Video Review |
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Video Review |
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Last Updated 01/28/02
Email: robitai@our-town.com
Pearl Harbor
Last summer when "Pearl
Harbor" debuted, it met with only mild approval from historians and less
than enthusiastic reviews from critics. The plot was manipulative; the twists
ill timed; the love story too contrived; the emphasis in the wrong places; and
lackluster acting and barren dialogue plagued some scenes. They said that the
spectacular special effects didn't save it.
My
teenage daughter, in spite of these warnings, or more than likely oblivious to
them, included it on her Christmas list. When
I inquired, it was clear that she wasn't particularly interested in the history
lesson or in the special effects. She was interested in Josh Hartnett and Ben
Affleck. I calculated her response as a possibility that perhaps the movie's
appeal was broader than I had anticipated. I bought the DVD and wrapped it.
Late
on Christmas Day, as the ghost of Christmas past and festive paper remnants
moved through the house, I borrowed it from her pile of gifts. My original
intention was to delay the requisite kitchen detail of Christmas dinner
aftermath. This is a three-hour
movie. In addition, the DVD
includes resources I haven't begun to tap: a special called "Journey to the
Screen: The Making of Pearl Harbor," the History Channel's
documentary "Unsung Heroes," a DVD-ROM bibliography feature, and a
music video of the feature song "There You'll Be."
All told, I could escape housework well into New Year's.
Although
some of the summer criticism may be well founded, I found this movie
captivating. It invests a
substantial amount of time at the beginning, establishing the life-long
connection between Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett).
Having grown up in a world of crop dusters and tail draggers, their love
of flying is only surpassed by their dedication to each other.
They grow up together, they enlist together, and they fall in love with
the same woman, Lieutenant Evelyn Stewart (Kate Beckinsale), an army nurse.
How that situation occurs involves some complicated twists of
fate, but the situation didn't feel contrived. Life, it seems to me, is full of
unlikely twists of fate.
For
those of us who weren't born when the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred, the
events surrounding that time have an ethereal feel, a version conjured up from
dry historical accounts in textbooks and old John Wayne movies. This movie
changes all that. When the bombing scene finally does arrive, it translates the
horrific events of December 7, 1941, into palpable action. You don't just watch;
you're transported.
The
precision timing of every scene enhances the cinematography.
The camera captures fleets of Japanese planes crossing the wide blue sky
in a way that accentuates the preliminary complacency of those watching their
arrival. The juxtaposition of the invasion against the idyllic setting creates a
clear demarcation between life "before" and life "after,"
and the sense that everything is forever changed.
The
all-encompassing explosions as the bombs drop, scenes of dismembered bodies, and
rivers of blood leave little doubt of the terror and the extent that it will
steel America's resolve.
This
isn't a tight movie like "Saving Private Ryan." Perhaps writer Randall
Wallace has been a little self-indulgent at times, letting his plot meander
through the romantic interludes, but its impact, especially in light of how we
understand ourselves after 9/11, makes the journey worthwhile.
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