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Film: Pearl Harbor

The diabolical Japanese plan to sneak in under cover of Ben Affleck is set in motion.

"Pearl Harbor is... about how, on December 7th, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle."

— Roger Ebert

Pearl Harbor is a 2001 film. Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett play two childhood friends, Rafe and Danny, both US Army Air Corps pilots in the months before the US enters World War II. Once Rafe manages a date with army nurse Evelyn, they fall in love. He goes off to fight with the RAF, and gets shot down. Danny comforts Evelyn after they are transferred to Hawaii, and it then turns into a torrid affair.

When it turns out Rafe is alive, he's not too pleased his friend took his gal, and tries to beat him up. The next day, Japanese planes come and attack Pearl Harbor.

The two pilots bravely scramble to their planes, and manage to down a few enemy fighters. After the attack, they get ready to take part in the Doolittle Raid, but still sort of fight over the girl. It turns out she's pregnant. The father doesn't make it. Which one was the father? It doesn't matter, they're all cardboard people anyway.

Okay, the film doesn't entirely focus on this love triangle — the Japanese preparations for the attack and the Americans' attempts to figure out what they're planning are depicted in parallel, as is the attack's aftermath — but it did get a lot of critical flak for focusing more on it than the actual historical events. It also got criticism for loads of historical inaccuracies, which The Other Wiki gives a fair list of

Since this was Michael Bay's first film disappointment — it was expected to be the big blockbuster of that summer, but was ultimately upstaged by Shrek, of all movies — he gets a lot of the blame, which isn't really justified. Several factors point to writer Randall Wallace, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and the studio, just as much, if not more, than Bay.

Pearl Harbor provides examples of the following tropes:

Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Evelyn turning to Danny after Rafe's supposed death.
Ace Pilot: Rafe and Danny.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: A Japanese pilot actually did wave to the kids playing a baseball game mainly to get them to get out of there. Oddly enough, this often got more complaints than the actual mistakes.
America Wins the War: Despite being set before America even enters WWII, there is a scene where a British man states:
"God help anyone who goes to war with America".
Anti-Villain: Naval Marshall General Isoroku Yamamoto (Type IV). While being charged by the Japanese Empire with the task of somehow successfully destroying the American Pacific navy at anchor in shallow waters, he is making comments such as "A brilliant man would find a way not to fight a war."
Artistic License: Wallace is known for this in his work, but the criticisms of abusing it here led him to try to be more accurate with We Were Soldiers (even if not completely).
- Artistic License - Geography: Mountains in Long Island, NY indeed.
- Artistic License - History: Hilariously, in a couple of establishing shots, there are more Japanese planes visible than actually participated in the attack.
  - Some shots of the attack show Japanese fighter planes firing on and killing civilians, something that (in the actual historical event) they were specifically ordered not to do. Ironically, the Doolittle raid did involve firing on and killing civilians, but there's no such depiction in the film.
- Artistic License - Military — A grand total of zero United States Army Air Forces pilots joined the Eagle Squadron. They would not have been allowed — rather than Ben Affleck's character volunteering to go, he would have had to have deserted, and then secretly joined the squadron.
- Artistic License - Ships: Almost all the ships that aren't special effects are wrong in one way or another.
  - At one point, we see a wide shot of the US fleet prior to the Doolittle raid. No attempt is made to disguise the modern Kitty Hawk-Class supercarrier in the middle or a modern attack sub accompanying the fleet.
  - The USS Lexington museum ship was used to simulate both Japanese carrier Akagi during the Pearl Harbor attack scene, and its angled deck is clearly visible.
  - The USS Constellation stands in for the USS Hornet (during the Doolittle raid's launch scene). It's angled deck is clearly visible, as is its modern radar array, its steam catapult, and its gatling CIWS systems.
  - All the carriers in the film have steel decks instead of wooden ones. Only British carriers had armored decks in World War II.
  - Several US navy destroyers are featured being bombed in the film. 70's era Spruance-class guided missile destroyers, that is.
Award Bait Song: The song "There You'll Be", sung by Faith Hill has something familiar about it. Perhaps a slight similarity to a song from an earlier blockbuster movie? Nah.
Bar Brawl
Been There Shaped History: Rafe manages to fight in the Battle of Britain, Pearl Harbor, and the Doolittle Raids. Naturally, this wasn't true of any real pilots.
Billed Above The Title: Ben Affleck. This movie was supposed to be his coronation as an A-list movie star; instead it was the beginning of a very slippery slope for his career.
Chef of Iron: Petty Officer Doris Miller, who is a cook onboard a ship who mans the guns.
Comforting the Widow: A slight variation. Evelyn is in love with Rafe, who then goes off to fight the Nazis. She learns that his plane was shot down, so she immediately falls in love with his best friend, Danny. When Rafe returns it's, um, awkward. It doesn't help that she's pregnant. But it DOES help that Danny gets killed by japanese troops after they crash in China!
Death of the Hypotenuse
Developing Doomed Characters: An hour and fifteen minutes until the actual Pearl Harbor attack happens.
Dramatic Irony: One of the nurses noting how few patients there are in the hospital when she shows the newcomers around.
Dynamic Entry: Towards the end of the movie, when Rafe and his bomber crew are pinned down by Japanese troops, Danny's bomber comes in and strafes them before crash landing a short distance away.
Follow the Leader: Titanic in this case.
Gorn: The Director's Cut. Oh god the Director's Cut.
Hollywood History: Just see the aforementioned list.
Hollywood Tactics: At one point, Rafe advises the other pilots that the Zero is faster than the Warhawk, so they would have to try to out-turn them in a fight. In fact, the opposite was true: The Zero, while very maneuverable, was considerably slower than most American fighters. Of course, many American pilots early in the war learned that fact the hard way.
- Also understandable as the only intelligence on the A-6M Zero was thought of as insane at the time. On top of that, the P-40s were having to get off the ground and accelerate while the Zeros were already at combat speed. So even though the P-40 was a faster plane (especially after a diving attack), the plane would have significant difficulty getting rid of a Zero that's got all the cards before the Warhawk can even leave the ground.
Hospital Hottie: Evelyn
Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy - In several portions of the dogfight (particularly early on, after taking off), the Zeros fire over a hundred rounds at two basically straight-flying P-40s without getting hitting anything. Realistically, the nose-mounted machine guns on the Zero should all hit on a fixed target anywhere within their effective range — what would have actually happened is the Zeroes get loads of hit, but none really does more than would the very heavily-armored American fighters.
Informed Ability: A lot of characters like to talk about how much of a talented hero Rafe is. Oddly enough, in scenes where both he and Danny are flying, he doesn't show himself to be any better at flying than Danny does, as they both manage to get rid of the Japanese pilots trailing them. And not to mention that the reasons he lists for volunteering for the RAF entail him not wanting to get stuck training newbies and basically just wanting glory to his name. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but coupled with the fact that even real historical figures act like he is a big noble hero, it starts to grate.
Jerkass: Rafe.
Never Trust a Title: This movie is 3 hours long — 183 minutes. Only 45 of those minutes entail the battle of Pearl Harbor. Then the movie even rambles on after Pearl Harbor.
Never Trust a Trailer: Trailers and posters either severely downplayed the love story, or didn't mention it at all. It's telling that many commented the trailers were better than the movie.
Noble Demon: Admiral Yamamoto is portrayed as this.
Politically Correct History: While it was really nice to show that Britain was fighting the war before America even got involved, it was still inaccurate. The US Military could not send their military to fight the war when the US was neutral at the time. He would had to have been a civilian. And make his way to England without the American authorities catching wind of his intentions. And probably surrender his US citizenship. Yeah.
- The Japanese are shown attacking a hospital, which didn't happen in real life.
Pretty in Mink: Fur trimmed coats worn by the ladies, a few more furs in the club scene, and even Faith Hill wore a fox wrap for the music video.
Reality Is Unrealistic: Many assume the Japanese pilot waving to kids playing baseball is fake. It got almost more accusations of being fake than the actual inaccuracies.
- In fact, it's been said that the Japanese pilot in the real-life incident was actually trying to warn the kids, to get them out of the area once the bombs started falling.
- The scene where a sailor cries out he can't swim was based on real events. Swimming wasn't mandatory in the US navy until after World War II.
Shout Out: After being ordered to land after an exercise, the pilots instead decide to do a flyby. Sure the details are different, but the allusion to Top Gun is clear (and some would say very inappropriate).
Someone to Remember Him By: Evelyn's biological son, named for his father.
Tempting Fate: "It's a dud!" No, it's a delayed-detonation bomb.
Widescreen Shot: The attack squadron shot is a notable one.
World War II
Wronski Feint: With two planes and two pursuing Japanese fighters.
Your Other Left: Used as a Chekhov's Gun.