The Cog Missing In PEARL HARBOR
The basic plot of the film is simple. Danny (Josh Harnett of THE FACULTY and THE VIRGIN SUICIDES) and Rafe (Ben Affleck of CHASING AMY and BOUNCE) have been best friends since childhood (and though they grew up in the same environment Rafe has a southern accent while Danny does not). Both join the Navy. Rafe falls for Navy Nurse Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale of THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO and the soon to be released SERENDIPITY) while Danny is shy and has no love-interest. Rafe is an amazing pilot and gets the opportunity to go ahead to the war in Europe and fight with the Royal Air Force. He is reported missing and all assume he has died. Danny knocks Evelyn up right before Rafe miraculously turns up and joins them in Pearl Harbor (which is only three months later). Too bad Evelyn didn't read the script. If she had, she would have realized that no sane director on Earth would have killed Ben Affleck off that early in a film.
Everyone gets upset and then everyone gets blown to smithereens. At least, all of the extras do. The best part of the bombing sequence is in the hospital, where the unprepared nurses get smothered in blood. These shots were filmed so that it is as if you are watching the scene through teary eyes. It is the only emotionally engaging part of the film. "What do you need?" Evelyn the asks doctor turning green over a patient who's got an open artery. "Huh?" the doctor replies. Evelyn presses her finger over his blood spewing wound and demands, "What do you need?"
One of the biggest mistakes the filmmakers made regarding this film was underusing their bevy of talented supporting actors. Tom Sizemore as an airplane mechanic, Dan Akroyd as a Pentagon decrypter, Alec Baldwin as Gen. Dolittle, and, most notably, Cuba Gooding Jr. Gooding plays Doris “Dorie” Miller, the first black naval officer to be awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic fighting. He shot down at least four Japanese fighter planes with an anti-aircraft gun though he had no training and was only a mess attendant. I didn't learn that from the film, though. The only thing I learned about Dorie in the film is that he can beat other guys up and that he gets an awfully surprised look on his face when he's firing a gun. I didn't even learn
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