Pearl Harbor the movie

is this sensational movie fare first and foremost or is it in fact faithful to the letter as far a the 12-7-41 attacks are concerned. I would love to hear a response from someone who was there. Unfortunately, it took a movie like this to get me interested.

Elmer Pintar

The movie is sensationalism at its worst. Any facts about the real attack on Pearl Harbor that made its way into this movie was a total accident. If on the other hand the movie gets you interested in the real history of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the real history is much more interesting than anything you saw in the movie, then the movie was not a total waste of film.

I was the same way regarding the movie that so many have found fault with (historical speaking). It was the catalyst to perk my interest. And honestly, I think I was so freaked out by Sept-11 I needed something to ply that nervous energy into.

Don't know about you, but I was (and am) a bad student in school - I don't remember much of history class, US or World.

Unless you have access to a time machine, the next best thing is whatever you can find in the way of books and videos, and wandering through some of the threads here.

I've just finished the book Day of Infamy by Walter Lord and have started Pearl Harbor: Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal by Homer N. Wallin. I also picked up a pictorial coffee table book (great photos). To break it up I also picked up Tora, Tora, Tora on DVD as well as the History Channel set (2-discs), and John Ford's December 7th.

I have an Aunt who was I think 8 years old and at Pearl (somewhere) that Sunday morning. Her Mom took her and her brother into the hills to hide, and their Father was in the Navy. I keep meaning to call her some weekend and see if she felt like talking about her experience.

Ramble Mode OFF

.....as a criticism, propeller driven a/c of the period did not scoot and skitter about with the agility of butterflies. Torpedeo planes were, in fact, awfully slow and stately on their approach runs, plugging anlong at 100 kts or so. Even Vals made their runs at speeds today considered to be ridiculously low. The computer-enhanced aircraft operations in the movie certainly appear to me to be at unrealistically high 'scale speeds', quite unlike the post war carrier a/c with which I was once quite familiar.

Then there's the bullshit factor, substantially above the cuffs of someone weraing 'high-waters'.