Armagedon Harbor

[Udie]

  If you read Hedu's review it's pretty accurate.  The action seens were good but they didn't save the movie for me, I left just after the Pearl Harbor attack.  This guy needs to stay away from historical films and keep to the big action block busters.  My best advice is to wait for DVD so you can skip to the action seens, most of which are pretty kick ass, accept for the part when Ben A. says a p40 can't out run a zero so you'll have to out fly them!!!!!!!  


Udie

[SeaWulfe]

You mean Hollywood doesn't accurately portray history?

Damn... and here I thought WWII was won by Mel Gibson in his Braveheart getup...

-SW

[Ripsnort]

Hollywood does sometimes accurately portray, see the movie "The Patriot", right Dowding?
(Nudge nudge, wink wink)

Please, tis a joke.

[Eagler]

Was hoping I'd get to see alex baldwin come home in a box. Heard they have a scene were FDR pulls himself up out of his wheelchair to make a point about the attack. Something else that didn't actually happen either. But guys it's just a movie not a documentary. Problem is today's generation doesn't know the difference between the two anymore. Reality and fantasy become blurred ..er.. back to 1.07!!  

Eagler

[Ripsnort]

 

Al Weddle's quickie review of
                      the movie "Pearl Harbor": a
                      qualified thumbs up.

                      "The technology of the battle
                      scenes was amazing. You
                      could feel the percussion of the
                      bombs," said Weddle, past
                      chair of the state and Seattle
                      chapters of the Pearl Harbor
                      Survivors Association.

                      "But you've got to remember
                      it's a Hollywood movie, not a documentary."

                      Weddle, 78, of Tukwila, is no film critic, but did attend
                      an advance screening of the Disney blockbuster, opening
                      nationally today.

                      Despite the sound at the Cinerama cutting out in a
                      half-dozen key places - including the ending - he found the
                      movie gripping and the story reasonably faithful to the
                      facts.

                      Weddle doesn't need a show-biz extravaganza to tell him
                      what happened at Pearl Harbor.

                      He was in the thick of the real thing, maneuvering a
                      40-foot boat through waters covered with flaming oil,
                      picking up survivors and bodies in the wake of the
                      Japanese attack.

                      "You can't begin to describe the horror of it," he said.

                      Despite the film's spectacular attack scene, Weddle said
                      he actually remembers more flames than the movie
                      showed: lingering flames on the sludge-coated waters that
                      roasted men jumping or being tossed from their ships.
                      And flames flashing through the vessels deck by deck as
                      fumes ignited.

                      Weddle doesn't recall the Japanese planes flying as low
                      as the movie shows them, or flying in tight aerial
                      maneuvers ala "Top Gun."

                      And the scene of President Franklin Roosevelt struggling
                      to rise from his wheelchair to make a point with his chief
                      advisers seems a bit beyond belief.

                      But Weddle found much of the attack sequence realistic,
                      as well as the portrayal of panic, confusion and courage
                      left in its wake.

                      On the morning of the attack - Dec. 7, 1941 - Weddle,
                      stationed aboard the seaplane tender USS Tangier, had
                      just finished breakfast and was planning to spend the day
                      ashore on Waikiki Beach when he heard the alarm sound.

                      "We'd had a lot of drills," he said. "And I thought this was
                      just another one. I wondered who had decided to ruin my
                      Sunday."

                      On deck, he watched in disbelief as Japanese planes
                      swept past, dropping a torpedo that struck the battleship
                      Utah, about 100 yards away.

                      He manned one of the Tangier's 5-inch guns, but the
                      weapon was intended for ship-to-shore work, not firing at
                      aircraft.

                      Soon he was dispatched as part of a crew to pick up men
                      who were falling or jumping from the sinking Utah.

                      "It rolled over slowly, like a whale, and was under in
                      about eight minutes," he said.

                      As morning turned to afternoon and then to evening, the
                      task switched from picking up men who had safely
                      jumped off their ships, to picking up wounded, and
                      finally, gathering bodies.

                      Once the fires had died out, which took several days,
                      Weddle, a diver, was assigned to dive to the sunken
                      battleship West Virginia in hopes of rescuing men still
                      trapped inside.

                      "We could hear them tap-tap-tapping, but we couldn't get
                      to them," said Weddle. The water was still thick with
                      black oil, and the diving and demolition gear was
                      primitive by today's standards.

                      When the West Virginia was finally raised, it contained
                      the remains of more than 300 men, some of whom had
                      marked off days on a calendar, indicating they had lived
                      for more than two weeks before their air ran out.

                      Coping with the death and destruction meant adopting
                      emotional survival techniques, Weddle said.

                      "You're stuck with the guys you go into combat with, so
                      they become your buddies. But then it hurts too much
                      when they're killed, so when the replacements arrive, you
                      try not to get too close."

                      Despite the painful memories, Pearl Harbor is never far
                      from Weddle's thoughts. He volunteers an afternoon a
                      week helping visitors at Tahoma National Cemetery in
                      Kent, and helps put on an annual Pearl Harbor Day
                      observance at Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park.

                      He often wears a blue windbreaker bearing his medals
                      and Pearl Harbor insignia. His pickup canopy displays a
                      "Remember Pearl Harbor" bumper sticker.

                      He often speaks to schoolchildren about the attack and
                      shows them a slide show put together by a survivors'
                      group.

                      Weddle is grateful the new film is reviving attention for
                      what he feels is the central lesson of Pearl Harbor, the
                      need to remain vigilant. "Remembering it is the best way
                      not to repeat it."

[This message has been edited by Ripsnort (edited 05-25-2001).]

[Eagler]

Rip

thanks for reminding us all what Memorial Day is really about

 <S>

Eagler

[Dowding]

Screw you, Ripsnort.  

Does Emperor Hirohito appear in this? And if so, is he played by an Englishman?  

Pearl Harbour has nothing to do with rememberance - it's just something to make a quick buck set in situation where you can keep the 'bangs per minute' high (at least for a significant part of the film).

At least Saving Private Ryan looked at the relationships between people and how they are tested. And it didn't include some spurious love story - based on the old 'girl meets boy, boy goes to war and is presumed dead, girl meets another boy, first boy is in fact alive'.

I'll probably go to see it though.  

[This message has been edited by Dowding (edited 05-25-2001).]

[Mathman]

I personally thought it was a good movie. I will probably go and see it again. I got out of it exactly what I thought I would. I went in just wanting to see a movie with planes, explosions, and plenty of bombs. That's exactly what I saw. I would be willing to bet that I would have thought it was much better if I was ignorant of the inaccuracies of the movie (remind me to blame my mom for fostering my love of reading about World War 2 ). I would also be willing to bet that the only people who care about the P-40 fighting with the Zekes and the scenes where you can see some modern FFG's and CG's in the background.

I will recommend all my students go and see it. Why? Well, I read in another Forum I visit recently a viewpoint that made me see the movie a lot differently. If even just one of my 170 students interest is sparked and instills in them the desire to read about what actually happened December 7, 1941, then the movie was well worth the millions of dollars they spent on it, IMO.

-math


[This message has been edited by Mathman (edited 05-25-2001).]

[snafu]

Useless Trivia No#1

Apparently it cost more to make the film than it cost to rebuild the real Pearl Harbour after the Japanease flattened it.

(I did say USELESS TRIVIA).  

TTFN
snafu

[This message has been edited by snafu (edited 05-27-2001).]