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Pearl Harbor
(2001) Starring: Ben
Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale
Director: Michael Bay
Rating: PG-13 Studio:
Touchstone Review
Posted:
5.25.01
Spoilers:
Minor/Major
Reviewed by Sara Michelle Fetters
"The
Waste of War Lost On Misguided Harbor"
It
does not matter what I have to say about Pearl
Harbor. Love it or hate it on my end, many will
see it anyway. We have coerced brilliantly by the picture’s
emotional trailer. The marketing department at Disney
studios has gone out of their way to make it seem like it is the
patriotic duty of every United States citizen to make time for
it. Pearl
Harbor will be playing in more theaters and on more screens
that it will be unavoidable. My two cents will not change any of
that.
I
detested Pearl
Harbor. I abhorred it more than I can expound
upon. It reduced one of the great tragedies this country has
endured into a viscerally exciting video game strung together
with a love story so banal a TV soap opera would be hard pressed
to touch it. The film is jingoistic,
idiotic and so concerned to be completely inoffensive that it
refuses to take any stand whatsoever. It’s historical
inaccuracies could be forgiven if they were not so blatant in
their attempt to bring rah-rah cheer to proceedings that demand
much more then that. The movie is laughable,
simplistic, overlong and at times simply inexcusable.
The
film shows its flag-waving hands early when it introduces
protagonists Rafe and Danny as children. It’s pure schmaltz
Americana - two boys playing flying aces in a dilapidated old
barn sitting in a makeshift aircraft. The
sun glistens brightly across the wheat field illuminating the
duo as if touched by the hand of God while a crop duster swoops
around them as part of their own personal visual ballet. After
disposing of one of their imaginary German foes in a blaze of
machine gun fire, one of the boy gleefully shouts,” Land of
the free!” while the other answers “Home of the brave!”
Cut
a few years down the line and our two young heroes are now hot
shot pilots training for war. Rafe (Ben Affleck) is the
reckless, impulsive showoff aching to prove himself a hero.
Danny (Josh Hartnett) the younger, less confident – but just
as talented – best friend trying to find himself
in the shadow of his flashier pal. At times, it’s like
they’ve stepped in from Top Gun (another – far more
enjoyable - Jerry Bruckheimer production), their gamesmanship in
the air much like those of Maverick and Goose from that 80’s
favorite.
Into
the picture comes military nurse Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale). Wooed
by Rafe, the two quickly fall passionately in love while a
baby-faced Danny looks on. Their romance is interrupted,
however, when Rafe heads to Europe to fight with the British in
the skies over England, leaving his lady love behind to finally
find his glory.
Danny,
his squadron and a cadre of nurses - including Evelyn - are all
sent to Pearl Harbor to train. While there, news comes
that Rafe has died in combat leaving his two friends devastated.
As the months go by they find
solace and eventually love in each others arms, blissfully
unaware as to the coming storm of war that is about to strike.
With only days before the attack that entered a nation into war,
Rafe returns from the dead to discover their affair. But, just
as the rift between these three appears to be one that can not
be healed, December 7th hits and the bombs begin to fall
reuniting them all in a common cause.
Admittedly,
the attack on Pearl is a sight to see. Director Michael Bay (The
Rock, Armageddon) and his crackerjack team of
technicians have recreated the attack in spectacular fashion.
Lost in the cacophony of sound and fury is the very real tragedy
at the heart of the story, and the human devastation is crushed
in a sea of special effects and pyrotechnic know how. It is as
if Bay and his team are more intent on creating Star Wars-like
dogfights the delving into any emotional matters above a purely
superficial level, and the effects are deadening.
It
is not until after the attack on the military base does Pearl
Harbor truly go into the gutter, though. Bay and writer
Randall Wallace [editor's note: it is rumored that several
writers worked on the script, but Wallace has been given sole
credit] are so intent on putting a happy face on the
situation that they dilute any sort of goodwill I may have had
towards the film to nothingness. This is the most
blatantly xenophobic historical recreation since John Wayne’s
Vietnam fiasco The Green Berets. The actors try mightily,
but the script, pacing and direction continually fail them.
It’s depressingly offensive, and in the end I can’t help but
feel I’ve lost three hours watching history be rewritten by
overgrown children.
All
of that said, none of what I say really matters for you will see
this movie. Disney’s marketing machine has commanded it and,
like blind followers shuffling barefoot through the sand, we
will listen.
Rating: 1.5
out of 4 |
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