Pearl Harbor, A Perfect Backdrop for A Love Story?

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2001)

Contains Spoilers Dazzling, exciting, and powerful. Words that can describe the exciting battle scenes portrayed in Pearl Harbor. But are they the same words you would mix in with a love story? Displayed before audiences on May 25th, was another case of Hollywood's journey to take a historical disaster and make it into a love story. Not a bad idea, but we've seen this before. Does anyone remember 1997's record breaking Titanic? Not to bash Pearl Harbor, this was a very exciting movie. I guess when I think of making Pearl Harbor into a movie, I think of Saving Private Ryan or A Thin Red Line. War movie or love story, the action was spectacular. Some of the best battle scenes caught on film. When you can take a journey on a Japanese bomb as it falls out of the sky and watch the crew of a destroyer scatter on deck to avoid the ultimate demise. With the mixture of big budget special effects and live action, the battle scenes are anything short of pure entertainment. This small review cannot begin to describe the proportions of this cinematic epic battle. That is something you must see for yourself.
As for a love story, that's what most of this film was meant to be. The typical story of boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy heads off to war, boy believed dead, girl falls for best friend. The love story only gets interesting when Rafe McCawley, brilliantly portrayed by Ben Affleck, returns from the dead to be with his love. It just so happens at this point that the Japanese decide to invade Pearl Harbor. The casting of this film did bring out two new fresh faces to the spotlight, Josh Harnett and Kate Beckinsale. Harnett put out a very solid performance, but I think it's his pretty boy looks that will score him more roles. As for playing a girl torn between two lovers, Beckinsale pulled off the task nicely. The rest of the cast was well set, with a lot of familiar faces that can draw crowds and drive up the budget. As an additional note, Dan Aykroyd's cameo appearance as a military code breaker was very well done.
At two hours and fifteen minutes, Michael Bay decided that the movie could not be over and he spawned a whole new adventure for our heroes. At this point in a film most viewers are ready for a happy ending. Take Titanic for instance. When the ship sank the movie was basically over. In this case, and with the average running time of films today, there was plenty of room for more action. This is an element that the audiences will have to decide if they enjoyed or not. Overall the film was pretty good. I can't see Pearl Harbor running up a tally of six hundred million, but it should not have a problem making the 140 million-dollar budget back. When the film is eventually released on video, as long people are still buying videocassettes, the girls can have the first cassette filled with hot stars and plenty of dramatic steamy love scenes for all tearjerker fans alike. The boys can then enjoy the second cassette littered with epic and titanic size battle scenes.