Forget all the bad reviews this film got for its supposed triteness and superficiality. It's a gripping story from beginning to end. It has everything: romance, action, tragedy, hope in the face of defeat. If I remember correctly, today was the third time I watched this film, and it had me sitting on the edge of my seat as much as it did the first time. I grew up hating war films because my father sat watching them for years on television. But I recognise quality when I see it. This film is a classic.
"Pearl Harbor" has been compared with "Titanic", as if that were a bad thing. Both films follow the same format. A love triangle evolves against the background of a big catastrophe. Contrasting large scale events with the personal interest of a few individuals is good story-telling.
My dad always heckles me with Rafe’s “HAMMER DOWN!” Thank goodness we have Tora! Tora! Tora! instead. Some people think a missed opportunity was made to make Miller the main character (i think a film about Miller and his fellow messmates would be interesting. Besides Miller, there was George Bland, and Clark Simmons. Bland and Miller served as mess attendants on the USS West Virginia, where Miller pursued boxing as a sport. Simmons served as mess attendant on the USS Utah. They were recently the subject of a Pearl Harbor episode on a short series called “Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color.” One helped fellow wounded white sailors, despite being the target of abuse of several casual and brutal racist remarks from them prior to the attack; when asked by his daughter on why he helped them, despite their previous behaviour, he tearfully said that in that moment, he put their prior remarks aside, and saw just saw especially at the heights of their misery, as people recognizable as fellow human beings deserving of compassion. ) as Cuba did the best he could with his short screen time, through it could be debated how accurate it is. As it stands, I'll take the more accurate, and humble, though no less heroic depiction of Doris Miller's actions (actor Elven Havard) in Tora Tora Tora, then Cuba Gooding's any day.
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