’’Pearl Harbor’’ is supposedly a war movie that focuses on a love triangle that unfolds during World War II.
Rafe McCawley(Ben Affleck )and Danny Walker( Josh Hartnett), are army pilots and best friends who love the same girl (Kate Beckinsale) and their lives become just as tangled up as the war itself. Europe is at war and America is sending equipment and supplies, but has not yet entered the war. , Rafe volunteers to go to England, where he can join an American division of the RAF. Danny and Evelyn are assigned to the Naval Station at Pearl Harbor. When Rafe is reported killed, Evelyn and Danny are devastated. They comfort each other, and become involved. Rafe arrives to find them together, just before the Japanese attack. It is devastating to a country that thought it could stay out of the war. Rafe and Danny train for a counter-attack on Tokyo to send Japan a message that America can and will punish those who attack it.
The movie is a distorted version of history bending over backwards to be fair to the Japanese, portraying Japanese as brave and loyal. But it is also dismayingly US-centric, showing both the English and the Japanese in awe of American spirit and strength. The Japanese general says that he fears they have ’’awakened the sleeping giant.’’ And Rafe’s British commander says that if other Americans are like Rafe, he feels sorry for anyone who goes to battle with the US.
Though set in 1941, the dialogues sometimes seem of the 90’s like ’’having too much time on their hands.’’ and seeing the bombs dropping on Pearl Harbor, saying ’’World War II has just started.’’ For one thing, the war in Europe had been going on for a while, and for another, they had not started calling ’’The Great War’’ ’’World War I’’ in 1941.
Alec Baldwin, who plays General Dolittle and Jon Voight, who plays President Roosevelt get to deliver the best dialogues and Kate Beckinsale gives a wonderful performance in fact she is the heart and soul of this movie. The cinematography, special effects, and production design are also noteworthy. There are some very cool aerial combat scenes heightened by clever camera angling; the spectacle that is the bombing of Pearl Harbor is very impressive and all-too-real.
Director Michael Bay has visual flair and superb command of action sequences. There are some nice moments, like Evelyn’s arrival at the hospital in Pearl Harbor, rows of neat white beds with just one occupant, being treated for sunburn. The movie attempts to tie a love story to a catastrophe, thinking it can make the audience care, fear, and cry, and they will come back to see it again and again. But “Pearl Harbor” has something superficial about it. It is worth seeing - but only once.
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