I found it pretty nifty that both Saving Private Ryan AND Pearl Harbor were on cable television today! Lucky me, huh. Well Pearl Harbor is pretty self explanatory. The movie is based on the true event in U.S. history when the Japanese bombed our naval base on December 7, 1941.
The movie begins showing two young boys, Rafe and Danny, playing in a field. Both aspiring pilots, they do whatever possible to get in the air. Danny's father doesn't like the fact that Rafe and Danny get along so well, and beats Danny for wanting to be friends with him.
As they grow older, they both enlist in the U.S. military airforce. Rafe volunteers for a special fleet over in Britain, where war is already taking place. After accepting the offer that soon comes his way from the British, he falls in love with Evelyn, a nurse for the military. After a few short weeks, they are already in love. But.. soon enough Rafe has to leave to go serve in Britain. Rafe makes Danny promise him that if he dies.. Danny will be the one to tell Evelyn. While Rafe is in Britain, he protects the skies and shoots down several enemy planes, but after only a short while flying, his plane starts leaking oil, and is eventually shot down and crashes into the sea. Danny delivers the news to Evelyn, and they often bond over grieving sessions.
Danny and Evelyn 'fall in love', presumably due to mourning. Evelyn gets pregnant with Danny, and soon after experiencing morning sickness, finds a letter from Rafe stating that he is alive and well. He then shows up on her doorstep, and she tells him about Danny. Rafe and Danny get in a fight in a bar over Evelyn, Danny saying that Rafe told him to take care of his girl, and Rafe calling Danny a lousy friend. A bunch of love-triangle nonsense.
Meanwhile in Japan, leaders are planning the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese aircrafts called 'zeros' are better in several aspects compared to U.S. planes. They train their pilots by planning out the attack with models and showing them exactly where and how to attack all of the naval ships.
When they attack on the morning of December 7, the element of surprise is exactly what the Japanese got. Their zeros bombed us left and right, killing thousands in the process. Evelyn is overwhelmed in the hospital, and is assigned the task of going through all of the injured and classifying them as to whether or not they can be saved.
Rafe and Danny take the attack from a different perspective, and are eager to get in their planes and take down the enemy, regardless of their ever so recent fight. Best friends forever seems to have meaning in this case. Together, they take down 7 Japanese planes.
After everyone begins recovering from the attack, Evelyn tells Rafe that she will always love him, but she's going to choose Danny because she is pregnant with his child. Rafe tells her that she was what kept him alive in the crash, and that he made a deal with God.. a deal that he would never ask for anything ever again if he just got to see her one more time. Rafe and Danny accept an offer to fly a special mission, a very dangerous mission involving the bombing of Tokyo. Right before boarding his plane, Danny tells Evelyn that the only thing he's afraid of is that she loves Rafe more than she loves him.
While on their mission, the boys undergo heavy fire in their planes from Japs. The boys' planes soon run out of fuel, and a crash landing on Japanese ground soon finds them, somehow all still alive, in the hands of the enemy. Danny's crash landing is a little more harsh than Rafe's, and takes his last few seconds in the air to try to shoot down the Japanese that are firing at the other broken plane. They are all captured by the Japanese, and then Rafe starts shooting all the Japs around him while they are trying to tie up all the U.S. soldiers. Danny is shot by dodging in front of a bullet to save Rafe.. and soon dies. Right before Danny dies, Rafe tells him he's going to be a father, and Danny says "no, you are." Yep, tear-jerker right there.
Rafe returns home, alive and well. After grieving a short while over the loss of a best friend and a lover, Rafe and Evelyn seem to hit it off right away again, both knowing that their love had never dwindled. Evelyn and Rafe raise Danny's child.. who looks just like him.
This movie is probably one of the best semi-educational films I've ever watched. It holds your attention, and yet still builds you a background on WWII. I saw this film years ago, and was no doubt the first time I learned of this war. I'd recommend that Mr. Bruns show this film, or any other one for that matter, to the class so they can actually enjoy learning for once. Pearl Harbor changed our nation. It got us into the war, and gave us something to fight for. It drove us hard and gave us the determination we needed to pull through and help the Allies win. If not for Pearl Harbor, it is questionable as to how much longer it would have been until the United States got involved. As the movie quoted, 'how much longer is the United States going to sit around and pretend like the world is not at war?' Personally, I don't think complete isolation was ever a good answer. I hope that from now on, we can solve problems without ever needing to go to war. Words are just as powerful as weapons, they just don't destroy as much.
Comments
"I'd recommend that Mr. Bruns show this film, or any other one for that matter, to the class so they can actually enjoy learning for once." Pretty harsh!!
Excellent job! Glad you liked the move(for the second time). The question is, is war inevitable??