Pearl Harbor (film)

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Pearl Harbor is a war film released in the summer of 2001 by Touchstone Pictures. It stars Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Jaime King, and Jennifer Garner. It was a dramatic re-imagining of the attack on Pearl Harbor, produced by the team of Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, who had previously been involved with such summer blockbusters as Armageddon and The Rock. The final section of the movie relates the Doolittle Raid, the first American attack on the Japanese home islands in World War II.

Contents

1 Production, release and critical response

1.1 Award nominations

2 Replacing real figures
3 More controversy about historical accuracy
4 Pop culture trivia
5 References
6 External links

Production, release and critical response

Pearl Harbor was released Memorial Day weekend in 2001. Despite its dazzling special effects, the movie received overwhelmingly negative reviews, as its 25% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer indicates. Many critics dismissed the film as shallow, hackneyed, and historically insensitive, also citing such literary flaws such as the exceedingly banal dialogue, poorly devised love triangle plot, and the unappealing and paper-thin nature of the lead characters.http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1108389-pearl_harbor/

Critic Roger Ebert summarized Pearl Harbor as "a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle," and claimed that, "The filmmakers seem to have aimed the film at an audience that may not have heard of Pearl Harbor, or perhaps even of World War Two."http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010525/REVIEWS/105250301/1023

Director Michael Bay has said that Roger Ebert's criticism of Pearl Harbor has to be his most offensive of his entire career. According to Michael Bay: "He commented on TV that bombs don't fall like that. Does he actually think we didn't research every nook and cranny of how armor-piercing bombs fell? He's watched too many movies. He thinks they all fall flat - armor-piercing bombs fall straight down, that's the way it was designed! But HE's on the air pontificating and giving the wrong information. That's insulting!"http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881/bio

The bombastic tone of the film was frequently cited as the polar opposite of the 1998 Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan#redirect .

The movie cost approximately U.S. $140 million to film, earning it the title of the largest approved production budget for a film to that date#redirect , but it grossed only U.S. $200 million at the domestic box office, possibly indicating an overall loss. Pearl Harbor was released on DVD on December 4, 2001, three days before the actual 60th anniversary of the attack.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213149/dvd

Award nominations

At the 2002 Academy Awards, Pearl Harbor was nominated for four awards. winning one for Sound Effects Editing. Its other nominations were for Best Sound, Best Visual Effects, and Best Song. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

At the 2001 Golden Raspberry Awards Pearl Harbor was nominated for five awards: Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Couple, Worst Actor, and Worst Sequel or Remake (presumably of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]})—but lost to Tom Green's Freddy Got Fingered in all but the latter category, wherein it lost to Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Replacing real figures

DVD cover

The roles that the two male leads played by Affleck and Hartnett have in the attack sequence are analogous to the real historical deeds of U.S. Army Air Corps second lieutenants George Welch and Kenneth M. Taylor, who took to the skies and, between the two pilots, shot down between six and 10 (depending on source) Japanese fighters. However, the movie itself makes no mention of or allusion to Welch's and Taylor's existence in history, and the movie's plot involving the leads, aside from their roles in the attack sequence, does not match any other historical account of Welch or Taylor.

Because Bay's movie makes no mention of or allusion to Welch's and Taylor's existence, some consider the very presence of the two fictional main characters in their steads a blatant usurpation of the true historical figures' roles. This point, when coupled with what many critics feel is an arbitrary and ill-conceived love triangle plot involving the fictional replacements, makes some regard Pearl Harbor as an abuse of artistic licence.http://www.voicenet.com/~lpadilla/pearl.html

More controversy about historical accuracy

Like many historical dramas, Pearl Harbor provoked debate about the artistic licence taken by its producers and director. Mark Carnes, history professor at Barnard College and general editor of Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (ISBN 0805037594), commented on this subject in general terms during a NewsHour interview broadcast three years before Pearl Harbor was released:

The difficulty is this. The truths of the movie tend to be clean and pure and powerful and simple. And history never is; history is complex, muddy, difficult. Movies make good guys too good, bad guys too bad. They adopt narrative lines that are too simple, all in an effort to reach a broad audience. The more expensive the movie, the greater the need to reach a huge audience, an audience that can quickly apprehend its themes. You know, this emphasis on simplicity and power and immediately hitting your audience means that the movies are much too simple compared to the past. I don't think there's any harm in that.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june98/history_2-10.html

National Geographic Channel produced a documentary called http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/ngbeyond/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429665/ which covers some of the ways that "the film's final cut didn't reflect all the attacks' facts, or represent them all accurately"http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2001/fyi/news/05/24/pearl.harbor/index.html.

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Touchstone Pictures' official stance on the movie is that "it's a love story" and was never meant to be a historical account of the event. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

The movie portrays many of the widely held but unverified beliefs about the Pearl Harbor attack as being unambiguously true, such as Doris Miller's exaggerated heroism, and the carelessness or incompetence of Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and General Walter C. Short (subsequent investigations showed that neither of the officers were informed by the Office of Naval Intelligence prior to the attack)^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}.

Other inaccuracies include:

Early childhood sequences:
*Stearman biplane (the crop-duster aircraft) was not produced until 1935. However, the opening scene is set in 1923. However, it must also be noted that countless Hollywood movies in te 1960's and 1970's would use a Stearman as their stock 'old biplane'. A more appropriate aircraft would be a Curtiss JN-4 'Jenny', but very very few are available at the presnt time for this sort of work.
Battle of Britain sequences:
*A four-bladed Supermarine Spitfire is shown during the Battle of Britain in the film; a Spitfire model that was not available until 1942, though the Battle of Britain takes place during 1940 (specifically July through October). However, the 1960's film Battle of Britian suffered from the same issue, and is none the worse for it. Most early-mark restored and airworthy Spitfires are usually brought up to Mk IX standard with a series 41 or 61 (Packard) Merlin, which requires a four bladed propellor to absorb the power of the engine. That real spitfires were available at all is impressive enough !
*Ben Affleck's character is portrayed as joining the RAF as part of the Eagle squadron; U.S. servicemen were prohibited from doing so, though American civilians were allowed. His eyesight would have been checked for RAF service.
*Ben Affleck was based at RAF Oakley, this base was actually a training base in the war, not a fighter base. Historians point out that during the hot August summer of 1940, such expedients invariably did take place from time to time, and even for squadron training exercises.
*Affleck's character flies with a Royal Air Force squadron (which used Supermarine Spitfires), but the planes actually featured in the movie bear the RF code letters of the No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron and are, in fact, Hawker Hurricanes. Again, while true, Hawker Hurricanes are in shorter supply than Spitfires for film work !
*During the Battle of Britain flight sequences, the British Spitfires are shown flying in the standard American four-ship formation. The British actually flew in the three-ship Vee or "VIC" formation. Again this is open to dispute, as by the time of the late Battle, thr RAF had adopted the German Luftwaffe 'Rotte' and 'Schwarm' system, known in RAF parlance as the 'Finger Four', which the USAF itself adopted as 'Four Ship' formation.
Pearl Harbor sequences:
*The USS Arizona Memorial, which straddles the USS Arizona sunk during the battle, can be briefly seen in a pan shot. The Memorial was dedicated in the 1960's.
*In the movie, the USS Arizona was sunk by a Aichi D3A Val, using a single bomb but the real-life Arizona was sunk by a "special bomb" from the B5N Kate utility bomber.
*Admiral Kimmel had received warnings about an attack but, thinking them vague, did not put his forces on full-scale alert. This contradicts the Pearl Harbor portrayal of Kimmel as a leader railing against Washington's apathy about the Japanese threat.
*Admiral Kimmel was not on a golf course on the morning of the attack, nor was he notified of the Japanese embassy leaving Washington, D.C. prior to the attack. The first official notification of the attack was received by General Short several hours after the attack had ended. Also, the report of attacking an enemy midget-submarine, in real life, did not report sinking the sub.
*At the time of the attack, the battleships in Battleship Row were tied directly together, not spaced 50 yards apart as they were in the movie.
*In the movie, in excess of eleven Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighters were destroyed or downed. In reality, only nine Zero fighters were destroyed by any means (i.e. anti-aircraft guns, planes) in the real bombing of Pearl Harbor.
*Japanese aircraft of that period were painted light grey, not green.
*Navy Nurse Betty dies during the Pearl Harbor attack, but no Navy Nurses died as a result of enemy action during the entirety of World War II, including the attack on Pearl Harbor.
*The ward dresses of the nurses have a different style than the ones Navy Nurses actually wore during WWII and no nurse would have worked with long hair falling freely about her shoulders.
*Some of the bombed ships are actually mothballed Knox-class frigates and Spruance-class destroyers, with the box launchers for anti-submarine rockets, known as ASROCs, visible. That technology wasn't available until the 1960s. The FF-1062 USS Whipple, can be seen clearly in a background shot of the boxing scene on the USS Arizona.
*One of the intelligence photos taken by the Japanese Spies shows a North Carolina class battleship none of which were in Pearl Harbor at that time. Two of each battleship class (Nevada class battleships (Nevada and Oklahoma), Pennsylvania class battleships (Arizona and Pennsyvania), Colorado class battleships (Maryland and West Virginia), and Tennessee class battleships (Tennessee and California) were moored at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day.
*A retired Iowa class battleship was used to represent the USS West Virginia for Doris Miller's boxing match. However, the main gun barrels are corked, which is unusual during wartime or training exercises. Furthermore, Iowa battleships have a 3x3 main gun configuration versus the 4x2 layout of the West Virginia. Lastly, the West Virginia did not have the WWII-era bridge and masts found on newer US battleships until reconstruction was finished in 1943.
*During the attack on Pearl Harbor in the movie, the P-40N model of the P-40 Warhawk U.S. fighter aircraft is shown. However, the 'N' model of the P-40 was not available to the United States until 1943 though the Pearl Harbor attack took place during 1941.
*At the Airfield where the pilots are composing themselves and trying to take action against the strafing Japanese planes, Ben Affleck's character erroneously says "P-40s can't outrun Zeroes, we'll just have to outfly them." In fact, the standard tactic for American and Allied pilots, from the AVG (Flying Tigers) in late-1940 through 1941 and throughoout the Pacific War, was basic "hit-and-run." They would dive on Zeroes, get what "hits" they could, and then outrun them (though it could be referring to the P-40s starting from a standstill and having to climb, during which the Zeros would outrun them).
*In reality, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, although he planned the attack, was not present on any of the carriers that bombed Pearl Harbor. He was aboard the battleship Nagato in Tokyo Bay, where he heard reports of the attack and supposedly made his famous "sleeping giant" statement.
*P-40 and Zero fighters are shown doing tight manuvers and incredibly dangerous stunts, almost like X-Wing fighters from Star Wars. Neither plane was that nimble, although the Zero was the most feared fighter of the Pacific War until the F6F Hellcat debuted in 1943.
*In a shot, a kamikaze (Japanese suicide plane) can be seen attacking, but this tactic was not used by the Japanese until the Battle of Leyte Gulf which occurred three years later in October 1944.
*Doris Miller's actions during the battle are altered. In the film Miller comforts his Captain, Mervyn S. Bennion, and is with him when he dies. Miller then delievers the captain's last orders to the ships executive officer and then mans a machine gun. In reality, Miller helped move Bennion to a safer location. Bennion continued to direct the battle until he died of his wounds just before the ship was abandoned. Miller is credited with shooting down two enemy planes, but there is some question as to this claim.
Doolittle Raid sequences:
*Several shots of the USS Hornet aircraft carrier depicted it as having an angled flight deck, a technology that wasn't implemented until after the war. Note, however, the Japanese carriers are portrayed more correctly by comparison - a few of them did have their bridge/conning tower superstructure on port side rather than the more common starboard configuration.
*Affleck and Hartnett's characters are shown taking part in the Doolittle bombing raid over Tokyo which, as fighter pilots, they would not have been allowed to participate.
*The B-25s shown participating in the Raid are "J"-models, when the models used in the actual Raid were "B"-models.
*Several crewmen on Affleck and Harnett's B-25's are killed in the firefight with the Japanese, including Harnett's character. In fact, no members of the raid were killed in this manner. Three airmen died in the crash landings in China, and four were eventually killed as POWs by their Japanese captors (four other POWs were recovered alive near the end of the war).
Other inaccuracies:
*Mitchel Field is incorrectly spelled "Mitchell Field," presumaby because the writers assumed the base was named for Billy Mitchell. It was, in fact, named for John Purroy Mitchel of New York.
*Despite Long Island's flat, level surface being notoriously ideal for airfields, mountains are visible in the flying shots over Long Island.
*Navy Nurse Betty claims to be 17 years old and that she has cheated with her age to be accepted, but Navy Nurses were required to be Registered Nurses to join the Navy Nurse Corps, which meant three years of prior training and passing a State Board examination, very unlikely qualifications for any seventeen year old. The minimum age to join the Navy Nurse Corps was 22.
*President Roosevelt is seen rising from his wheelchair to inspire his staff after the attack. There is no record of him having done this in real life.
*The observation car seen in the Train Station was made for the California Zephyr, which didn't appear until after WWII.
*Hartnett's line "I think World War II just started". WWI was still called the Great War back then, so this war was not considered "II" until the Great War was renamed World War I after the end of the second World War. Also, Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, but the actual war was pre-empted with the invasion of China by Japan in 1937, and began after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. It is important to note that the war did not start when the US became involved, it started 2 years prior.
*The sequence where Josh Hartnett's and Ben Affleck's characters 'play chicken' with their P-40's at the US airbase is cited in the film as taking place in late 1941. This is prior to Afflecks departure to the UK to join Eagle Squadron in time for the Battle of Britain. There is no error here. Although the "Battle of Britain" (proper) took place from July through October, 1940, a lesser air battle continued thereafter. The first [Eagle Squadron] was formed in September, 1940. Eventually, there were three Eagle Squadrons, right up until the U.S. entered the war (virtually the same times/timing as the AVG - Flying Tigers - in China).
*The Queen Mary is seen in New York Harbor in full Cunard colours. It's more likely that she would have been painted grey and would have served in war duties as either a troopship or hospital vessel.
*The radar monitors shown in Pearl Harbor are of the more modern type which show the rotation of a dish. This type of radar was not in use at the time. An example of the earlier type of radar is shown in the film Battle of Britain.
*It is obvious that none of the characters in the movie smoke, which would have certainly been unusual in the early 1940's, this however, was not an error. Director Michael Bay chose to have a "no smoking policy", trying to push the fact that smoking is not good for people's health.
*Give-away that modern carriers were used in the production: Steam catapults are used during carrier scenes, which were not implemented into aircraft carriers until the 1950's.
*There is no reason that USN nurses would be assessing whether pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps are fit to fly. It is reasonable to assume that the Army would use its own medical staff.
*Doris Miller is shown receiving his Navy Cross on the deck of a battleship. He actually received his medal in a ceremony aboard the USS Enterprise shortly before the Battle of Midway.

Pop culture trivia

The movie ridicules this film in the song "The End of an Act", a mournful song in which the singer laments the loss of his lover, as well as the fact that "Pearl Harbor sucked," citing, among other things:

Michael Bay's lack of directoral talent
Ben Affleck's lack of acting talent
Cuba Gooding Jr.'s lack of screen time
And the movie just generally "missing the point"

References

General reference:

The Aviation Factfile: Aircraft of World War II, Edited by Jim Winchester. Grange Books, 2004.

Specific footnotes:

External links

[Filming locations in the Los Angeles area]
[}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
[}}}] at Box Office Mojo

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