Bad romance, lousy acting AND the history is all wrong

Rating: 1/10 (8 June 2001)

Pearl Harbor is one of the worst films I have seen in years. The men who died at Pearl Harbor deserve a far better tribute than this piece of blockbuster trash. It amazes me that an event that is so packed with plot-potential could manage to be made into a movie that lacks one entirely.
Furthermore, it's lousy history (warning: some SPOILERS - not much the trailer doesn't already give away)
a) The attack happened at 8am. Yet kids are shown playing baseball in the yard, people are going to church, seems like everyone on the island is awake in a great norman-rockwell-esque shot with the Japanese planes flying in. Meanwhile, the soldiers are all asleep.
b) It mentions we can't crack Japanese code. Not true - the US had cracked the code completely - which is why a message was sent to Pearl Harbor warning of imminent attack. (The movie does get right that the message arrived 4 hours too late)
c) The order of attack is all wrong - the movie shows them attacking ships first, then hospitals and nurses, then the airfields. The japanese attacked the airfields first, then the ships. Japanese NEVER attacked the hospitals.
d) They were able to get to the ammunition/planes. In fact, the planes and ammunition were all locked up - and the planes lined up in clear view because the Army was following sabotage protocol. One of the bigger dramas of the ACTUAL attack was that the troops couldn't get to the guns/etc because they were all locked up.
e) One of the things this movie fails to even mention is the fact that most of the ships were on leave for the weekend - so many of the sailors were on the island when the attack happened. The exception is the Arizona - which was the ship on active duty rotation. The majority of the casualties were of those who died when this ship was bombed. The movie makes it look like every ship was full of people. (though, there were certainly folks on each of the ships)
If you want your history from hollywood, at least do yourself the favor or watching Tora! Tora! Tora!, don't waste your penny on this lousy love story.