The Michael Bay Retrospective Series - Pearl Harbor (2001)

Written In October 2013

Where to begin with this movie…

I’ve never seen it in full until today, but when I was in tenth grade my teacher showed my class the attack on the harbor. Before he popped the movie in, my teacher reassured us all that it was only going to be that sequence. At that time, I thought it was just another WW2 movie, I didn’t know it was made by the guy who did the Transformers series, I didn’t know it was so hated, I didn’t know it was considered to be such a crappy movie. And when i realized what it was a Michael Bay and that was so controversial, I figured I just wouldn’t watch it… Then I decided to a review series on all the movies directed by Bay, and here we are now. I’ll tell you what I think after a plot summary.

The movie starts with two little boys called Danny and Rafe playing in an old broken biplane who then sneak into the older boy’s father’s actual plane who reacts violently once they get out, only for the younger boy to defend his friend and attack the man calling him a dirty German. The man reacts incredulous to this insult briefly recounting his fight against the Germans in France declaring his hope that no one else ever has to and then sauntering off. Realizing his father meant no harm and may not be fully right in the head, the son goes off to be with his father.

Flash forward to a news reel from 1940 lamenting the US’s refusal to get involved in the new war against the Germans and then another flash forward to ‘41 on a military air base where the two boys from earlier (played by Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett) are now hotshot Air Force pilots. After a quick stunt where the boys nearly destroy the plane and kill themselves, we cut to Affleck being chewed out by his superior officer, Major James Doolittle (Alec Baldwin), where the cadet attempts to BS his way out of this by declaring his and his friend’s stunt to be an homage to Doolittle’s own stunt from his younger days, being done so to inspire their fellow troops. The major declares this “Bullshit, but very good bullshit.” Noting that McAwley (Affleck) reminds him a bit of himself when he was the cadet’s age before getting to the brass tacks and informing him that he’s been accepted by the British into the Eagle Squadron, a group of American volunteer pilots who fight alongside the British against the Germans, and is set to leave next thing tomorrow. There after, Danny asks why Rafe signed up, saying that he doesn’t want his best friend to end like the husk of a man that was his father.

We then cut to a train where a group of nurses are swapping stories about their Air Force boys, one of which is Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale) who gives a story about how in spite his apparent Dyslexia she allowed Rafe to go over seas for combat. There after in an attempt to ask Beckinsale out on a date, Affleck endures a series a vaccine shots causing him to become delirious and then bust his nose. Taken by his flattery the nurse takes him up on the offer, leasing to a courtship of 4 weeks and two days at the time of her train ride. We then have a series of scenes where we further establish just how maddeningly in love they are with each other, only for Rafe to explain to the nurse that he’s headed for the war in Germany with the Brits. The pilot then requests that his love not see him off after be given her scarf for good luck.
We then engage in a series of establishing/introductory scenes where we see Rafe arriving in England, the flyboys and nurses arriving at Pearl Harbor, the White House staff talking about sending more supplies to Russia and the UK, and the Japanese preparing to attack Pearl Harbor. We then have a brief montage of Rafe and Evelyn writing each other. However, we come to a scene where Rafe is seemingly killed in action, leading to Danny break the news to Evelyn, who eventually fall in love out of grief. In the mean time we see the Japanese planning out there attack and working out to prevent the US from coming onto them, US Intelligence Officer Captain Thurman (Dan Aykroyd) isn’t buying it though. Sometime later we have a quick scene where some Japanese spies are going through Pearl Harbor with a device hidden in a mobile radio. Thurman eventually explains to his superiors that he has reason to believe that the Japanese may attack said harbor. His superiors are skeptical and tell him to come back when he has actual info for them. We cut to a montage of the Japanese fleet approaching a Hawaii while the Navy tries to make heads or tails of what’s going on.

Finally it’s revealed that Rafe was alive after all. Through much heartbreak, Evelyn confesses that she and Danny have been seeing each other. Much to Rafe’s betrayal. Rafe then insisted a bar fight with Danny out of his hurt feelings about Evelyn, but make a get away when military police arrive to place them in the brig. We then engage in a montage illustrating the mentality of the Japanese Air Force as they assume they’re attack on the Pearl. Meanwhile, Thurman finally cracks the code and finds that the Japanese are in fact looking for war, and sends out a message that all local bases destroy decoders and burn important files. The Japanese then start their attack, raining heavy fire upon the USS Arizona. Our boys eventually arrive on the scene of the attack hoping to be of some help, as the attack continues destroying most of the fleet. The news of the attack is delivered to president Roosevelt (Jon Voight) where he dramatically reacts with the words “My God! My God!” We cut to Evelyn at the hospital doing her best to save everyone who’s injured and could get to the hospital. We finally get go the air field where our boys start the counterattack. As they get the planes in the air, we see the relationship between Danny and Rafe heal as they act as each other’s wing man. After much fighting the Japanese command inquire with their admiral (Mako Iwamatsu) if they should begin a third wave, the admiral decides against this noting that they’ve now lost the element of surprise. When congratulated on his attack, the admiral laments that he fears all they have done is awaken a sleeping giant. Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Evelyn is forced to pick and choose who can and can’t be saved. We then see the aftermath of this attack as we hear Voight delivering FDR’s Day of Infamy speech. There after we see FDR asking his advisors and the military how to go about an attack on Japan, in so many words they tell him they can’t attack, the president then through great pain stands before his cabinet and says “Don’t tell me, it can’t be done!”

For our final scenes we have Rafe and Danny being assigned to a secret mission stateside by now Lt. Colonel Doolittle. On his way out, Evelyn confronts Rafe, who tearfully lamenting his failed relationship with Evelyn where she explains that she’s pregnant with Danny’s child. Once in California, the boys are both award a silver star and promoted to captain. After a montage of lightening the B25 so that they’d be able to get it off the ground in 467 feet we find out that the mission is to bomb Tokyo and there after land in China. However before the attack can begin they’re detected by the Japanese forcing them to start the plan early and launch the planes from a longer distance than planned. The attack is successful but the landing is not. Rafe lands in Japanese occupied territory in China and is then fired on by patrols. But in a nick of time, Danny arrives firing on the patrol with his plane and then crash landing. Danny emerges from the wreckage with a piece of shrapnel in his neck. Rafe runs to his aid but is stopped by more patrol members. Rafe and the other two members of his plane crew manage to take them out, but Danny dies anyway. Rafe pleads with him to live explaining that Danny is father to be. Danny simply says “No you are.” and then dies. The remaining men are rescued by Chinese rebels.

Once home, Evelyn is broken the bad news and narrates the ending as she and Rafe are awarded with medals each and discharged from the military. The film then ends with the two now wed and with their son named Danny, who Rafe asks if he’d like to go flying with his daddy.

When I got to the attack on Pearl Harbor, I assumed the film was almost over. When it go to the scene with Affleck and Beckinsale I figured it would be end there, but it didn’t… It kept going… And going… And going, until it finally ended at 172 minutes and 34 seconds. The Rock and Bad Boys, say what you will about it, were all as long as they needed to be. I’d argue that Armageddon needed to be longer to really flesh out it’s characters, or really just use it’s time better, but when it ended it felt natural. When this movie ended, I took a sigh of relief that it was finally over. It was becoming painful that this movie was so much longer than it needed to be. But it being overlong isn’t really the only complaint I have. It has too many side characters and side plots that it doesn’t explore. We have the min-subplot with Dan Aykroyd, a mini-subplot with Colm Feore as a US Admiral, a mini-subplot with Mako, a mini-subplot with Cuba Gooding, Jr. as a cook on the Arizona who is trying to earn his respect on the ship, a mini-subplot with Jon Voight as FDR, and a mini-subplot with the airmen. Another issue? With those subplots, none of them really use the talent of their actors to their advantage. And they have a REALLY great cast! Not only do the have the people mentioned above, but they also have Michael Shanon! Those six are some damn great actors!

My only real pros for this film itself are the effects, they early on show the effects war has on people, have some kind of attention to history, and the score by Hans Zimmer is fantastic. More pros for within the film are Kate Beckinsale’s (a British actress) American accent, Harnett and Affleck’s friendship is extremely believable and heartfelt, and Alec Baldwin is a delightful presence in the parts he’s in. However, three big gaping inaccuracies however are:

1. In the film Japanese planes are shown firing on the actual town of Pearl Harbor while all accounts say that they only fired on the actual harbor.
2. Also, in the film it’s noted that because of the US’s trade embargo with Japan, the nation only has 18 months worth of oil left, when oil was one of the few things the US continued to provide Japan with prior to war.
3. And finally, the reason Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because being allies with Nazi Germany they figured the British would attack them from their south east Asian colonies, knowing that attacking the colonies would likely prompt an attack from the US, so they decided to cripple the US pacific fleet before they had a chance to use it.

Overall, this film’s is nonsensical and overlong and not really worth your time. If you want an opus about a legendary event from the Japanese-US conflict in WW II watch Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima.

I’m giving Pearl Harbor, a 1.8 out of 5.

Stay tuned folks, I’ll be getting to my review for Bad Boys II next thing tomorrow, hopefully if nothing else we’ll get to see Michael Shannon put to good use.