The attack on Pearl Harbor (Pearl Harbor (DVD))

Name: bilbob20

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Product:	Pearl Harbor (DVD)
Date:	18/02/08 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good effects

Disadvantages: Too long, and a bit directionless

Hollywood has a habit of taking factual events and mixing it up with various fictitious events to stretch the story out. That we have so many historical events that would fill a 2 hour event film (and even a sequel at times) seems to elude them. And whereas they nearly got it right with Titanic, here its a very different story.

Lifelong friends Danny and Rafe had always dreamed of being fighter pilots. When Rafe volunteers to go overseas where war is ripping through Europe, he leaves behind his beautiful girlfriend Evelyn. Months later, his plane is shot down, and he is registered as missing in action. Danny breaks the bad news to his best friend's girlfriend, and the two of them form a friendship that eventually leads to love. However, when Rafe turns up alive, it throws the three of them into a love triangle that threatens to explode just when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Its left to Rafe and Danny and a few other survivors to save whats left of the base and to salvage what is left of their friendships.

This is an overblown contrived film which could have shed an hour of its running time to stick to the facts. The lead up to the historical attacks is dreary and pointless. The characters are given extensive character expose which neither ingratiates them to the audience, or allows their relationships to develop. Despite Rafe and Evelyn flirting for much of the early film, they actually only get together the night before he leaves for Europe. In fact, Danny and Evelyn's relationship has far more depth, yet that is relegated to second place on Rafe's return.

Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay are reknowned for this sort of big budget disaster flick. Both men have famously been involved in such blockbusters as Pirates Of The Caribbean, Black Hawk Down, Enemy Of The State, Armageddon, The Rock and Con Air, so he's no stranger to the summer blockbuster. Typically, they turn in spectacular visuals, and the special effects really are excellent, especially in the sequences that kick off the Harbor attack.

Where Bay/Bruckheimer nearly always get it wrong though is in the American-ness of it all. Everybody in America is a hero, whilst the rest of the world is its enemy and nearly always the bad guy. Its a one dimensional potrayal of the attacks that really just suggest that America were innocent by-standers who were no threat to the Japanese or indeed, the war. Not knowing the full history of the Harbor attack, I couldn't argue the politics of it, but having seen enough of these disaster-type films from Hollywood, I know that what we see on film rarely represents the truth.

The performances are adept. Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsdale all look good for what its worth, but they are so true to type that its nearly painful to watch. Hartnett gets the most to work with, going through the gauntlet of emotions a person would go through when they fall in love with their dead best friends girlfriend, then the guilt at having betrayed him when discovering he wasn't nearly as dead as they first thought. Affleck is at his wisecracking best, but his is a two dimensional character who just wants to be a hero. Its a pity that in 183 minutes of film, they get so little of depth to do in their roles, due to the fact that the film doesn't know whether its a love story or a disaster film. Supporting roles for Cuba Gooding Jnr, Alec Baldwin and Tom Sizemore are enjoyable, but serve only as a backdrop to the leads and their big love story.

When the action finally does get underway, its big, loud and excessive. Perhaps thats exactly how it should be. More of this and less of the love triange would certainly have been in the films best interest. As it is, the action comes too far in, and then drags on long after your patience has wore thin. By the time the whole thing has ended, I had tired of the love story, the Harbor attacks, the all-american heroism, and certainly the liberties that were taken with the plot lines. I dont expect much from this type of film, but was it too much to ask that it either be in one direction or the other. As epics go, its turgid and depressing. And as disaster films go, its still turgid and depressing.

Summary: An overlong film that takes too many liberties with the truth...