Pearl Harbor attempts to use the formula that made Titanic successful: use a romantic story as a means to depict a major historical event. Or perhaps it’s using a major historical event to depict a romantic story? Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett play childhood friends who both become pilots in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that precipitated the formal entry of the United States into World War II. Affleck’s Rafe McCawley (as Hollywood a name as Tab Hunter or Rock Hudson) falls in love with a nurse during his induction process, and their romance seems ideal (to the point of being almost hopelessly chaste) until he gets the chance to go to England to fight against the Germans as part of the Royal Air Force. When he’s lost and believed killed in action, Kate Beckinsale’s Evelyn Johnson grieves until she and Hartnett’s Danny Walker (even his name lacks the zing of his good friend’s) start to fall in love with each other. They’ve wound up in Hawaii together, and their friends encourage the romance as a way to begin healing after Rafe’s supposed death. Of course, there’s only one problem: Rafe isn’t dead. (Don’t worry; this isn’t the worst of spoilers, and it seems pretty obvious what’s going to happen when Rafe is sent away to England in the first place.) When he surprises Evelyn and Danny by his arrival in Pearl Harbor, all of the cliched emotions are on display. The romantic triangle plot, frankly, is a bit of a bore, and nothing particularly surprising happens as a result of Rafe’s return. Rafe and Danny fight—a lot—and might have started to sort out what to do but… the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor the next morning after Rafe’s return. They have to put their personal struggles aside in order to begin a counterattack because, you know, priorities…. The battle sequence begins about halfway through the film, which is a butt-numbing three hours long, and the war imagery really changes the tenor of the action. Director Michael Bay is justifiably famous for his emphasis on a fast pace and quick editing, and Pearl Harbor is no exception. It can be tough to keep track of who’s who at times, given that there are so many supporting characters who are fellow pilots and/or nurses and/or hangers-on. Bay does provide a few odd cinematic flourishes, such as when the image goes out of focus in an attempt to replicate how disoriented the characters are immediately after an air attack. However, he does the unthinkable by having his actors express “deep” emotions in slow motion. You know, like when Olivia de Havilland yells out “Nooooooo” in slow motion while turning away from seeing children attacked by killer bees in The Swarm (1978). Pearl Harbor doesn’t make effective use of some of the actors playing real people. For example, Cuba Gooding Jr. in the role of Dorie Miller gets only brief moments to show what’s behind the person who was one of the great heroes of the attack on Pearl Harbor, stationing himself behind an anti-aircraft gun and firing on the Japanese. And Alec Baldwin plays Col. Jimmy Doolittle, another true war hero, with an sardonic bit of sarcasm. The less said about Jon Voight’s FDR, the better. The ending is a truly Hollywood copout with its “resolution” of the love triangle. And the film doesn’t fully address that Affleck’s Rafe seems to love Hartnett’s Danny as much as he loves Kate’s Evelyn. Watch Affleck and Hartnett’s final scene together, and then try to convince any reasonable viewer that the two men aren’t in love. There’s more than a touch of the homoerotic among their group of pilots, too. One more thought about Pearl Harbor, one that I’ve stated elsewhere about other movies: Don’t count on a fiction film to be historically accurate. This movie got a lot of criticism for playing a bit fast and loose with historical details; there are websites devoted to such stuff. If you want a history lesson, read a book or watch a documentary.
Oscar Win: Best Sound Editing
Other Nominations:
Best Original Song (“There You’ll Be”), Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects
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