Very Inaccurate

Rating: 3/10 (3 October 2006)

Although it is a story about one of the most important events of the last 100 years, it is a movie full of inaccuracies. Yes, fighter pilots from the US were asked to help defend Britain. There were numerous instances of American pilots flying aircraft for other countries. They would not have to give up their citizenship, as previously stated by another commenter.
Watch the attack on Pearl Harbor very closely. You can tell that 90% of the ships used for filming were non-period ships. At least use CGI ships that are accurate. It seems that the director was obsessed with explosions as you can see the same ships repeatedly blown up. In reality, not every ship was hit. The Japanese were focused on destroying major US warships. The US carriers were to be hit but since none were present at Pearl on Dec. 7, the Japanese targeted the next best thing, the battleships. The ship Cuba Gooding Jr fires at the plane from is the U.S.S West Virginia. In the movie, moored next to his ship is a modern looking destroyer. Since the West Virginia was moored outside of the U.S.S Tennessee, there would be, presumably if we were looking towards the bow of the ship, no ship to that side of the West Virginia. Also, when he does shoot down a plane, it crashes into another battleship. Where did that come from, since the ship just a second ago was a destroyer, which wasn't even supposed to be there..
Also, the P-40 Warhaks flown by the main characters are not correct. P-40s of the time had 2 machine guns on the nose of the plane and 4 in the wings. The P-40s in he movie had 6 guns in the wings, something that did not happen till later in the war.
On the carrier taking the B-25s to Japan, when they take off, you can see catapult lines on the flight deck. They were not used till later in the war. Also, the fact that Rafe and Danny are fighter , not bomber, pilots has no relevance. True they are different, but they had 4 or 5 months to learn how to fly a bomber. You would think with the enormous budget allocated to this movie, they could have been more accurate. They also needed to get rid of the love story. With it, it's just Titanic with airplanes and bombs. The only good thing is they represent the spirit and courage of the men fighting that day.