Pearl

Entertaining movie about an awful event. I Watched it again for the first time since I saw it on TV, and was impressed. It actually touched on the prejudices of the time quite well. The acting was good, and it was fun to go down memory lane with some familiar faces-most who were in the smaller parts (Brian Dennehy, Gregg Henry, Adam Arkin, Max Gail). I liked Dennis Weaver's performance better now than in the 70s when "McCloud" was fresh in my mind, because his character was not that likable. For Robert Wagner fans, I would say this is one of his better roles...Especially if you measure his performance by hotness, as well as acting and character likability.

The military as a source of soap opera-type stories had been little-mined in the 1970s, though it certainly was going to be in the future (at least on American network TV) with shows like "For Love and Honor", "Emerald Point N.A.S." (also starring Weaver), and, arguably, "Tour of Duty" (not to mention the champ of them all, "China Beach"). To take the sweeping course of events in 1941 Hawaii and use them as a source of stories more about personal lives and interactions than grand strategic plans was an interesting course of action; somehow it must have mostly succeeded or there likely never would have been the (far superior) "Winds of War" a few years later on the same network.

The cast list alone semaphores the message that this is an EBGAC (everybody got a check) movie, the sort where all the available character actors in the waiting room got a chance to do their shtick. The script is the classic Hollywood "melodrama" diluted for commercial-interrupted TV. Stirling and Hy start out slow with cut-out characters and stock situations and then push them faster, through, past, around and beyond the actual "historical" situation that is supposed to be the excuse for this miniseries.

I don't know how many nights this thing originally ran, but I watched it on VHS in two installments. While I originally began to watch it to laugh, by the time it was over, I was thoroughly caught up. There are cartoon characterizations and a lot of odd anachronistic social comment, as well as some blatant emotional button pushing. All in all, everybody did their job well, earned their check, got another credit on their SAG CV, and by the time the final credits rolled, I felt that my time was not wasted.

There are worse ways to waste one's time than watching this. It is well casted, particularly by Weaver as martinet career soldier. Anyone who has been in any branch of the military any length of time will recognize the type, also Dennehy and Gail do well as other types of career soldiers...

Though probably perceived as a cheesy mini series, this has a lot of good performances, notably Max Gail as a career NCO and Weaver as a negative stereotype of a career officer. It is also fairly faithful to history, something I found refreshing...