[gregebowman]

Originally posted by Renegade 13:
A couple good movies I've seen recently: Pearl Harbor, and Payback. Payback is a little older (1999), and has quite a bit of violence and language, but the plot and humor was really good I thought. Everybody knows already what Pearl Harbor is about.

As an amateur historian, and from some comments made by the director, I had a big problem with Pearl Harbor. Sure, the special effects were great, but some basic facts they overlooked or just plain ignored just to make what they thought would be a great movie. IMO, it wasn't. First of all, the director (can't remember his name right now) said in an interview that if people wanted to see the facts in the movie, they should go see Tora! Tora! Tora! That movie is my all time favorite movie for sentimenal reasons, and I found that remark disparaging. Second of all, why make a Pearl Harbor movie if aren't going to include the facts? Basically, Pearl Harbor was a movie about a love triangle. The war scenes were just the background for the drama between the 3 actors. So why would they care about the facts? I think the most galling thing in the movie was when Roosevelt asked something about survivors in the Arizona. He was told they could hear tapping from trapped sailors. The only problem with that was that no one survived below decks when the Arizona blew. The scene was meant to be about the Oklahoma, but obviously no one knew or cared to correct it. But being from Oklahoma, I cringe everytime I see that scene. There are other misrepresentation of the facts, like no pilots in Pearl Harbor at the time flew in the Doolittle Raid, but it was obvious no one cared too much for the facts in this movie. I finally saw the director's cut, and it wasn't much better. I'll take the director's words to heart. If I want to see a movie about Pearl Harbor, I'll stick to Tora! Tora! Tora!