Document created: 10 December 01
Published Aerospace Power Journal - Winter 2001

Pearl Harbor by Touchstone Pictures. Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Dan Aykroyd, and Alec Baldwin. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, written by Randall Wallace and directed by Michael Bay, 183 minutes, rated PG-13 (mild profanity and sanitized violence).

Adm Thomas Fargo, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, said it best: “No single event is more central to our concept of national tragedy and conviction than the events of December 7, 1941.” Indeed, the shock of Japan’s surprise attack against Pearl Harbor still resonates in the American psyche, almost 60 years after that fateful Sunday morning. Pearl Harbor has provided the grist for more than 100 books and at least seven motion pictures—evidence of our lasting fascination with America’s worst wartime disaster.

Although many of the books about Pearl Harbor have been outstanding (Walter Lord’s Day of Infamy, Gordon Prange’s At Dawn We Slept, and Robert Stinnett’s recent Day of Deceit), the battle’s record on the silver screen is less than impressive. Realistic films on Pearl Harbor (such as 1970’s Tora, Tora, Tora) proved ponderous and dull, while some of the better movies about that era (e.g., From Here to Eternity) use the Japanese attack as a counterpoint for other story lines. So far, the definitive movie about what happened on 7 December 1941 exceeds Hollywood’s grasp.

Perhaps that’s why Pearl Harbor, the latest film to depict this epic event, generated such anticipation. In tackling the project, producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun) and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon) vowed to make a Pearl Harbor movie “by which all other films are measured.” Pledging to honor the service and sacrifice of those who served at Pearl Harbor, they told the US Naval Institute, “Our goal is to stage the event with utmost realism.”

Sadly, their film fails to deliver on any of its promises. Instead, Bruckheimer and Bay offer up a rather conventional (and dull) love story, cast against an improbable series of events that lead up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The plot features a pair of Tennessee crop dusters turned Army Air Corps pilots—Rafe and Danny (played by Ben Affleck and newcomer Josh Hartnett, respectively). While assigned to a training unit on Long Island—commanded by Lt Col Jimmy Doolittle—Rafe falls in love with a Navy nurse named Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale). Unfortunately, their romance is cut short when Rafe is transferred to England, where he participates in the Battle of Britain as a sort of “combat exchange officer” with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

By this time, even the most casual viewer realizes that Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) are quite willing to suspend historical facts in the interest of plot development. The reality that Doolittle wasn’t on active duty in early 1941 and that American volunteer pilots resigned their commissions before joining the RAF becomes less important than getting Rafe off the screen—at least for a while—so Danny can fall in love with Evelyn. Predictably, their love affair blossoms after both are transferred to (surprise!) Pearl Harbor, just months before the Japanese attack.

If this concept of “romance against the backdrop of disaster” sounds familiar, it should. Bay and Wallace have borrowed heavily from director James Cameron’s playbook, creating a sort of Titanic meets World War II and meshing a rather pedestrian love story with eye-popping special effects. Unfortunately, Wallace’s screenplay seems less inspired by Titanic than by every B movie produced by Warner Brothers during World War II. Rafe, Danny, and Evelyn are little more than stock characters, mouthing lines that are trite and unintentionally funny. When Rafe told Evelyn, “If I only had one more night to spend, I’d spend it with you,” there were more than a few groans in the theater, and rightly so. It is odd—and disappointing—that such twaddle came from an Oscar-winning screenwriter. Wallace is clearly off his game in Pearl Harbor.

Likewise, director Bay devotes too much time to the love story and not enough to events leading up to the attack. By the time enemy aircraft arrive over Diamond Head (roughly 80 minutes into the film), many viewers will be rooting for the Japanese, hoping for anything that might enliven such leaden proceedings. Fortunately, the battle sequences don’t disappoint, thanks (in part) to impressive visual effects from George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic organization. Scenes of exploding battleships, sailors trapped in capsized vessels, and hundreds of dead bodies floating in the harbor are quite stunning, adding a gritty realism that is so often missing from this picture.

Regrettably, Bay dilutes the impact and power of the battle sequences by placing his cardboard characters squarely in the middle of the action. Not content to let Rafe and Danny get off the ground and engage Japanese fighters in their P-40s, Bay also has them play a game of aerial “chicken,” causing four Zeros to collide in midair. Moments later, these intrepid pilots even stage an ambush of the attacking Japanese, luring more enemy aircraft past the base’s control tower, where their colleagues blast them with a .50-caliber machine gun.

Still unsatisfied, Bay and Bruckheimer devote the final minutes of their film to a further distortion of historical fact. Anxious to avenge Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt approves a plan to attack Japan, using B-25 bombers launched from an aircraft carrier—the famous Doolittle raid. And whom does Doolittle recruit for his daring mission? Why, none other than Rafe, Danny, and their fellow pilots from Pearl Harbor. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one of our heroes will die during the raid, allowing final resolution of the love triangle between the pilots and Evelyn.

There is much to dislike in this movie. Historians and military buffs will cringe at the ersatz mix of fact and fiction. At one point, Jon Voight’s FDR—looking like he just came from Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum—rises unaided from his wheelchair, trying to inspire a timid staff. A detailed re-creation of Pearl Harbor’s battleship row is spoiled by the sight of modern warships, somehow augmented into the 1941 fleet. And a prewar sequence on the USS Arizona was clearly filmed on the USS Missouri, a poor substitute for a World War I–era dreadnought.

From a cinematic standpoint, Pearl Harbor proves equally disappointing. Affleck, Hartnett, and Beckinsale’s cutout characters do little more than occupy the screen between battle scenes. Although Bay’s action sequences represent a high point in the film, even those segments seem oddly disjointed. For example, when casualties begin streaming into Beckinsale’s naval hospital, Bay shoots the entire sequence in gauzy, soft focus, thereby losing an opportunity to underscore the harsh reality of Pearl Harbor and its aftermath.

In all fairness, the film has its moments—although they are decidedly few and far between. The aerial sequences involving Affleck in the Battle of Britain are quite good, and Cuba Gooding Jr. delivers a fine performance as Dorie Miller, the Navy mess steward who became the first African-American to win the Navy Cross for shooting down two Japanese planes at Pearl Harbor. In less than 10 minutes of screen time, Gooding creates a character that is far more compelling than anything concocted by Wallace, Bay, or the other actors.

Perhaps one day Hollywood will get it right: a historically accurate film about Pearl Harbor that’s equally entertaining. Pearl Harbor clearly falls short of that mark. Despite a lavish production—and the associated hype—Pearl Harbor is a tedious film with absolutely no historical value. Audiences looking for a realistic account of events at Pearl Harbor would be well advised to read Gordon Prange’s book or rent a copy of director John Ford’s award-winning documentary December 7th. Comparatively speaking, this newest Pearl Harbor film lives up to its advance billing in only one sense. By releasing Pearl Harbor, Bruckheimer and Bay have produced a disaster rivaled only by the real Japanese attack in 1941.

Maj Gary Pounder, USAF, Retired
Oxford, Mississippi

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.