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Pearl Harbor Customer Reviews (103 - 105 of 144 Reviews)

another over-hyped action movie with lame acting and script
The movie Pearl Harbor had the potential to be a sweeping wartime epic with deep, well-developed characters. Instead it is another crass attempt by Hollywood producers to cash in on American patriotic sentimentality. With the possible exception of the portrayal of the heroic nurses that tended to the wounded and dying, the movie is void of any significant character development. A fabricated love triangle, between two pilots and a nurse is as deep as it goes and that is not very deep at all. War is glorified and sensationalized. Missing is the true homage to the men and women who perished. Also missing is any kind of in-depth treatment of the major historical figures involved. FDR enters the picture only to proclaim "the day that shall live in infamy" then to order his commanders to seek vengence against the evil Japanese. The Japanese are portrayed as overly aloof and simplistic villains. Bruckheimer, by not allowing us to really get to know any of the characters, attempts to cleanse the event of its humanity and thus deny the reality of the catastrophic loss it was in lives and resources.

The fatal flaw of this film is a dreadful lack of character development in the script compounded by generally terrible acting all the way around. If you enjoy watching airplanes explode and sweeping scenes of naval carnage- you will find it here, but that is about all you will find. For a more accurate and better acted version of Pearl Harbor I would recommend the film Tora! Tora! Tora!

"A major disappointment"
When I first viewed the trailer for this film I was very excited until I saw that Michael Bay and Jerry Buckheimer where in the credits. Not that I don't like their movies (I do...) But a sensitive, emotional subject like Pearl Harbor should be handled with care and not in a MTV style three second shot holds and borderline embarrassing slow motion action shots. I still remained positive and eagerly awaited its release on Memorial Day. Unfortunately, after seeing it on Sunday, I left feeling very disappointed. The movie failed miserably to convey the horror, the tragedy, and the loss of innocence of the attack. Granted the main plot was the "love triangle" set against the backdrop of Pearl Harbor, the movie failed to decide what it wanted to be. First, it was a love story, then it was a action movie that became a love story again ending with a little of both. The "Love Triangle" was both predictable and failed to impart a sense of "I give a f$#@" for the audience. Some of the most dramatic events of Pearl Harbor were not mentioned at all. First, The U.S.S. Nevada's dramatic run for the open sea before being forced to beach under heavy attack would have conveyed a true spirit of heroism. Secondly, The fact that half of the 2500 servicemen killed that day were on the U.S.S. Arizona, and the devotion to that event was about ten seconds of screen time was outrageous. Bottom line... the movie failed to convey any sense of emotion or what the "Greatest Generation" did for this country. It belittled one of the most tragic military defeats in US history and turned it into a three hour boring soap opera that you could care nothing about. Finally, the cliched dialogue was outright offensive as well as the pilot with the speech impediment that was continously made fun of throughout the film. If you want to see a true depiction of Pearl Harbor, see "Tora, Tora, Tora" and to get a true sense of what men 18-21 years old did to save the world, see "Saving Private Ryan"

Awesome deleted scenes
This is the DVD to get, it has the deleted scenes of the love affair between Doolittle (played by Baldwin) and Beckinsale - the child Beckinsale carries was actually Doolittle's, not Josh Harnett's - in this restored, original version

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