By: Baik Gi Won, Celine Chong, Elyssa
Lee, Jean Ng, Liu Aofei, Mao Haitong,
Nico Teo

Pearl Harbour is a 2001 American action war
film directed by Michael Bay and produced by
Bay, long-time partner Jerry Bruckheimer and
Randall Wallace.
The movie is a dramatic reminiscence of
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour Naval
Base and the subsequent Doolittle Raid during
World War II in conjunction with the complicated
love story of the three main characters, Rafe,
Danny and Evelyn.

Despite receiving negative reviews from
critics, Pearl Harbour became one of the
highest-grossing films of 2001.
The movie won the award for Sound Effects
Editing at the 2002 Academy Awards. At the 2001
Golden Raspberry Awards Pearl Harbour was
nominated for six awards: Worst Picture, Worst
Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Couple,
Worst Actor (Ben Affleck), and Worst Remake or
Sequel.

-Rafe McCawley, a First Lieutenant in the U.S.
Army Air Corps, is a childhood friend of Danny
Walker and a lover of Nurse Evelyn Johnson. He
voluntarily serves the British Royal Air Force and
after being shot down over the English Channel,
he is presumed dead in action. However, he
returns alive on 6th December 1941 only to
discover the love relationship that developed
between Evelyn and Danny. After returning from
the top-secret mission to Japan, Rafe marries
Evelyn and raises Danny, a child between Evelyn
and Danny, as his own.
 -Danny
Walker, a First Lieutenant in the
U.S. Army Air Corps, is a childhood friend
of Rafe McCawley and also a lover of
Nurse Evelyn Johnson. He falls in love
with Evelyn after the presumed death of
Rafe. During the top-secret mission to
Japan, when captured by the Japanese
soldiers, Danny gets shot while trying to
protect Rafe. Danny dies, asking Rafe to
be the father of his unborn child with
Evelyn.

-Nurse Evelyn Johnson, a Navy nurse, who
meets Rafe during his physical examination and
falls in love with him. However, after Rafe’s
presumed death, she gradually falls in love with
Danny and becomes pregnant. When Danny dies
during a mission, she marries Rafe.
The characters of Rafe and Danny are loosely
based on 2nd Lt. George Welch and 2nd Lt.
Kenneth M. Taylor, but a great deal of the details
of their real exploits during the battle has been
changed.
 Welch and Taylor did race in a Buick to Wheeler
Airfield, and they were the first two pilots off
the ground during the attack. Between them,
Welch and Taylor claimed at least six of the 29
Japanese aircraft lost during the Pearl Harbor
attack However, this is where the similarities
end. Welch and Taylor were not involved in a
love triangle and did not go on the Doolittle
Raid.

 July
– October 1940
 Air campaign of the Luftwaffe (German Air
Force) against the Royal Air Force
 Objective: gain air superiority in the British
Isles so as to invade Britain (Operation Sea
Lion)
 In the end, due to tactical errors and British
resistance, Germany retreated and failed to
achieve its objectives
 Considered to be one of the turning points in
WWII – first time Germany did not succeed
 December
7, 1941
 Surprise military strike conducted by
Imperial Japanese Navy against US Naval
Base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii
 A major engagement of WWII, and great
shock to the Americans
 Caused domestic support for isolatism which
had been strong to disappear
 US declared war on Japan the next day,
entering WWII, bringing the US into active
alliance and full participation in the
European Theatre
 The
attack was intended as a preventive
action in order to keep the US Pacific Fleet
from influencing the war that the Empire of
Japan was planning in Southeast Asia, against
Britain and the Netherlands, as well as the
U.S. in the Phillipines.


Destroyed important American fleet units
Delivered a severe blow to morale as those ships
were the prestige ships of any navy at that time
 Also
said by many to be retaliation for
cutting off their much needed supply of oil
 The base was attacked by Japanese aircraft
(a total of 353, in two waves) launched from
six aircraft carriers
 Damage: 4 US Navy Battleships sunk, 4 more
damaged; three cruisers, three destroyers,
an anti-aircraft training ship, one minelayer,
and188 U.S. aircraft destroyed; 402
personnel were killed and 1,282 were
wounded
 Japanese
losses were light, with 29 aircraft
and five midget submarines lost, and 65
servicemen killed or wounded, with only one
Japanese sailor captured
 The Americans had deciphered Japan's code
earlier and knew about a planned attack
before it actually occurred. However, due to
difficulty in deciphering intercepted
messages, the Americans failed to discover
Japan's target location before the attack
occurred
 April
18, 1942
 First air raid by the United States to strike
the Japanese Home Islands (Honshu) during
World War II
 Demonstrated that Japan itself was
vulnerable to American air attack
 Exploited a vital psychological need to boost
American Morale and to cause the Japanese
to begin doubting their leadership
 Opportunity
for U.S. retaliation after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour
 As the US lost its air bases in the Philippines,
and sending the few remaining aircraft
carriers to within strike range from Japan
was much too risky
 A young Navy officer suggested to attack
Japan with medium bombers which would
take-off from an aircraft carrier
 Sixteen
U.S. Army Air Forces B-25B Mitchell
medium bombers were launched from the
U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep
in the Western Pacific Ocean
 The plan called for them to bomb military
targets in Japan, and to continue westward
to land in China, as it was impossible to land
a medium bomber on the Hornet
 Takeoff
was scheduled for April 19 in the
afternoon, but in April 18, 1942, at dawn,
the task force was detected by a Japanese
patrol boat. It was quickly sunk by one of the
cruisers, but it was correctly assumed that
their presence was already reported to
Tokyo.

Japanese wartime documents reveal that the
Japanese patrol boat did report that it met an
American carrier group, but the report was
ignored in disbelief
 The
first bomb landed in Tokyo. The raid was
reported back to Washington as a success and
to increase Japanese confusion, president
Roosevelt declared that the bombers that
struck Japan took off from Shangri-La, a
mythological place in the Himalayas.
 The aircraft sent to bring their reception
team and the homing beacon crashed a day
earlier, so all but one crew parachuted or
crash-landed in various places in China that
night.
 All
of the aircraft involved in the bombing
were lost and 11 crewmen were either killed
or captured—with several of the captured
men executed by the Japanese Army in China
 In retaliation, the Japanese military began
the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign to intimidate
the Chinese from helping downed American
airmen, killing an estimated 250,000 civilians
while searching for Doolittle's men
The raid caused negligible material damage to
Japan, but it succeeded in its goal of boosting
American morale, and casting doubt in Japan of
the ability of the Japanese military leaders
 Forced Japan to withdraw its powerful aircraft
carrier force from the Indian Ocean to defend
their Home Islands
 Contributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's
decision to attack Midway which turned into a
decisive rout of the Japanese Navy by the U.S.
Navy near Midway Island in the Central Pacific.

 Got
the dates and order of events right
 Attempted to make the events more realistic


used WWII vintage aircrafts in the filming of the
7 December attack
Filmed at actual locations on O’ahu such as Ford
Island, Fort Shafter and Pearl Harbour
 Consulted
historians, military and survivors in
both the US and Japan in practically every
aspect of the story (though whether they
actually followed their research was another
thing altogether)
 Portrayed


as war heroes
Movie: Collected their badges near the end of
the film
Historical: Nurses were indeed held high in
regard during the war itself
 Used
primitive means to mark the incoming
wounded


Movie: Used lipstick to mark their foreheads and
Coke bottles to hold their blood
Historical: Then Navy Nurse Lenore Terrell
Rickert says that they did anything they could,
unsanitary or not, to speed up things
 Depicted


the Japanese as heroic
Movie: They showed the Japanese taking the war
preparations very seriously, and how the pilots
were ready to sacrifice themselves for the good
of their country
Historical: The Japanese had a formality about
what they did
 Movie:
He used a gun to shoot down one of
the Japanese fighter planes, and was
awarded a medal for his efforts
 Historical:


He was the first African-American to win the
Navy Cross after gunning down a plane, even
though he hadn’t been trained in machine gun
use
He was a cook’s helper during the war
 US
Navy was misinformed that they were
going to war


They were caught off-guard when the Japanese
attacked, they thought it was just a drill
Historical: The Japanese indeed sprang a surprise
attack on the Americans in the wee hours of 7
December 1941
 Only
two US airmen shot down Japanese
planes during the attack


Movie: Rafe and Danny
Historical: Lt. Kenneth Taylor and George Welch
shot down 6-10 Japanese planes between them
 The
scenes early in the film are dated 1923,
yet Danny's father is a crop duster, an
occupation which didn't exist until after the
war.
 Rafe McCawley has volunteered to join an
RAF Eagle Squadron. In reality however, this
could not happen.

Until December 7, 1941, active duty US military
personnel can not serve with a belligerent nation
whilst the US was neutral. Rafe would have had
to resign from the US Army Air Corp and re-enlist
into the RAF.
 When
Rafe first meets Evelyn, she is
assessing whether or not he is fit to fly.
However, at no time during the war did
nurses in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corp assess
whether pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air
Corps could fly. The Navy Nurse Corp and the
Army Air Corp have no connection
whatsoever.
 Nurse
Betty claims to be 17 years old, saying
she lied about her age to be accepted into
the Navy Nurse Corps. However, Navy Nurses
were required to be registered nurses to join
the Navy Nurse Corps, which meant three
years of prior training as well as passing a
state board examination. As such, Betty
would have had to have become a nurse at
age 14 for her age of 17 to ring true.

In the film, Admiral Kimmel is portrayed as a
vigilant leader certain of an imminent attack on
his base, and doing everything in his power to try
to convince Washington of its inevitability.
However, most historians tell us that Kimmel
received several warnings about a possible
attack on Pearl Harbour, but dismissed them.
Kimmel did receive this report about an hour
before the Japanese planes arrived (as portrayed
in the film), but he chose not to go to general
quarters due to the fact that there had been a
number of false sub sightings in recent months,
and he wanted to confirm the Ward's report
before acting on it (which is not how he reacts in
the movie)
 In
the film, Admiral Kimmel is shown
receiving the message which revealed that
the Japanese government had ordered the
destruction of all coding equipment. In
reality, this message was never
communicated to Kimmel.
 Kimmel was not on a golf course on the
morning of the attack, nor was he notified of
the Japanese embassy leaving Washington,
D.C. prior to the attack. The first official
notification of the attack was received by
General Short several hours after the attack
had ended.
 At
one point during the battle, Danny says "I
think World War II just started." This makes
little sense, as:


In 1941, World War I was still called The Great
War; it wasn't officially called World War I until
1948, so the term 'World War II' had no meaning
at the time of the Pearl Harbour attack.
World War II did not begin with Pearl Harbour.
American involvement began with the attacks,
but the European portion of the war had been
going on since 1939, when Germany invaded
Poland.
 According
to Rafe, the American P-40s can't
outrun the Japanese Zeros, so they had to
outfly them. Both of these claims are
inaccurate. The P-40 can outrun a Zero with
ease, but a Zero is much more manoeuvrable
than a P-40.

In fact, the standard tactic for American and
Allied pilots, from the AVG (Flying Tigers) in late1940 through 1941 and the Pacific War, was basic
"hit-and-run." They would dive on Zeroes, get
what "hits" they could, and then outrun them.
 Nurse
Betty dies during the Pearl Harbor
attack, but no Navy Nurses died as a result of
enemy action during the entirety of World
War II, including the attack on Pearl Harbour
 In the film, 11 "Zero" fighters were destroyed
or downed. In reality, only nine Zero fighters
were destroyed by any means (i.e. antiaircraft guns, planes) in the real bombing of
Pearl Harbour.

Doris Miller (the black cook)’s heroism in the Pearl
Harbour attack has been exaggerated. In the movie,
he comforts Captain Bennion, who has been mortally
wounded by a torpedo striking his ship, and is with
him when he dies. Miller delivers the Captain's last
orders to the ship's executive officer and then mans a
machine gun. In reality, Miller picked him up after he
was wounded (by fragments when one of
the Tennessee's gun turrets exploded) and attempted
to carry him to a first-aid station. The Captain
refused to leave his post and remained on the bridge
and continued to direct the battle until he died of his
wounds just before the ship was abandoned. While
Miller did man an antiaircraft gun, he was never
credited with any kills (as opposed to the one shown
in the film). Apparently he did not even know how to
shoot the gun.
Upon hearing of the attack, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt laments that the attack occurred "with
our entire fleet at anchor". In reality, the
aircraft carriers (which were the real target of
the attack) were not at Pearl Harbour on
December 7.
 The scene where Roosevelt demands that the
Army and Navy find a way to strike back at
Japan but is told by Admiral Nimitz and General
George Marshall that such an attack is impossible
is fictitious, as in reality, Nimitz and Marshall
were as much advocates of striking back directly
at Japan as was Roosevelt himself.

The scene where the polio-crippled Roosevelt
miraculously stands up is also completely
fabricated. Without braces on his legs, Roosevelt
could barely stand, much less, walk.
 In the film, Lt. Col. Doolittle recruits Rafe,
Danny, Red and Gooz to fly on the Raid. However
these four men are single-engined fighter pilots
who would not have been qualified to fly multiengined bombers (such as the B-25 Mitchell). In
reality, the Doolittle Raiders all came from the
17th Bombardment Group (Medium) from South
Carolina. No one participated in both the Pearl
Harbor attack and the Doolittle Raid.

 During
the Doolittle Raid, the pilots' radio
transmissions can be heard in Pearl Harbor.
From such a distance, this would have been
impossible in 1942.
 Only a few military leaders and planners
knew about the raid, and President Roosevelt
himself did not receive a detailed briefing
until a few days before the attack. The world
learned about it only when Japanese radio
broadcast the news.
 Rafe
and Evelyn use a winch to raise
themselves up alongside the RMS Queen
Mary, which is clearly seen in its original
Cunard colors. However, in 1939 the Queen
Mary had been painted battleship gray in
preparation for it being fitted out to serve as
a troop carrier for the Royal Navy. As such,
the scene (set in mid-1941) should have
depicted the ship with its gray colors rather
than Cunard colors.
 During
Dorie Miller's boxing match, a sailor
can be seen betting with a $5 bill with the
"Hawaii" overprint on it. This was a special
World War II currency with the word 'Hawaii'
overprinted on the front and back, and the
serial numbers and seal changed from green
to brown, done so that the currency could be
declared worthless if there was a Japanese
invasion. These notes were not issued until
July 1942, seven months after the attack on
Pearl Harbour.
 During
the pan-view shots of the Battle of
Britain, the British Spitfires were shown
flying in the American-style four-ship
formation (left). The British actually flew in
three-ship, or VIC formation (right).
 At
the time of the attack, the battleships in
"Battleship Row" were tied directly together,
not spaced 50 yards apart as they were in
the movie.
What did they hope to achieve from the audience?
 To
describe the two historical event, Attack
of Pearl Habour and the Doolittle Raid
 Recreate the events for audience’s easy
sampling
 As an historically accurate dramatic
portrayal of the events
 Bay wanted to graphically portray the horrors
of war and was not interested in primarily
marketing the final product to a teen and
young adult audience
what I think it will do is spark people’s
interest to research what happened at Pearl
Harbor, so they can again find out the truth and
the nuances that we couldn’t put in a two-hourplus movie.
 “Well,
think it creates interest in a fascinating
subject. Hopefully kids who don’t know about it
will get interested and want to read more about.
 We do tell the story of Pearl Harbor, of course, but
we do it in a very short, abridged version, the
CliffsNotes version. But it is there, and I think kids
will get into it. I think a lot of them will look at it
and say, Did that really happen? And it did. It
happened.”- Jerry Bruckheimer, co-producer
I
what we do is we suck the audience in. We
lure them into that just idyllic lifestyle. All these
men and women of that time talk about this
idyllic lifestyle. ” – Michael Bay, director and coproducer
 “So
hope that they understand what happened
and they understand what this meant to America
and that we’re not invincible. It’s interesting.” –
Michael Bay, director and co-producer
 “I
 “The
story should begin in America’s isolationism
and end with America’s coming back from the
ashes. I said it was like Doctor Zhivago, where
you have the Russian revolution, but you’re not
fascinated by the historical context. You’re not
trying to tell the history. You’re fascinated by
the human dimensions of courage and
sacrifice and pain and how this historical
event affects a human life. What makes an
event interesting is telling it through the
context of people.” – Randall Wallace,
screenwriter
 “The
heart of the tale is much broader and more
thematic. It’s about Americans rising to an
occasion and about the sacrifices of these
people. It stimulates people to read the actual
history. Films create more awareness and
more interest. But by seeing this movie they may
become interested in it and start to read
actual accounts and find out exactly who
Franklin Roosevelt was, who Jimmy Doolittle was,
exactly what happened. I don’t feel that we do a
disservice and certainly the idea is to honor the
people and not take advantage of them by using
their stories.- Randall Wallace, screenwriter
Ideology Affecting Production
 Pro-America
 American
military supremacy
Compare with Tora! Tora! Tora!(1970)
Vietnam War
 Bush Administration period(2001)
Jerry Bruckheimer, pro-Bush
Gulf War (1990)
Japanese in Pearl Harbor
 Victimisation
of America
No mention of casualties suffered by Japan
 Did not portray Japanese as inherently evil,
just ruthless.
 Due to global release, had to cater to
Japanese audience.
Race in Pearl Harbor
 Very
modern take on inter-racial relations
 Lack of presentation of racial tensions in the
1940s
 Afro-americans were restricted to stewards
and mess men in the Navy and truck drivers
in the Army.
 Attempts to desegregate viewed as mistakes
e.g. 1944 Battle of the Bulge, General Dwight D.
Eisenhower was rebuffed for using Afro-american
soldiers by Lieutenent General Walter Bedell
Smith
http://askville.amazon.com/historicalinaccuracies-movie-PearlHarbor/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=15868716
 http://web.archive.org/web/20010821171417/h
ttp://www.usni.org/navalhistory/articles01/NHs
uid8.html
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_(fil
m)#Historical_inaccuracies
 http://www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents
/Teaching_Pearl_Harbour.htm
 http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/modules.p
hp?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=51
