BEFORE: The IMDB mentioned that several of the actors from "Black Hawk Down" were also in the movie "Pearl Harbor" - most notably, Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore and William Fichtner. Which leads me quite neatly into Pearl Harbor Day, and films about WWII.
THE PLOT: A dramatization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the series of American blunders that allowed it to happen.
AFTER: This 1970 film covers a lot of the same ground as "From Here to Eternity", which I watched last Dec. 7, and the big-budget "Pearl Harbor" that came along later. Why didn't they wait to make a Pearl Harbor film until special effects got a lot better? I'm kidding - I know that filmmaking is a lot like war, in that you make a film with the special effects you have, rather than the special effects you want.
What's most shocking to me is that a film made in 1970, just a generation removed from World War 2, would so blatantly suggest that the U.S. military was caught by surprise on Dec. 7, 1941. You'd think that the WW2 veterans would still be revered as heroes, and this film seems to want to chip away at that, in a subversive way. Any navy personnel depicted here who spot incoming planes or a Japanese sub are essentially laughed off as either incompetent rookies, or brown-nosers. And the top brass seem to be either bogged down in military procedure, or out on the golf course. Gee, the attack took place on a Sunday morning, but we don't see any military brass attending church - because that really would be heretical.
Again, I'm not obsessed with military films or military history - I know some people who are, and a film like this is probably catnip to them, depicting the inner workings of the army's equipment and procedures... Much like "Black Hawk Down", there are way too many characters to follow - only real gear-heads care about Secretary of State Cordell Hull's meeting with the Japanese foreign minister, or what the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox was doing on that fateful day.
By trying to be all-inclusive, this film made the Pearl Harbor attack boring - at least for the first 2/3 of this film. The whole first hour of this film was a snooze-fest, so I was really looking forward to the excitement of the attack. Which I guess was exciting, but I'm not really an aerial dogfight man either, unless X-Wing and TIE fighters are involved. Different generation, I guess.
This movie was ripe for parody, it really needed someone like Leslie Nielsen or Lloyd Bridges goofing around - "General, it's a telegram from Washington!" "What is it?" "It's the capital of the U.S., but that's not important right now..."
Starring Jason Robards (last seen in "All the President's Men"), Martin Balsam (last seen in "On the Waterfront"), E.G. Marshall (last seen in "Christmas Vacation"), Joseph Cotten (last seen in "Airport '77"), James Whitmore (last seen in "The Majestic"), Richard Anderson, and a cast of thousands.
RATING: 5 out of 10 depth charges (average score: 4 before the attack, 6 during)
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