Succeeds on all fronts and gives the nurses their due

Rating: 8/10 (1 July 2001)

I can't add much more to kitkat's excellent review except to also point out the good job the filmaker's did in presenting some of what the nurses in Hawaii did on December 7th. They were young women in a sleepy locale that, in the face of utter horror and their own mortal peril, rose to give the aid and comfort they had pledged themselves to. I think the movie gives them their due and I have seen few WW2 movies OR documentaries that have even tried. I'd also like to take a bit of an issue with the criticism of the filmakers' calculated efforts to provide a return on their investment. I am far from a defender of either Disney or capitalism in general (more of a wary partaker of the products and an enthusiastic critic of both ), but if you are going to make an epic you should spend the big bucks. If you spend the big bucks you've got to try and make them back or those with the bucks won't let you near them again. Simple as that. Pearl Harbor is an epic day in the history of the world's greatest nation, without question. It deserves a block buster as much as anything does and hype is part and parcel, a neccessary evil, if you will. You always have the choice to waste your $9 on Tom Green!