Pearl Harbor (the Film) is Attacked
Despite the big name stars and special effects, Pearl Harbor received a lot of criticism for the plethora of things it got wrong. While it earned the sixth highest box office earner of 2001, it received poor critical reception. But worse, veterans and historians panned the film. Some errors were laughable, like having Japanese torpedo bombers attacking the nearby airfield.
As historian Harry Gailey puts it, “What are they going to torpedo on an airfield?” Other errors are even more baffling. While the two heroes head to an airport to find fighter planes to try to repel the attack, they manage to take off from an airfield under active attack. In real life, pilots George Welch and Kenneth Taylor were able to get planes in the air to fight the onslaught, they did so from a smaller airport father away, one not under active assault.
