Pearl Harbor Historical Analysis

Is the film Pearl Harbor, based on the horrific Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s actions afterwards, an accurate portrayal of the infamous event or simplified to appeal to audiences? The general storyline is correct in comparison to history, but the film portrays altered incidents. While the film is accurate to history in several ways, numerous instances arose where the story was changed slightly to focus on the teamwork of the men and women involved and create a more heartbreaking effect for audiences. Multiple scenes of the 2001 film contain minor discrepancies with history, such as the account of African American cook Dorie Miller and his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Miller was a cook on the battleship USS West Virginia (Hull). During the historical attack, as seen in the film, he manned a machine gun he was never taught how to use and shot down several Japanese planes (“Dorie Miller (1919–1943)”). However, further details of his heroism were omitted, including Miller carrying several wounded men to shelter during the attack (Hull). He also moved the captain of his battleship to a safer place, with the help of another man

The first inaccuracy involves the number of raiders. The film did not portray the 80 men that participated in the raid (Ference). On the other hand, the film did portray that the men volunteered and knew the raid was a suicidal, top secret mission (Ference). The film was also accurate in its portrayal of the raiders learning how to launch their planes in 400 yards rather than a full-length runway (Hamilton 269). Bay made the group of raiders seem smaller to the audience to focus on the teamwork and close friendship of the small group, invoke more empathy for the characters, and keep a more personal bond between the audience and said