Movie "Pearl Harbor": Spectacular Release And Its Aftermath
$5 million premiere and US Navy's help for the studio
In exchange for help the filmmakers provided the Pentagon with an early script

Among hundreds of articles on "Pearl Harbor" appeared in main stream media, the one titled "Joint Exercise" written by Tony Perry for Los Angeles Times covers the intricate interaction between military and the filmmakers most extensively. According to Perry, from the beginning the film project was developed "in an aura of mutual self-interest between the filmmakers and the military, particularly the Navy": "After a meeting between then-Defense Secretary William Cohen, Bay and Bruckheimer, "Pearl Harbor enjoyed unprecedented support from the military. Including the right to film on the carrier Constellation and at Pearl Harbor and other military bases in Hawaii In exchange for substantial help from them the film makers provided the Pentagon with an early script."




The Post-Vietnam "MASH"-style portrayal of the military was shunned.
Pressed by military officials, the filmmakers toned down or dropped dialogue thought to have a disrespectful or anti-military edge and also changed the way certain key historic figures were portrayed. The military asked for the portrayals to be more historically accurate and thus less likely to engender controversy. During filming, several uniformed and civilian employees of the federal government were on location offering numerous suggestions to Bay and Bruckheimer," Perry reported.

A lot of changes were made

The Navy's first concern was with the script's use of hard language. According to Perry, "Enlisted sailors talked insultingly to officers, and nurses were portrayed as busty, libidinous and on the prowl for husbands." The script "had a kind of post-Vietnam approach to the portrayal of the military. I mentioned that it could be seen as disrespectful to the veterans." Daniel Martinez, U.S. Park Service historian at the USS Arizona Memorial and Museum at Pearl Harbor is quoted as saying in the Perry's article "

A lot of changes were made after the back-and-forth between the Navy and the filmmakers. Among them Perry cites three examples:

  • Most of the language the Navy found offensive was rewritten or removed. The young pilots are free-spirited but sport none of the "MASH"-style disdain for superiors. Tom Sizemore, playing a grizzled airplane mechanic, jumps to his feet and gives a salute when he first meets a young pilot played by Josh Hartnett. The original script had Sizemore showing contempt for the fresh-faced rookie.
  • Ben Affleck's character forms fast friendships with pilots in the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. The original script had a hard-nosed clash between Affleck and one of the RAFers.
  • The filmmakers were less flexible on details involving the nurses. However the overall portrayal stresses the bravery and resourcefulness of the nursing corps when confronted with thousands of casualties amid the carnage, not their sexual proclivities.
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