Brilliant film - and give up the anti-Americanism!

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2002)

I have to say that I loved this film, despite knowing that it's not entirely accurate and is centred round a love-triangle. Yes, it could have been better and it didn't need the love story, but give the film a break! It was well-made with superb special effects. I think one of the reasons people vote this film down is because they went to watch it expecting it to be bad and predictable, in other words, a remake of Titanic - typical romance involving a girl that two guys want. And I'm not dissing Titanic here either - I loved that film even more so than Pearl Harbor. I'm almost certain that if this film had been released as the first of its kind - modern epic of tragic historic event with love triangle and very attractive actors - it would have made just as much as Titanic did. What went wrong with Pearl Harbor was the way it was hyped about - most expensive movie ever made, etc etc. People thought 'oh yeah, been there done that' because they'd seen Titanic. And it did bear many similarities to Titanic but that does NOT make it a bad film. And I wish people would lay off the Americans. OK, so it's the biggest, richest and best (in my opinion) country in the world - so what? Any other country would act the same if it was them. I hasten to add here that I'm English and live in England, just to clarify that I'm not American and therefore not biased. Maybe some of the dialogue was cheesy but that was the DIALOGUE, not the pro-Americanism. Surely anyone - in any country - is going to act patriotic in the middle of being attacked by another country! It's a natural reaction. You can hardly imagine the characters standing there saying 'well, let's give them the benefit of the doubt - there's a reason for this' can you?! Maybe there is a reason but when you're in the middle of something like that surrounded by death and destruction, your instinct is to protect people and defend your country. So lay off the Americans everyone! The place rules - get used to it! In my opinion, Pearl Harbor was a cinematic masterpiece with a very touching love story. The people who went in there expecting it to be rubbish came out thinking it was rubbish, not wanting to admit their expectations had been wrong. It's NOT Titanic everyone - just go watch it and appreciate it for what it is, don't just compare it to every other epic that's ever been made.