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Pearl Harbor Customer Reviews (70 - 72 of 144 Reviews)

Disappointing!
After waiting with anticipation for this movie, I was very disappointed. I lived on Oahu for several years and spent much of my free time visiting and researching December 7th sites and the history of the attack--including talking with many veterans and residents there on that fateful Sunday. This movie did not do justice to those people or the honor of such a solemn moment in history. Why don't I write a book, if I know so much, or make my own movie? As you can tell by this review, writing is not my forte and finances rule out a movie. Point is, the opportunity to make a truly inspiring movie was lost for the sake of Hollywood hype, and the bucks too, of course.

The most upsetting episode of the movie to me was the response of the P-40 fighters, flying at Mach 1 (speed of sound--impossible in a fighter of the day), less than 25 feet off the ground through buidings and hangars. One building was so very obviously computer generated in front of the entrance to an aircraft maintenance hangar, blocking access to the hangar. This was to enable the "Star Wars" effect of aircraft buzzing between the "canyons" of buildings. It worked for "Star Wars", but not for this movie. Sad--this is the kind of hype I refer to. I also thought the Doolittle Raid and much of the love triangle added little to the movie, but the love story parts had to be expected. If they insisted on putting the Doolittle raid in, as they did of course, they could have at least gotten it right. For instance, during the real Doolittle Raid, the B-25s were not in any kind of formation like the movie portrayed, they flew in trail, minutes apart, in the order they took off from the Hornet. They didn't have the fuel to spend time forming up after takeoff. Most barely made it to the target and few, if any, made it to the planned rendezvous point in China due to fuel exhaustion. They bailed out or crash landed and were scattered all over China--one crew landed in Russia. "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (see my review of this 1944 classic), although also Hollywood, is a fair representation of the Doolittle prep and attack.

I didn't expect a documentary, but I expected something more professional than this considering the money expended and the build-up about all the research that was supposed to have been done to ensure historical accuracy. The research failed in it's purpose or was intentionally ignored, and I got little for my expectations.

Big disappointment to me! Can't please everyone, I guess. If you haven't seen it, you should, but don't get your expectations up too high. Two stars is actually one too many!


My favorite all time movie
I would definately recommend this movie to anyone. They did a great job portraing the attack on Pearl Harbor on that fateful day on December 7th, 1941. I love the way the love story was encorperated into the action. This movie always makes me cry, so be sure to have tissues close by.

More on love, less on true events
Pearl Harbor is more about two mens romance over one woman than about the war and that one eventful day.

Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett make an incredible billing, but their performances just don't hold up as they try stumbling their way through. Then comes your usuall love triangle that hollywood seems to thrilled to be throwing out at us.

Besides, do we really believe it was almost soley two men who saved Pearl Harbor that day?

Cuba Gooding Jr. was wonderful in his short but beautiful scenes, he's just a natural, stealing every part from under the others and bringing more to the film than Affleck or Hartnett
Oh, and the music is good, but if a true World War Two flick is what you crave, go watch Enemy at the Gates or the great Escape, don't bother with this one.

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