Great Film: Pearl Harbor
Someone get me a pair of scissors!
What a great film this could have been! The recreation of the attack on
Pearl Harbor is some of the best film-making ever - an extraordinary and
moving sequence made utterly believable by state of the art special effects.
It ranks up there with the opening sequence from "Saving Private Ryan" and
the sinking of the "Titanic" as one of the most harrowing "disaster"
sequences filmed in recent years. But like both those other two films,
PEARL HARBOR is desperately in need of a decent script to frame the disaster
sequence.
Okay - I could almost accept the hokey old love triangle romantic plot -
certainly the stars are great to look at - but the dialogue really sucked:
"I don't think I'll ever look at another sunset without thinking of you".
Please! And all those hero shots from the ground, and the slow motion love
bits, and the soppy music, and the eternal sunsets...
But what this film really needed was an editor! The climax of the film is
the attack on Pearl Harbor - an American defeat. But it seems the
film-makers decided that the American audience wouldn't be satisfied with
this - and so the movie grinds on and on for another hour or so dramatising
a revenge attack on Japan. And we're supposed to believe that this attack
was fought by the very same guys who were on the ground in Hawaii. I mean
we all know that America won the war in the end, so did we really need this
long epilogue?
Personally I'd cut out all the Roosevelt and the Japanese high command
scenes and concentrate on the experiences of the people on the ground at
Pearl Harbor. The Japanese stuff was all completely unbelievable anyway.
The sad loss would be the superb performance of Jon Voight as Roosevelt -
but maybe they could make another film about him. I'd also end the film
after the attack at Pearl Harbor, as the survivors pick up the pieces. So
why not have a shorter Director's Cut - a novel concept - that makes this
film the great film it could have been. If you like I'll lend the
scissors!
Cast
- Nurse Sandra played by Jennifer Garner
- Capt. Danny Walker played by Josh Hartnett
- Lt. Billy Thompson played by William Lee Scott
- Lt. Gooz Wood played by Michael Shannon
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt played by Jon Voight
- Lt. Red Winkle played by Ewen Bremner
- Lt. Col. James Doolittle played by Alec Baldwin
