Pearl Harbor

Movie Reaction

“PEARL HARBOR”

Directed by: Michael Bay

Introduction:

“Pearl Harbor” is a 2001 American epic war film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Randall Wallace. It features a large ensemble cast, including 

Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Colm Feore and Alec Baldwin.

Pearl Harbor is a dramatic reimagining of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Doolittle Raid. Some special prints were made from the color negatives using the recently re-introduced Technicolor dye imbibition printing process. Despite negative reviews from critics, Pearl Harbor became a major box office success, earning nearly $450 million worldwide and won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing.

Interpretation and Reaction:

The film is not about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In fact, with more than 45 minutes left after the attack, the rest of the film takes a long denouement or detour, depending on your expectations, following the April 1942 propaganda bombing mission over Japan by Col. Doolittle's B-25 bombers. This long ending accomplishes several things: It allows the love triangle -- the core of the story -- to be resolved nicely though tearfully; it allows the shock and anger and perhaps the hatred of the "sneak attack" to dissipate; and like the actual Doolittle raid itself, it allows the film's viewers (at least in the US) to leave the theater on a jingoistically upbeat note. "Yeah, we showed 'em. How dare they bomb Pearl Harbor and decimate our fleet; we scared 'em silly by dropping some bombs over Tokyo and some other cities then crashing into the Sea of Japan or China. We showed 'em."

I can't blame Hollywood for ending the film this way -- Hollywood is nothing if not the factory of happy endings, right? -- and maybe such a treatment will really help distract audiences from any racist tendencies they may have against Japanese, or Asians in general....