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Think back, if you can, to the cowardly attacks on the World Trade Center in September. Now imagine a big name director
coming to New York to film a movie taking place on September 11. He tells you the plot will revolve around two lovers who
work in the World Trade Center. One had the day off on September 11. She eventually gets involved with another man, thinking
that her original lover was dead. But miraculously, he comes back to life and gets angry at her for being with another man,
and. The director calls this brilliant. He tells you it will be an incredible epic, with special effects that will knock
your socks off. You take a look at the script, and the best line of dialouge he came up with was "I think World War
III just started!" The director also seems keen on making Islam seem like evil, which to you is incredibly offensive.
Hopefully this will put into perspective the perfectly awful time I had watching the three-hour "Pearl Harbor".
Advertisements for Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay's film say "EXPERIENCE THE EVENT THAT CHANGED THE WORLD".
Indeed, the attack on Pearl Harbor did change the world. It was the loss of American innocence, brought about the atom bomb,
and turned America into a force to be reckoned with. But trust me, one will not find much truth in "Pearl Harbor",
and the experience that is offered is a stolid one.
"Pearl Harbor" is all too reminiscent of James Cameron's
"Titanic". Star-crossed lovers, amazing special effects, epic scope. I'd say this film has it all, but that might
end up in an ad somewhere. The plot is dull and unimaginative. I won't even bother giving a plot synopsis, for the film is
not unlike the fantasy one described above. No one seems keen on making their characters seem real; each character has a
string of melodramatic monologues in place of emotion. The special effects are something else, but it seems that Bruckheimer
and Bay forgot a crucial aspect of making a movie: the story comes first. This is a prime example of an overblown, glitzy
Hollywood blockbuster.
Something that distresses me about "Pearl Harbor" is it's incredible ignorance
of the facts. History is twisted around in such a way that it made me wince. It seems that what really happened on that
day of infamy is of no consequence unless it is dramatically convenient. In one scene, FDR is told that an idea of his is
impossible. To show them they are wrong, he struggles to stand up out of his wheelchair. I am positive that the real FDR
would never do this. He was very private about his illness, only a very select people knew about it. Another thing is the
treatment of the Japanese in this film. Yes, some of them do talk about the horrors of war, but the ominous music and warped
acting give out the message: "we are the enemies". Bay is trying to be fair, but it comes off as him wanting the
Japanese to look like comic book villains.
With "Pearl Harbor", Bruckeimer and Bay stole three hours
of my life. Those are three hours I'll never be able to have back. "Pearl Harbor" is a simple-minded popcorn movie
(sad that it has to be classified as that, isn't it?). Some critics say, "Hey, it's a Hollywood Popcorn Flick, cut
it some slack." Yeah, of course. I should've known that Bay and Bruckheimer were too busy worrying about special effects
and promotional tie-ins to worry about story. Silly me. "Pearl Harbor" isn't just boring and poorly written, but
the amount of disrespect shown is absolutely shocking.
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