"PEARL HARBOR"

Ok, ok….so my review of this is a LITTLE late. But I just now watched it. Yes, I had intended for a theater viewing, but it didn't happen.

And then I figured I wouldn't do a review for it…..until a person I adore ('ble') gave me her opinion on it. I then knew I had to see it and compare our views. Therefore, this review is pretty much because of her and FOR her.

Back when this film was in pre-production, it was a BIG deal. It was going to be an epic display of that tragic day in December of 1941. The cast was set and impressive (Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Dan Akroyd, Cuba Gooding), the director was action meister, Michael Bay, and the producer was the KING of action flicks, Jerry Bruckheimer.

However, when the film actually came out, the reviews were very poor (aka….knocked the crap out of it). The critics hated it, most people felt it was too long and boring, and historians were pissed at its innacurate depiction of the actual event.

Therefore, perhaps I went into it w/ an advantage, the advantage of knowing not to expect much. But the truth is, though I didn't expect a film of Oscar winning magnitude, I simply was interested in 2 things: the realistic depiction of the bombing, and…..the love story.

Yes, that's right, the love story.

I am a sucker for love stories, and Kate Beckinsale is the ultimate female (well, one of them anyway), so I was anxious to see a love story unfold involving her.

But what about the story? What about the historic events? What about the details which were left out?

Honestly, I couldn't care less……because we all know what happened with Pearl Harbor and we know the ass we kicked afterwards w/ the H-Bomb.

The history is no secret….during WWII, we supported the Brits and that pissed off the Japanese, so they sunk our fleet in the Pacific, and then we nuked their country.

Simple.

So why do I care if the film of "Pearl Harbor" chooses to parallel that of "Titanic" in telling it with a romantic epicenter?

I really don't care if President Roosevelt or the Japanese leader did or didn't say this or that. I don't care if there really weren't 2 best friends who stole the heroic show by taking out numerous Jap planes while fighting over the same woman.

What I DO care about is how authentic do the bombing scenes look.

And they were sweet. We were entertained by various camera angles coming from everything from the actual plane bombs to the reactions of the soldiers.

And when the ships sank and the crew fell into the water and were picked off by the enemy planes, I wasn't concerned w/ whether or not that actually happened that way. The point was that this attack was premeditated and ruthless……and devastating.

Now, there was one thing about the film that bothered me.

It wasn't LONG enough.

Or perhaps I should say that the length was fine, but what they chose to depict toward the end bothered me. Instead of showing the 16 American planes (compared to the 100+ Jap planes) retaliating, I wanted to see America's reaction/decision to drop the BOMB on Japan. I wanted to see the reactions of the involved Americans and the Japanese.

But ironically, though I enjoyed the love story, I was disappointed that the film ENDED with it. Sure, we were engulfed in it (well, some of us), but the true story here was the attack, and after an attack of that magnitude and knowing what we did about it, I want to SEE it. I don't need the details of how it happened. I don't need 3 midgets playing 'paper, rock, scissors' to decide who drops the bomb on Japan.

But I DO need to see the bombage HAPPEN.

We just spent 30 minutes watching the Japanese bomb the snot out of us.

Therefore, I NEED to see the American's reaction, so 'Show me the H-Bombing'!

My Grade: B-

BACK