Good action bogged down by a sappy, banal love story.

Rating: Null/10 (22 June 2001)

Upon exiting the theater after "Pearl Harbor," I was set upon by a man who referred to the American officials portrayed in the film as "bumbling idiots." It's a good thing he said "Americans," because he easily could've been speaking about Rafe, Danny and Evelyn, the trio involved in a love triangle plot that is one of the movie's pitfalls. The sequence of the attack itself is magnificent, but is bookended by the development of the sappy love story and the American attack on Japan. It's not a good sign when, forty minutes into the movie, you find yourself favoring the trailer over the actual movie.
Beginning a movie with character development is a good thing, but only if you know how to iron it out. The film opens in Tennessee, with childhood friends Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) playing pilots in a barn. Moving along a couple of years, they are pilots in the United States armed forces, and like most pilots do, they spend their leave chasing nurses, who are just as man-hungry as the cadets.

To make a long and tedious story short, Rafe meets Evelyn, falls in love with her, and is called away to duty in Britain. Circumstances intervene, and Rafe returns to find that Danny and Evelyn are now lovers, casting the whole relationship into strife just in time for the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese air forces.
The movie tries unsuccessfully to balance the love story with historical facts and events. Every now and then, we leave their happy lives together to venture to the United States War Department, where Captain Thurman (Dan Aykroyd) and President Roosevelt serve little purpose except to foreshadow the impending attack that we already know is imminent (the title, duh!). We're also given a dosage of Japanese movements, from their planning of the bombing to Japanese naval craft and planes making their way to Hawaii. If we had more of this kind of material, the movie just might work.

But instead, it loses focus from the real story behind Pearl Harbor, settling for the love story in hopes of bringing out some sort of human drama to bring out our emotions for the tragedy as a whole. This brings out the ever-present "Titanic" machinations, as it also included fiction with history. Now, I cannot begin to criticize the historical aspect of the film; I know too little about the whole sequence of events to make a comparison. But what I can tell you is that "Titanic" was able to provide us with likeable, involving characters amidst a very accurate historical setting.

For some reason, the same formula applied here fails. We can't really care for Evelyn, Danny and Rafe because of the story they are given. There's too
many romance clichés which bury the characters in a mess of break-ups and budding romance similar to the switches that an everyday, stereotypical teenage girl would make. Maybe that's an audience-targeting tactic, or just an honest mistake. Either way, the love story does nothing but add on the baggage, filling the cracks with sappy one-liners and unconvincing dialogue.

And the movie's turn of events after the actual bombing itself is ludicrous and draggy. It makes Rafe and Danny out to be heroes known among all, hoping to instill some air of patriotism alongside flag wavers and cheers from the men in the water as they successfully down two Japanese fighter planes. Soon after, they must leave on a mission to Tokyo, where they set out to perform a counterstrike against the Japanese. At one point, one of the characters (I think it was Doolittle, played by Alec Baldwin), makes the statement that the mission is "to avenge Pearl Harbor." Obviously an attempt to connect this action with the previous sequences, but no such luck. It goes on for too long, and wouldn't you know it, there has to be more of the love story involved as well.
Which brings me to my discussion of the actual attack portion of the movie. This is the section to see, if you are willing to stick it out until then. The intensity really does reach a high note as the planes begin descending on Hawaii, and although we know what will happen, it's quite exciting and moving to watch it all unfold onscreen. The bombing of the ships does not happen too fast, but gets it just right by taking its time in showing us the panic in and out of the ships in the bay. Another high point is the events that take place in the hospital ward, where thousands of wounded soldiers begins appearing. The movie does well with this entire sequence, not only because of some spectacular special effects, but because the love story characters are left alone to perform their real duties, leaving behind the sap and giving us a real taste of human drama.
In summation, "Pearl Harbor" does not live up to the hype surrounding it. The human drama and excitement of the attack on American forces is drowned by the love story, which never reaches a level of reality, while the ending flatlines completely. I had many questions at the end of the movie: is this really the work of Randall Wallace, who also wrote the magnificent "Braveheart?" Do the filmmakers think that by ignoring the actual focus of the story, it will become more involving? I have one thing to say about the movie: the trailer is better.