Touchstone Pictures In the new drama, "Pearl Harbor,"
pilots played by Ben Affleck (left) and
Josh Hartnett are caught in the cross-fire of
Japanese bombs.
By David Holmberg
Daily Bruin Staff
After subjecting audiences to “Pearl Harbor,” it is
a wonder Hollywood even trembled at the thought of a potential
writer’s strike.
Nowhere in the three hours of Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael
Bay’s empty pseudo-masterpiece does a hint of intelligence
burst forth from the screen. Instead, all of the usual thoughtless
blockbuster qualities are present in full force, ranging from
pointless special effects to emotionless love stories ““ with
the added bonus of racism.
Established from scene one of “Pearl Harbor” are the
two cinematic effects that will be used to tell this unimaginative
story: visuals and musical score.
Framing the film at both ends is the scene of a lone crop duster
flying over a beautiful sunrise, with dramatic music that beats the
audience with feigned emotion, and somewhere in between there is a
love story, a bombing and death.
To reveal too much of the plot of “Pearl Harbor”
would be a disservice to the already severely deficient script.
Relying on the typical historical fiction convention of placing a
fantasy romance within the context of a real event, the film
strives for the questionable success of its predecessor,
“Titanic.”
Although not the best of films, “Titanic” at least
felt like a romantic tale that used the sinking ship as a backdrop.
Instead “Pearl Harbor” uses love as filler, while
everyone bides their time for the real fireworks: the attack.
The early 1940s is the backdrop for the fact-based “Pearl
Harbor,” but the era is revealed in a highly idealized
fashion. Shiny new cars, sharply pressed suits and beautiful faces
under perfect lighting gloss over reality, replacing it with a
glamorized version of the past. The result is a comic-book
phoniness that detracts heavily from the supposed factual
events.
Fitting the polished historical image perfectly, moderately
talented actor Ben Affleck plays hot-shot pilot Rafe McCawley but
does not help the movie’s credibility. The eventual love
triangle with Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett is belabored and
obvious, existing solely for the purpose of establishing a story
around the events of Dec. 7, 1941.
Perhaps worst of all is the boring actual bombing of Pearl
Harbor. Although it is hard to imagine such a disastrous event as
being cinematically uninteresting, the film provides the audience
with no excitement. None of the characters are established fully
enough to warrant audience sympathy and their deaths are totally
unmoving. There is no threat to the major players and consequently,
the action has no purpose. The violence is confusing, but never
exciting. This is demonstrated most fully by a series of ceaseless
bombings and deaths occurring in the background, while the heroic
leads merely run about, pretending to make a difference in the
battle.
Finally, the computer graphic explosions and fires feel flat and
unrealistic, providing nothing more than tasteless eye-candy. A
final subplot following the bombing is unnecessary and excessive.
Instead of a heroic counter-attack, the flight plays out more like
an act of American stupidity and irrational vengeance.
Concluding the film is a voice-over by Beckinsale that attempts
to frame the movie’s events as the beginning of the United
States’ honorable overcoming of hardships, but this
last-ditch effort is futile.
American heroism is exalted and Japanese deviousness is
denounced, yet no mention of the U.S. atrocities are even touched
upon. It is baffling how a summary of the next years of World War
II could leave out any reference to the bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki by the United States or the Japanese interment camps
established by the government. Although it may have weakened the
anti-Japanese message of the film, acknowledgement of these other
historical events should have been made to reduce the pumped-up
American patriotism of the film.
Completely unforgivable are the derogatory comments toward the
attacking Japanese pilots. During the attack, one of the U.S.
mechanics yells, “Let’s get this Jap sucka” as a
plane flies overhead. Regardless of the context, it is a completely
unacceptable use of such a slighting term, especially given that
the film is nothing more than a blockbuster special effects
vehicle, and not an artistic endeavor that uses the term as a
reminder of America’s past racism.
Bruckheimer and Bay are not respectable filmmakers. Bay’s
past directorial efforts have included the commercially successful
drivel “Armageddon” and “The Rock,” while
some of Bruckheimer’s most recent producing credits include
such painful trash as “Coyote Ugly” and “Gone in
Sixty Seconds.” Under no circumstances are any of these good
films ““ that is, unless box office receipts equate to
quality. The films are visual spectacles of little or no substance,
and the $140 million sure-fire blockbuster of “Pearl
Harbor” will be a nice addition to this growing list.
In the hands of another director, perhaps the film may have had
a chance. The events of Pearl Harbor are tragic indeed, but a story
cannot get by on that alone. Oliver Stone’s controversial
anti-government stance could have added a nice twist to the
question of the United States’ knowledge of the attack, or
even Steven Spielberg’s routine but realistically effective
character development would have helped.
Unfortunately, Bay and Bruckheimer chose to keep this juggernaut
safe and grounded.
Ultimately it takes more than slow motion and rousing orchestra
scores to create drama, but this is all the film is willing to
provide. Without a compelling plot or realistic characters, visual
and musical workmanship is wasted. An ass-kicking is not heroic,
and yet nothing else is shown to prove Pearl Harbor was anything
but the ignorant Americans getting trounced due to their own
stupidity.
The epic of “Pearl Harbor” is a tragic one. No, it
is not the love story that is heart breaking, nor is it depressing
to watch thousands of computer-generated characters killed in the
attack. What is tragic is the complete lack of attention to story,
the millions of dollars spent on purposeless special effects, and
the injustice done to both the American and Japanese soldiers who
died during World War II. And the infamy that will live forever is
the racism and stupidity that Hollywood has graciously conferred
upon the citizens of the United States ““ for all the world to
see.