 | Pearl Harbor Starring: Ben Affleck, John Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin, Dan Aykroyd |
In the quest to find one word to describe this big budget summer Hollywood blockbuster, I can only come up with ... offensive. The bar being raised on WW II films by "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line," this stinker misses by miles. In 1970, Hollywood attempted an epic film about Pearl Harbor called "Tora! Tora! Tora!" While the film was flawed, it had a terrific premise. Tell the story from both the American and Japanese sides. The great Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa, was hired to film the Japanese view. When Kurosawa discovered that his creative freedom would be severely limited, he quit the project in despair. This was a missed opportunity for Hollywood's credibility. Kurosawa, who was never a supporter of the Japanese military regime, might have given us some new insight regarding the brutal attack. Instead, we received a stilted American view and a careful yet, at least, interesting look at the Japanese mindset at the time. Now we have "Pearl Harbor," the movie. Since the 70's, volumes of new information have come forward regarding Pearl Harbor. Serious questions have been raised. Why was America so unprepared? Why were U.S. intercepts of Japanese coded messages, which clearly stated that Pearl Harbor was a main target of an imminent attack, paid so little heed in Washington? These messages were relayed to the War Office in Washington but never forwarded to the command at Pearl Harbor. Were these major military blunders or were there misguided, shadowy figures in high places in Washington that decided that it was best to ignore these warnings? Keep in mind, there was little support from Americans for U.S. involvement in the War in Europe, while Roosevelt was most anxious to get America involved. In present times, the mere mention of Pearl Harbor is a maze of controversy. The problem with "Pearl Harbor" is that is not about Pearl Harbor. Instead, it is a shallow love story set in Pearl Harbor, with cardboard characters (only Kate Beckinsale valiantly attempts to overcome her one-dimensional material). To keep audiences awake during this two hour and 50 minute movie, director Bay recreates the attack on Pearl Harbor for 40 minutes. The digital attack by Disney's special computerised effects department is impressive enough but lacks the power and visual brilliance of the opening minutes of "Saving Private Ryan." Plenty of explosions, men drowning and burning, and plenty of blood, yet for some reason the audience remains unconnected. Perhaps because Bay has our two comic book heroes dashing through the attack, dodging explosions and strafing, to find two undamaged planes to fly and, with great precision, shoot down seven Zeros! Bay is no Spielberg. The opening of "Saving Private Ryan" left the audience stunned and shaking. It was a hard act to follow but with good writing and excellent performances, Spielberg managed to offer a compelling story of courage and heroism. There is nothing close to this in "Pearl Harbor." With weak, anaemic historical references, we get only a hint of the meaning of this attack. Bay dismisses the controversy by creating a fictional character (Aykroyd), as a Naval Cryptographer, who has a gut level feeling that Pearl Harbor will be attacked. He stands alone. In fact, there were many in Naval Intelligence who believed Pearl Harbor was about to be attacked. Historical inaccuracies abound. Bay reduces this film to a summer "blow 'em up" for kids. This film does no honour to the 3000 that died on that fateful December morning in 1941. I realise that this is only a movie. However, when you have director Michael Bay mouthing off for months to any reporter who will listen, about how accurate he tried to get this attack (in spirit) one expects at least a decent attempt. To make matters worse, Disney premiered the film at the Pearl Harbor memorial. They turned this sacred place into a Hollywood hype machine and sent every "free loading" critic and "has been" star to attend the shameful event. At the end of "Pearl Harbor," a voice over says, "World War II began for us at Pearl Harbor . . ." (Really?) My advise to Disney is to get some new writers, send young Michael Bay into a well deserved early retirement, and get a conscience. This of course, will never happen. "Pearl Harbor" is breaking box office records in its first weekend. It figures! |