets and relatively few gaffes. Although audiences will probably remember this film for its epic battle sequences, it was the emotions and the thought-provoking situations that made this movie a success. This film fulfills the World War II combat film genre without resorting to many of its clichés. The film may not be 100% historically accurate, but it gives a good example of the kinds of things that did happen. Ben Affleck delivers a spell-binding performance as the film's hero. He keeps it real by bringing out the character's weaknesses in addition to his strengths. The plot kept the film moving, so the three hours literally flew by. However, the love-triangle scenario gets too predictable at the end, and at times you wonder if the characters feel the same emotions of the tragedy of war that the audience is feeling. The dialogue seemed a bit contrived in places, and a couple of lines seem to be lifted straight from previous World War II combat films. The narrator at the end of the film is entirely unnecessary. Rather than using the more effective technique of letting the audience decide for themselves what to take away from the film, the narrator tries to tell the audience what to think and fails by overdramatizing everything and sounding like a history lecturer. One thing this movie did not contain was a prejudice toward the Japanese. For the most part, the treatment was very even-handed by showing the Japanese pilots preparing for the attack and giving some of Japan's reasoning behind the attack. The little prejudice that is shown should be taken as an accurate portrayal of the times rather than the bias of the filmmakers. Overall, this movie definitely lives up to the hype. The epic battle scenes and the moving post-battle scenes are worth the price of admission themselves.