Love it or hate it

[Saxman]

Pssh.

To put it in perspective, FLYBOYS had better dogfight scenes and a FAR less annoying romantic subplot.

[Flench]

Yeah , Like John Wayne movie . See if I can remember it ,( Sands of Iwo Jima )I think it was . Been a long time .

[Liberator]

The part that made me scoff most was when he took a P-40 up with his girlfriend in his lap...

[Perrine]

Pssh.

To put it in perspective, FLYBOYS had better dogfight scenes and a FAR less annoying romantic subplot.

now that's what I'd like for a ww2 type movie

but for now we just settle with Pearl Harbor as the greatest of all time (minus the fluff and fanservice )

[StokesAk]

I have really been waiting for another great WWII movie to come out. I hope it is a bout the air war instead of a spinoff of Saving private ryan.

[LLogann]

The spit/warhawk thing is actually quite believable, although for the most part I believe American volunteers to have flown US planes under the lend/lease agreement.  BUT.... Benny boy was wayyyyyyy too tall to be a fighter pilot, he would have been a buffer by default in the US Army Air Corp.

Ben Affleck can out turn a Zeke with a B-25...  On the deck.  Without spilling his chamomille tea.   

[Dichotomy]

I have really been waiting for another great WWII movie to come out. I hope it is a bout the air war instead of a spinoff of Saving private ryan.

Be nice if Hanks and Speilburg collaborated on that but it would come to fruition 10 years from now.

[Guppy35]

The spit/warhawk thing is actually quite believable, although for the most part I believe American volunteers to have flown US planes under the lend/lease agreement.  BUT.... Benny boy was wayyyyyyy too tall to be a fighter pilot, he would have been a buffer by default in the US Army Air Corp.

What part of the Spit/P40 part was believable?

The only 40 drivers to have any real success at Pearl Harbor were Welch and Taylor.  Their fight sure didn't involve getting Zeros to collide with each other over the airfield

Did American pilots fly with the RAF?  Sure.  Not a one got back in the USAAF in time for Pearl Harbor.  Many were accepted into the USAAF afterwards.  Many chose to stay with the RAF/RCAF instead.

Again, no single pilot flew Spits with the RAF, then P40s at Pearl, then B25s with Doolittle.

As for suspending my disbelief.  Again if they'd called it anything but Pearl Harbor, I probably could have.  One of my all time favorite WW2 aviation movies is a wartime film called "Air Force" about the mythical B17D  "Mary Ann.  She happens to fly into the attack at Pearl Harbor.  Drops in on Wake Island for a look and then makes it into the Philippines where she is shot down, rebuilt and leads the attack to sink a big Japanese attack fleet shooting down tens of Japanese fighters along the way.

Not an ounce of truth in the entire movie, but they also didn't name it to imply it was tied to any certain event as the makers of "Pearl Harbor" did.  Very easy to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the airplanes in "Air Force".

[Wmaker]

You haven't seen Dark Blue World.

...or Tora Tora Tora...or Battle Of Britain.

[Dichotomy]

Ya Guppy but we all know how easily amused I am

[LLogann]

The part where Affleck can't fit in either of them silly....................

What part of the Spit/P40 part was believable?

It is still, a movie. 

[Oldman731]

The only 40 drivers to have any real success at Pearl Harbor were Welch and Taylor.  Their fight sure didn't involve getting Zeros to collide with each other over the airfield

I thought the part where they shot Zekes down with pump shotguns was pretty authentic.

My very favorite line, though, was when the hero yelled "cover me!" as he ran across the airfield.  Right.  Cover him.

- oldman

[Baggy]

Didn't Dark Blue World use footage from the Battle of Britain?

[Muzzy]

We could go on and on about the inaccuracies of the movie.  I could have bought the basic plot (suspension of disbelief and all that) but failing to live up to the historical material is just plain bad hollywood. They could have learned so much about dogfighting simply by upping in the MA a couple of times.

My pet peeves (feel free to add your own)

1. P40's can't outrun zeroes (okay, they were on the deck, fine) but out turn them?  What IJN pilot worth his salt would fall for a lame trick like that?
2. The really loud, stupid radio chatter during the bombing mission.
3. Cuba Gooding Jr's scenes with the CO of the West Virginia when the latter is dying. Sorry...in 1941 mess attendants didn't talk to Captains like they were their children.
4. Wasting resources upping 25's off of a supercarrier when CGI would have been more realistic.
5. Same deal with the destroyers getting hit in the harbor.

[Perrine]

My pet peeves (feel free to add your own)

1. P40's can't outrun zeroes (okay, they were on the deck, fine) but out turn them?  What IJN pilot worth his salt would fall for a lame trick like that?

Let's take fatigue into account ( at least in the hollyweird world)

The IJN fighter pilots may be tired of the long journey to get to pearl harbor.  Because of this IJN pilots can't pull higher g manuver while benny & co were emotionally pumped up ready to pull high Gs and shoot some planes.