DIRECTOR: Michael Bay
CAST:
Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight, Colm Feore,
Tom Sizemore, Cuba Gooding Jr., Mako, Dan Aykroyd, William Fichtner
REVIEW:
Director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer are known for action movies- Con Air, The Rock, and Armageddon to name only a few- and the story of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor which brought America into WWII is probably their most serious and meaningful joint venture. Certainly they are skillful action directors- the actual attack scene is excellent, as is the brief depiction of the Battle of Britain and the climactic bombing raid on Tokyo- but their films including this one, have also been much maligned for neglecting any deeper significance and coating everything with a Hollywood gloss. Pearl Harbor is not a popular film with most people I know, including my former history teacher, and while I found it very entertaining and enjoyable, I cannot deny that this is one of the most heavily Hollywoodized war films since the 50s and 60s. The innumerable Hollywood clichés- the slow-motion shots, the pretty lead actors, the corny “patriotic” speeches, and the blatant flag-waving “USA! USA!” scenes- are understandably annoying to many, and while I have greater tolerance for them than some, I won’t deny that at times Pearl Harbor is very well-done, and at others it is embarrassingly corny. It’s “rah rah USA!” attitude extends to including the awful line, “I think World War Two just started!” Stupid lines like these in American war movies, as though it wasn’t WWII until America joined in, are exactly why so many Europeans hate our movies. Overall, it is watchable and entertaining, but lacks the depth and impact of Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers.
Although it is titled Pearl Harbor, it is more like the saga of fighter pilots Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett), who encounter the attack along with a number of other wartime events. We start with a brief prologue in the early 1920s, when young Rafe sticks up for his friend Danny against Danny’s stern father, an embittered WWI foot soldier (William Fichtner). Once their solid and deep bond is established, we move ahead to 1940, as Hitler’s Germany is advancing on all fronts and Rafe and Danny are fighter pilots under Major Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin). A string of lightly comedic scenes sets up Rafe’s love affair with military nurse Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale, imperceptibly concealing her British accent), and then he volunteers to aid the British pilots in the Battle of Britain. Danny and Evelyn are stationed at the idyllic naval base of Pearl Harbor, supposedly far removed from war, and when Rafe is supposedly shot down and killed- in a fast and furious, well done air battle sequence- they turn to each other for comfort and fall in love, just as Rafe returns from the dead on the eve of the Japanese surprise attack.
If this all sounds like one of those melodramatic wartime love stories from the 50s or 60s, you’re about right. Just to keep everyone sympathetic, the love triangle is arranged in a way where no one is really to blame. While all this is going on, we get brief scenes of the Japanese under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Mako) plotting their surprise attack. Yamamoto and the other Japanese are portrayed fleetingly and politically correctly; the only motive mentioned is when Yamamoto comments that “they have cut off the oil which is our lifeline”. The movie doesn’t mention that Japan had already been devouring neighboring countries for a decade beforehand. I’m not suggesting that Yamamoto or the Japanese in general should be played as bloodthirsty maniacs, but this leaves an audience member unfamiliar with the history with the impression that Japan was forced into war. We also get a few scenes with Admiral Kimmel (Colm Feore), the commander of Pearl Harbor, who comments prophetically that “a smart enemy hits you where you think you're safe”, a naval intelligence analyst (the usually comedic Dan Aykroyd, playing it straight), who tries to outguess the Japanese before it comes to war, and President Roosevelt (Jon Voight, sporting a good vocal impression and what looks like about ten pounds of makeup). None of these characters get much attention, they are used to sketch out the larger situation, and even Voight, a very competent actor, is given little more to do besides act like the inspiring American President and supply a few “USA! USA!” scenes. Cuba Gooding Jr. has what basically amounts to a cameo as Dorie Miller, the first African-American to win the Navy Cross, and Tom Sizemore has a few scenes as pretty much the same kind of tough military man he played in Saving Private Ryan. No one here is really a bad actor, although in my opinion Josh Hartnett’s quiet and low-key Danny is more likable than Ben Affleck’s cocky Rafe. Kate Beckinsale is fine and unlike some British actresses manages to sound passably American, but I thought that the deep bond between Rafe and Danny made more of an impression than their romance with Evelyn. Alec Baldwin is pretty decent as the rough-tongued Doolittle, and Voight is a fairly believable FDR in his handful of scenes, although he is kept on a reverent pedestal and not really humanized; I much preferred Ralph Bellamy in The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. If Bellamy was wearing any significant makeup in those two miniseries, it didn’t show. Here, however, Voight is under heavy makeup, which is pretty obvious in bright lighting, and he still doesn’t look nearly as much like Roosevelt as Bellamy did. His voice is closer, but in every other respect Bellamy has the upper hand.
Of course, the centerpiece of the film is the attack itself, and this is by far the best part of the movie, lasting forty-five minutes and brought to vivid life by a combination of real planes and ships and mostly convincing digital animation. Whatever other criticisms can be made of Bay and Bruckheimer’s filmmaking, they do an excellent job of portraying the chaos, confusion, and massive destruction of the attack. Actual survivors who viewed the film testified to its realism. However, there is still a rather large chunk of movie left afterwards. Apparently the producers didn’t want to end the film on this depressing note, so they kept the plot going so they could provide the “USA! USA!” climax of Doolittle’s raid on Tokyo. This is also a well-done and exciting scene, especially as flak bursts all around the attacking planes, but it seems a little odd for a movie titled Pearl Harbor to begin in 1923 and end with the bombing of Tokyo. In any case, I would say Pearl Harbor is worth checking out. It is hard not to be entertained by the film, although for a grittier and less Hollywoodized depiction of WWII, look to Saving Private Ryan or especially the excellent Band of Brothers miniseries.
