Movie Scene
'Pearl Harbor' brings the battle home

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

"Pearl Harbor" delivers on its most important promise, to bring the "date which will live in infamy" to stunning life.

Finally, the blockbuster movie, partially filmed in Hawai'i, makes its premiere in theaters nationwide. "Pearl Harbor," based on Japan's attack against the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor, traces three friends whose lives are forever changed by a "date which will live in infamy." Touchstone Pictures 'Pearl Harbor' • Three stars • PG-13 (for intense war sequences, brief sensuality and adult language) • 175 minutes Related features: • Shrugging off 'Pearl Harbor' inaccuracy • 'Pearl Harbor' fails to hit critical targets • Movie Showtime Rate "Pearl Harbor" in our online poll.

"Titanic" viewers waited 90 minutes for the iceberg to crack open that ship. In "Pearl Harbor," the explosive, 40-minute attack sequence we've all come to see also shows up at the 90-minute mark.

Until then, wartime romance is the order of the day, as two handsome army flyboys (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett), who've known each other since childhood, find themselves in love with the same navy nurse (Kate Beckinsale).

After a short prologue, "Pearl Harbor" opens nearly a year before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. Rafe (Affleck) and Danny (Hartnett) are army pilots in training for a war that may not come for America.

During his induction, Rafe meets a comely nurse named Evelyn (Beckinsale), who gives him an immunization in the behind, a typical "meet cute" Hollywood scene.

Frustrated with America's lack of involvement, Rafe volunteers for a RAF squadron engaged in the Battle of Britain. Danny and Evelyn, meanwhile, are assigned to Hawai'i.

Ultimately, all three friends are reunited in the islands, but not until a difficult romantic triangle has developed.

When not concentrating on the romance, director Michael Bay gives a brief interpretation of the events leading up to Dec. 7.

Japanese battle planners are depicted as frustrated by a U.S. oil embargo, and pushed into a corner that demands an attack as a response. Little is said about the Japanese diplomatic efforts that went on in Washington, even while Japanese forces headed south toward Hawai'i.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, feels secure in Pearl Harbor, and is worried more about sabotage than an air or sea strike.

When the attack finally comes, the filmmaking astonishes. Cameras follow Japanese Zeros and their bombs with abandon, and dive into the harbor waters to follow torpedoes on their deadly missions.

The confusion of wartime is evident everywhere — bombs explode, bodies fly, ships crack, roll over or sink, planes crash into each other, into towers, or into the ground or sea, bullets rip across decks and runways and the sidewalks leading to barracks and hospitals.

Although the devastation and horror are clear, the sequence is less graphic or disturbing than Steven Spielberg's memorable D-Day landing in "Saving Private Ryan."

The film's three young leads acquit themselves reasonably well.

Affleck's Rafe is cocky, proud and courageous, with just enough witty charm to make him appealing. Hartnett's Danny is a bit more naive, and not as colorfully defined, but with decency galore.

The British-born Beckinsale, though, is the most appealing. Beyond her perfect American accent, she artfully delineates Evelyn's complex feelings for the two men in her life, as well as her confusion and horror when the bombs send thousands of bloodied men into the hospital where she works.

Although a few notable real-life officers are portrayed, the only authentic Pearl Harbor survivor to get much screen time is Dorie Miller (Cuba Gooding Jr.), an African-American sailor who had been restricted, like other black men, to work in the ship's mess.

When the attack came to the USS West Virginia, he made his way topside, took control of a gun placement, and attempted to shoot down the attacking Zeros.

The other notable real-life portrayals are of President Roosevelt and of legendary Col. Jimmy Doolittle.

Under thick (but convincing) makeup, Jon Voight accurately captures FDR's famous vocal inflections. In addition to his famous "date in infamy" speech, FDR is shown giving a pep talk to his Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Alec Baldwin's Doolittle shows up mostly in the final segment, the film's attempt to depict the Doolittle raid on Tokyo as the United States' first great response to the Pearl Harbor attack.

Director Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace didn't need to use the Tokyo raid to wrap up their film. To compress such a complex operation into the final 40 minutes gives it short shrift.

Instead, the famous statement by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Mako) would seem a most appropriate epilogue. After the raid, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack reportedly said, "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant."

The line is regrettably given only minor impact in the film.

For indeed, truer words were never spoken.