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This Memorial Day 2001, a much advertised and supposed new World War II epic, PEARL HARBOR, premiered; it was not about Pearl Harbor nor was it an epic.
First, understand that this film is a love story set in the context of a war picture, with an often used triangle relationship. In a nutshell; it followed two close friends, both flyers and in love with the same woman, through the thirties and military involvements in the early forties.
The action loosely went from the Battle of Britain to Pearl Harbor and then finally the Doolittle Mission to bomb Tokyo; the movie was about none of these in particular, though the most attentition was paid to December 7, 1941 as far as lengthy action scene content. It goes unsaid that the movie didn't even approach the likes of TORA TORA TORA and the Battle of Britain and Doolittle sections were so portracted as not to rate even a passing comparison with classics like BATTLE OF BRITIAN or THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO.
All criticism aside, the movie was entertaining, though also politically correct and revisionist to a painful degree. As long as the political correctness and buffoonery of Alec Baldwin's embarassing portrayal of Jimmy Doolittle didn't get you down, the SPECIAL EFFECTS WITH AN EXCELLENT BLENDING OF COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGES WITH LIVE FILMINGS, was overshadowed just a bit for me at the very beginning. When illustrating Germany's victory over France with black and white footage, a shot of an American Pershing tank blasting a building was mixed in with the actual German ones? This is the kind of OOPS which makes me think the geeks did it on purpose, as everyone knows the Pershing was used in extremely limited numbers ( a dozen or so, I believe ) and the shot was near the first Rhine Crossing in 1945?
It is easy to forgive the special effects miniatures people for using the late war model P-40E or later Warhawk instead of the more appropriate early war C version with a visably smaller sized intake mouth for Pearl Harbor; the American SNJs and Texans with paste-ons masquerading as Kates, Vals or Zeroes; the modern ships as targets standing in for oldies; or finally the late war B-25H model Mitchell bombers, with the turrrets all in the wrong places, used in the Doolittle Raid sequences; as the FINAL RESULT SPECIAL EFFECTS WERE VERY NICE TO WATCH.
For some unknown reason, the makers of this film chose to add some hints of revisionist history and heavy helpings of political correctness. The revisionist history/political correctness began with a Japanese scene, done in Japanese with English subtitles but not on the level of MIDWAY or TORA TORA TORA, interjecting a remark about the United States choking off raw materials to the island nation. This touchie-feelie asian thing lasted right up until the first wave of Jap bombers are hitting Pearl Harbor, with a close-up of an enemy tail gunner waving for a group of kids playing baseball to get down. This joke of a scene had an extremely contrived and obviously added in later look, while gunners like the one portrayed shot and murdered unarmed sailors floating helplessly in the water, later on in the movie!
If these major political correctness scenes didn't confuse you enough, to span the time for the two friends in love with the same woman to go on another mission together, the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo was trivialized with some, ' should have been left on the cutting room floor ', scenes depicting action in the Pacific and Washington, so poorly acted and written as to literally make one ill?
All in all, if you have some money and time to waste, go see PEARL HARBOR while it is still on the big screen. Just remember to rent or buy TORA TORA TORA and THIRY SECONDS OVER TOKYO, for a good double feature to watch at home!
- Bongo ( Dive dive...bomb? )
