"Pearl Harbor" Rated PG-13
***/*****
Pearl Harbor, the latest action spectacle from the produced-director team of Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay is just that: an action spectacle. That is what you need to go into the movie understanding, and that is what you will leave the movie thinking. It is not a romantic movie (although it tries to be), and does not evoke many emotions (although it tries to).
The movie starts with two young boys in Tennessee who show in interest in flying. Later we see that Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Danny (Josh Hartnett) are two showy fighter pilots in training. They have been best friends ever since there days in Tennessee. All this changes (temporarily) when Rafe accepts an opportunity to go into the RAF in London, and actually fight in the war which hasn't yet started in America. This comes much to the dismay of his nurse girlfriend and true love, Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale). A couple months later, Rafe's plane is shot down into the water, and he is believed to be dead. After months of grieving, Danny finally works up the nerve to ask Evelyn out for a date. They swiftly fall in love. Then, of course, Rafe comes back from the dead and everything is messed up. Sounds overly contrived and clique? It is.
Then comes the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Wow. This 45 minute scene that comes 90 minutes into the movie is truly amazing. Great special effects, grand, sweeping images of boats and planes, coupled with breath taking, intense action and clear direction amounts for one great war scene. After that 45 minutes, we see some scene where America sends 16 planes to bomb Tokyo. Our two favorite fly-boys are (historically inaccurately) involved in this seemingly pointless trip. We see no purpose for it. And at the end we don't know if they have won of lost. Whatever.
