The film opens in 1923 and shows farm boys Rafe and Danny as close friends in Tennessee, who share a passion for flying... They join the United States Army Air Corps in 1941 and both show an ability at being daring pilots while training under the command of Jimmy Doolittle, in Long Island...
Their life is changed when they encounter a beautiful dedicated nurse called Evelyn Johnson...
Rafe falls for Evelyn and volunteers for service in the Battle of Britain
He continues his love affair by letters with Evelyn who ends up with Danny in Hawaii - Pearl Harbor, where the US Pacific fleet is gathered at rest...
News comes back that he was shot down over the English Channel, and assumed dead
Keenly distressed, Evelyn eventually finds relief in the arms of Danny... They go too far, too soon, leading to exactly what you would expect...
By the time that Rafe reappears, Evelyn is in love with Danny
Kate Beckinsale brings warmth and intelligent sweetness to her character... She is quietly at a loss, holding back her tears, when she finds out she must choose between the two charming fighters she loves...
The film honors those who underwent Pearl Harbor
The great shots plunge viewers into mass destruction, chaos and incompetence... We see hundreds of Japanese planes approaching towards their unsuspecting targets
Sailors sauntering along the decks of their moored vessels when the torpedo planes, armed with special shallow-running devices, headed for the battleships, their prime targets
Bay's cameras move sometimes fast, and sometimes in slow motion to show the savage blow
Scenes, out of focus, evoke the sense of disorientation and fear, also of bravery in the midst of confusion in the island's base hospital...
'Pearl Harbor' is a fight between love and glory against a backdrop of America's entry into World War II... The film has some moments of excitement and grandeur
Schwartzman gets some extremely nice-looking scenes of the Hawaiian twilight... His shots of Katesitting atop a rock, reading Rafe's love-letters, totally unaware to the striking Hawaiian surf that threatens to pull her out to seaare incredibly beautiful
