War : a pretext for a love story

Rating: 4/10 (25 February 2015)

Rambo and Starship troopers' fans may have been quite upset as Pearl Harbor is a so-called war movie, focused on an impossible love story with war only in the background. Young and brilliant soldiers in love with the same beautiful nurse but separated by the fate of the war and intern betrayals: hard to make more stereotypical. Like many others, I was expected to watch a war movie -as the title may suggest- not a national drama left behind a romanticized plot. If I would have wanted to watch a good and silly romantic movie, I would have chosen Notting Hill. Pearl Harbor doesn't embody the perfect war movie (since it is told to have many historic inaccuracies) but it isn't a good love story neither, because everything happens too fast in this love triangle. Focusing on a love plot is not a problem in itself. It can maybe helps reaching a wider audience (girls don't generally go to see Rambo). But the problem remains in the fact that all the details in the movie sink into sentiment; the numerous sunsets, President Roosevelt's reactions, the social achievement of the black cooker... It seems like Michael Bay wanted us to cry every two seconds of the film. However, one could see above these failures because there are still few admirable things. Even if the war only begins at the middle of the film, it can't be totally denied that this is a war movie because the unique attack is remarkably realized. Despite the horror of the war and all its meanings linked to the notion, the public can't help but appreciating the shoots of all these bursts, fires ands smokes embellished by an awesome soundtrack. Not bloody but still realistic for the public, PH is maybe one of the first movies which represented war as something pleasant to see. To conclude,I don't think that the success of that movie is due to likelihood with reality nor the beauty of the shoots I just praised. I rather tend to think that Americans needed to see how exemplary their country and grand-parents were against these mad Japanese who attacked a peaceful and prosperous nation for blurred purposes. Each of the movie's characters (soldiers, medical staff, officers and cookers) embodies the best qualities of an American at war : absolute loyalty and sense of duty to their beloved homeland. So if (and only if) you like flag-waving movies, go to see Pearl Harbor.