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Pearl Harbor (2001) Ben Affleck ................... Rafe McCawley Josh Hartnett ................. Danny Walker Kate Beckinsale ............. Evelyn Johnson Cuba Gooding, Jr. .......... Dorie Miller Leland Orser ............... Major Jackson Synopsis To call Pearl Harbor a throwback to old-time war movies is something of an understatement. Director Michael Bay's epic take on the bombing that brought the United States into World War II hijacks every war movie situation and cliché (some affectionate, some stale) you've ever seen and gives them a shiny, glossy spin until the whole movie practically gleams. Planes glisten, water sparkles, trees beckon--and Bay's re-creation of the bombing itself, a 30-minute sequence that's tightly choreographed and amazingly photographed, sets the action movie bar up quite a few notches. And in updating the classic war film, Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) use that old plot standby, the love triangle--this time, it's between two pilots (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett) and a nurse (Kate Beckinsale) who find themselves stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, during what they thought would be a nice, sunny tour of duty. Then, of course, history intervened. For the first 90 minutes of the movie, Affleck and Beckinsale find a nice, appealing chemistry that plays on his strengths as a movie star and hers as a serious actress--he gives her glamour, she gives him smarts. Their truncated romance--the beginning of which is told in flashback so we can get right to the point where he has to leave her to go to England--works, thanks to their charm. They're no Kate and Leo from Titanic (a strategy the film strives hard toward), but they're pretty darn adorable in their own right. Hartnett, as the not entirely unwelcome third wheel, squints bravely but makes only a slight dent in the film. Everyone else in Pearl Harbor--from Cuba Gooding Jr.'s brave navy seaman to Jon Voight's able impersonation of FDR--is pretty much a glorified walk-on, taking a backseat to the pyrotechnics and action sequences that keep the three-hour film in fairly constant motion. But when that action does take hold, Pearl Harbor is quite a thrilling ride. From Amazon.com Availability Video and DVD; easy to find. The Leland Factor Small, but in his own way pivotal. He first appears at the hospital during the attack, then before the Doolittle raid when Evelyn comes to talk to him, and finally during the raid at the Intelligence command post. Allison's Review I don't have much love for the plots of Michael Bay movies. The movies themselves look gorgeous, and, as someone on the internet once put it, "Bay can blow shit up real good". But the stories are generally trite. (That, and I can't stand Josh Hartnett. He's like the male version of Renee Zellweger--no eyeballs whatsoever, just slits below his eyebrows.) So no, I did not watch the entirety of Pearl Harbor, though given the number of personal favorite character actors in the cast, I probably should have. Leland's appearances are fairly brief, but to me they were devastating. He's brought into the hospital during the attack with a very bad neck wound, and falls under the temporary care of Evelyn, the heroine. If you rent the DVD with the extended scenes, it shows her lifting away some cloth to see his wound, and Leland's cut artery liberally squirts her with blood. It was fairly nasty. Evelyn used her own finger to staunch the flow. The camera occasionally cuts to his point of view, and since he's in shock the camera shakes badly as it looks up at Evelyn and the doctor. I found that to be incredibly effective. Poor Major Jackson--Leland did a wonderful job of showing how terrified he was, asking if he was going to die and pleading for Evelyn to stay with him. Much later, Evelyn ambushes a healed Major Jackson at his jeep to ask him a favor, and out comes my inner twelve-year-old fangirl. The way he recognized her reminded me very much of the last time I talked to an actor I know, and I thought he was incredibly cute the way he smiled at Evelyn and indicated the scar on his neck. I was thrilled to see that Leland got some action at the command post after he escorted Evelyn in so she could hopefully overhear the radio messages coming in from the Doolittle raid. (Though I had to wonder if that would have been possible.) For some reason I found it to be very affecting, the way Jackson watched Evelyn through the windows as she tried to maneuver closer to the open door of the room he was in. It was like he was thinking of the reason she was there and what she might be feeling. Plus the look on his face as they could hear the mission go sour, and the way the camera pulled away from the radio room as everyone looked at the floor in consternation except for Jackson, who continued watching Evelyn in the outer room... it slew me. Very affecting performance. Verdict If you're a Leland fan, definitely watch his scenes--they're worth the price of buying and/or renting the movie. /back |