Pearl (1978)

Depicts the lives and loves of military personnel before, during and after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A 70's miniseries soap opera, with great f/x (even though they stole them from "Tora,Tora,Tora")

Yes this is just a big soap opera, and most of the stories are just filler to set up the attack,but there is a strong feeling of a throw back to films of bygone days here that makes me like this even though i know it stinks. The attack last longer in this than it did in real life, and they keep leaping from it to some more soap opera filler that get very annoying after a while. The cast is ok but with all the corny line they have it's not really fair to say they are not good , they do what they can. I grew up in the 70's and these miniseries were a steady T.V. diet of the time,so some of my fondness for this mess is because it takes me back to younger days, and as such some will like it for that others will be less kind . March 9, 2007

Real, unpretentious action! Question: Where's the DVD reissue?

In watching this movie, I saw and felt the feelings of a people immersed in everyday and ordinary things just before the horrible events ensued. My honest opinion of this movie, in spite of it's warts or short-commings, is that it ranks very well alongside Midway and Tora Tora Tora. I can see them reissued in a three volume DVD set, if that day will ever come. One could judge this movie by todays (2006) spoiled standards and afford to be over-critical, and scornful just becouse it may not have the pretentious, glossy, computer-generated actions, token characters in their designated areas, and stale repititious performances or historical revisions. No, never, I liked this movie becouse it was honest and convincingly, real any day compared to the now-stale, (and molded) cheese of Pearl Harbor (2001)
Everything else aside! This movie deserves DVD reissue and is in sore need of it. The state of VHS-ism only serves this movie and it's genra an injustice and disrespect! I've emailed Warner Brothers asking for it but I only get a casual brush-off, like response.
I'm sure if the right people are in on the film transfer, they would correct the Japanse speaking (in English) problem with sub-titles, may change the mono sound into stereo and well... that inter-ethnic scene with Holly and Doug could have been a little more wet but I wont complain. So long as their are some souls out there who care a little harder about good movies and are trying to save them from VHS oblivion!

-Helios R October 10, 2006

Moving Mini-series

I will admit at times that the story is a bit overdone. But overall I really enjoyed this story or series of stories. Most of the war epics I have seen spend a lot of time on special effects over actual characterization and story. I personally did not see that Ben Affleck movie because I think that he is a terrible and over-rated actor! I enjoyed this movie because the stories all touched a nerve. I loved Angie Dickenson's character. This is saying a lot considering that I am not a fan of hers! I have met people that are a little like all of the characters in this movie. I give it five stars because frankly, any movie made 20 or more years ago is probably better than the stuff I have seen produced today. March 23, 2004

A sneak attack on the viewer...

This has to be one of the saddest attempts to bring the Pearl Harbor attack to the screen that I have ever witnessed. Part of that sadness comes from so many good actors trying their best, but ultimately in vain, to save this turkey.

The names just leap out at you; Robert Wagner, Dennis Weaver, Angie Dickinson, Lesley Ann Warren, Brian Dennehy, Richard Anderson, Adam Arkin, Marion Ross, and others. You'd think with a cast like that, the project would be a real winner. Apparently, that's what the producers thought as well, which is why the entire enterprise is practically on auto-pilot, left to direct itself.

Large chunks of footage from the classic film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" are inserted ham-fistedly in a precursor to the near-criminal lifting of an entire action segment of "Clear and Present Danger" in an episode of "JAG". Even worse, the producers were too lazy to add subtitles for the Japanese sequences, opting instead to use some very weak voice-over translations. The effect adds even more to the cheap feel of the production.

Time is oddly relative here, expanded to a point that a given part of the attack that in reality lasted a few hours becomes a day-long event, yet the dialogue, position of the sun throughout, and other strange anomalies all point to a short lapse of time. Once the attack is finally over, there is little or no activity in the hospital, and so Dr. Carol Lang can simply wander out the door as if it had just been another day at the office.

Other glaring errors pop up again and again. For example, we see the same shot of an ambulance pulling up in front of the hospital, and a man in a white suit exit his car and run over to the ambulance... three times, all in the space of twenty minutes.

Angie Dickinson's character spends the entire second half of the film wandering around Pearl Harbor in a daze, visiting Hickam Field, and winding up in a final confrontation with her husband that strains credibility well past the breaking point, and wastes time for everyone; character, actor, and viewer alike.

Sadly, there are some good moments here, but they are so buried beneath the tripe of melodrama and soap opera antics that they can't salvage the project.

The big names do their best, of course. Robert Wagner is the main hero, and Dennis Weaver plays the uptight, bureaucratic, bigoted and power-hungry Colonel who Wagner works for. Both are great. A young Adam Arkin is just fine in his role, and when she isn't being a soap opera diva and spouting such tripe as (in answer to the question of what's going to happen when she confronts her husband the Colonel), "Pearl Harbor... MY version!" The final resolution for Lesley Ann Warren's Dr. Carol Lang will also make you want to cringe, as it is equally poorly written.

Some of the particularly stand-out performances are mostly among the supporting players, probably because they were left to their own devices to portray their characters their own way. Audra Lindley (forever famous as Mrs. Roper on "Three's Company"), does worlds with what little screen time she has as the General's wife. Marion Ross (another TV favorite, Mrs. Cunningham of "Happy Days"), is absolutely stellar as the wife of Commander North, who in turn is played brilliantly by Richard Anderson (Oscar Goldman of "Six Million Dollar Man" fame). Yet all three are but bit players throughout the proceedings.

The real tragedy is not that this miniseries is melodrama, or that there are one or two weak performances, or even that we must endure a wealth poorly-written dialog. The tragedy here is that the producers thought they could take one of the major historical events of the Twentieth Century and of American History, turn it into a soap opera, and get by with splicing in action scenes from a classic war film. Even worse, they made little or no effort to make the project actually work. August 25, 2002

For anyone not impressed with overdone special effects

This miniseries is obviously wasted on anyone who doesnt like classics. The story is told from several different points of view and i think it gives a more humanistic view of the attack then The 2001 movie does. The special effects Arent Drastically over done as in the new hollywood version. For someone who likes a more dramatic movie and less of a Hollywood overkill this would suit perfectly.
This is definatly not a movie for anyone who has seen and enjoyed the special effects in Die hard. December 8, 2001

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