Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck in "Pearl Harbor."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin and Cuba Gooding Jr. Director: Michael Bay Rated: PG-13, with much wartime violence Length: 175 min.

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(May 25, 2001) -- After spending $135 million to make it, millions more to market it and $5 million just to celebrate its world premiere in Hawaii, Disney is finally unleashing Pearl Harbor.

Eager viewers will encounter an extravagant, often breathtaking, sometimes trite, old-fashioned Hollywood spectacle, an ultra-romanticized wartime epic that owes much more to Titanic than to Saving Private Ryan.

But for every rose-tinted reflection or teary-eyed contrivance -- and Pearl Harbor has several -- there are more moments of awesome spectacle.

Using state-of-the-art craftsmanship, the film delivers on its most important promise, to bring the "date which will live in infamy" to stunning life.

If you remember, Titanic viewers waited 90 minutes for the iceberg to crack open that ship. In Pearl Harbor, the explosive 40-minute attack sequence also shows up at the 90-minute mark.

Till then, wartime romance is the order of the day as two handsome flyboys (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett), who've known each other since childhood, find themselves in love with the same Navy nurse (Kate Beckinsale).

After a short prologue, Pearl Harbor opens nearly a year before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. Rafe (Affleck) and Danny (Hartnett) are Army pilots in training for a war that may not come for America.

The Europeans are losing the battle against the Nazi horde, but there is still a tenuous peace in the Pacific, and America officially espouses neutrality.

During Rafe's induction, he and Evelyn (Beckinsale) meet in the states -- she's a nurse who gives him an immunization in the behind.

Frustrated with America's lack of involvement, Rafe volunteers for a Royal Air Force squadron engaged in the Battle of Britain. Danny and Evelyn, meanwhile, are assigned to Hawaii.

Ultimately, all three friends are reunited in the islands and are now in a difficult romantic triangle.

When not concentrating on the romance, director Michael Bay gives a brief interpretation of the events leading up to Dec. 7. Japanese battle planners are depicted as frustrated by a U.S. oil embargo, and pushed into a corner that demands an attack as a response.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, feels secure at Pearl Harbor and is more worried about sabotage than an air or sea strike. Efforts are made to crack the Japanese codes and newfangled radar is put into service, though no one understands or trusts it.

When the attack finally comes, the filmmaking astonishes. Cameras follow flights of Japanese Zeros and their bombs with wild abandon, and the cameras dive into the harbor waters to follow torpedoes on their deadly missions.

The confusion of wartime is evident everywhere: bombs explode; bodies fly; ships crack, roll over or sink; planes crash into each other, into towers or into the ground or sea; bullets rip across decks and runways.

Though the devastation is clear, the sequence is less graphic than Steven Spielberg's memorable D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan. (Accordingly, Pearl Harbor carries a PG-13 rating.)

The film's three young leads acquit themselves reasonably well. Affleck's Rafe is cocky, proud and courageous, with just enough witty charm to make him appealing. Hartnett's Danny is a bit more naive and not as colorfully defined, but with decency galore.

The British-born Beckinsale, though, is the most appealing. Beyond her perfect American accent, she artfully delineates Evelyn's complex feelings for the two men in her life, as well as her pain and horror when the bombs send bloodied men into her care.

Cuba Gooding Jr., meanwhile, plays Dorie Miller, a real-life African-American hero of the battle, while Jon Voight dons heavy (but effective) makeup as President Roosevelt.

In addition to his famous "date in infamy" speech, FDR is shown giving a pep talk to his Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, a scene in which the disabled president literally stands out of his wheelchair seems over the top -- and improbable.

Alec Baldwin co-stars as the legendary Col. Jimmy Doolittle, showing up mostly in the final segment, the film's attempt to depict the Doolittle raid on Tokyo as our first great response to Pearl Harbor.

I'm not convinced director Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace needed to use the Tokyo raid to wrap up the film. Compressing such a complex operation into the final 40 minutes seems to give it short shrift.

Instead, the famous statement by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto would seem a most appropriate epilogue. After the raid, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack reportedly said, "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant."

Though Yamamoto is played by the superb actor Mako, the line is regrettably given only minor impact in the film. In fact, truer words were never spoken.