Second Look: "PEARL" (1978)

SECOND LOOK: "PEARL" (1978)

After recently watching the 2001 Michael Bay movie, "PEARL HARBOR", I decided to watch "PEARL", the three-part miniseries that aired on ABC back in 1978. Watching it made me realize how many years had passed since I last saw it.

Directed by Hy Averback and Alexander Singer, and written by Stirling Silliphant; "PEARL" focused upon the experiences and lives of the U.S. military, their families, and some civilians during the few days that surrounded the Japanese Navy's air attack at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands in December 1941. The miniseries featured a handful of subplots that featured the following cast of characters:

-Midge Forrest, the unhappy and promiscuous wife of a U.S. Army colonel, who is still mourning the death of her only child after many years.

-U.S. Army officer Colonel Jason Forrest, a strict and bigoted disciplinarian who is despised and feared by the men under his command.

-Wealthy Southern-born U.S. Army Captain Cal Lankford, who is Forrest's second-in-command and Midge Forrest's lover.

-Obstetrician Dr. Carol Lang, whose suicidal behavior attracts the attention of Captain Lankford.

-U.S. Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade Doug North, a naval officer and military brat who wants to break family tradition and become a civilian.

-Holly Nagata, a Japanese-American journalist for a small newspaper and past childhood friend of Doug's, who becomes his new love.

-U.S. Army Private Billy Zylowski, a troublesome soldier and talented painter who falls for an inexperienced prostitute named Shirley.

The subplots in "PEARL" seemed so extensive that I thought it would be best to list some (and I mean a lot) of observations that I made it:

*The pettiness of the peacetime military is revealed in great detail, especially the conflict regarding the unwanted Private Finger and a pinball machine.

*The miniseries also conveyed the intelligence and military establishments' bigotry toward non-whites on Hawaii in great detail. This was especially apparent in the showdown at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel between Dennis Weaver's Colonel Forrest and Tiana Alexander's Holly Nagata, which I found particularly delicious.

*I had forgotten that Adam Arkin, who portrayed Private Zylowski, was in this miniseries. His character is an ex-con who had joined the Army to avoid a prison sentence. He is also supposed to be a first-rate boxer. His character strongly reminds me of a New York version of Montgomery Clift's character in the 1953 movie, "FROM HERE TO ETERNITY" - especially his relationship with the prostitute Shirley.

*One of my favorite scenes featured Captain Lankford's success in preventing Dr. Carol Lang from committing suicide. Good acting from both Robert Wagner and Lesley Ann Warren.

*One of the most painful moments I have ever seen in "PEARL" turned out to be the scene in which Doug North meets Holly's Japanese-born parents and experiences their silent bigotry. Very powerful scene and great acting by Tiana Alexander, Gregg Henry, Seth Sakai and Marik Yamoto.

*Watching Colonel Forrest and the general's wife (portrayed by Audra Lindley) dance and fail to enjoy themselves was one of the funniest moments in the miniseries.

*"WHO IS THAT ORIENTAL PERSON WHO SPOKE TO YOU?" - The reason I had typed that quote in caps was to hint how loudly Audra Lindley said it to Dennis Weaver's character. Unforgettable moment.

*I was disappointed to notice that some of the female extras at the Officers' Ball sequence failed to look as if they had stepped out of a photo circa 1941.

*Some might take this the wrong way, but I am speaking from a cinematic point of view. The scenes featuring the Japanese Zeroes flying over Oahu looked very beautiful to me. However, I suspect the scenes are stock footage from the 1970 movie, "TORA! TORA! TORA!".

*Due to Angie Dickinson's superb performance, Midge Forrest's speech about the travails of Army officer wives was absolutely marvelous. And it was highlighted by two wonderful lines spoken by Midge:

"Jason, I look at you and see 10,000 chairs."
"You and I have been at war for the past eighteen years."

*Another memorable scene featured FBI agents' warning to Mr. Nagata about his pigeons and threat about imprisoning the entire family. Their warning and threat led to a disturbing moment in which Mr. Nagata kills his pigeons with his bare hands.

*Some of the footage showing civilians evacuating their homes looked as if they had been shot in the early 1950s, instead of a decade earlier.

*It is interesting how Colonel Forrest is so obsessed with the idea of a Japanese-American fifth-column on the Hawaiian Islands. According to two historians, the U.S. government harbored a similar obsession that went back several decades.

*The most painful and heart wrenching moment in "PEARL" was featured in a scene in which Holly grieved over Doug's body, while Carol Lang looked on, crying. Great performances by both Tiana Alexander and Lesley Ann Warren. There was a follow-up in which Holly visited the Norths, Doug's family, at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Not only was Alexander great in this scene, but also Richard Anderson, Mary Crosby and especially Marion Ross, as Doug's family.

*In "PEARL", the U.S. Army seemed to be the major military force for the Hawaiian Islands. But I could have sworn that in real life, the U.S. Navy served that role. Am I wrong . . . or right?

*Dennis Weaver and Robert Wagner have an interesting moment where their characters - Colonel Forrest and Captain Lankford - declare their loathing of each other. But the scene's pièce de résistance featured Midge's grand announcement of her intentions to divorce her husband. Her exit proved to be even more spectacular. I felt it was one of Angie Dickinson's finest moments on screen and she received great support from Dennis Weaver, Robert Wagner and Brian Dennehy.

*Another interesting scene centered on Admiral Nagumo's (portrayed by actor Sô Yamamura) criticism of his staff for commencing the attack on Pearl Harbor five minutes too early. What the admiral did not realize was that a snafu made by clerks at the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C. prevented Japan from officially declaring their intentions to the U.S. government on time.

There were many aspects in "PEARL" that strongly reminded me of "FROM HERE TO ETERNITY". Both productions featured an unhappily married and promiscuous officer's wife, an Army private that was unpopular with his company's non-coms and officers, another Army private falling in love with a prostitute and a setting featuring before, during and after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

But there were differences. The U.S. Navy was strongly represented by the character of Lieutenant j.g. Doug North, his father and some of the men under his command. Doug's romance with the Japanese-American journalist, Holly Nagata, seemed straight from the 1893 short story, "Madame Butterfly". Whereas the 1953 movie seemed to feature more enlisted men and non-coms, officers also had major roles in the 1978 miniseries.

While many might turn up their noses at the similarities between "PEARL" and "FROM HERE TO ETERNITY", there is an ironic footnote to this whole situation. About less than a year after "PEARL" aired on television, NBC followed up with its own miniseries adaptation of "FROM HERE TO ETERNITY".

"GETTYSBURG" (1993) Review

"GETTYSBURG" (1993) Review

In 1974, author Michael Shaara’s novel about the famous three-day battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was published.  Titled ”The Killer Angels”, it told the story of the Gettysburg battle from the viewpoint of certain military leaders – Confederates James Longstreet, Robert E. Lee and Lewis Armistead and Union leaders John Buford and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.  The novel went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.  But despite this accolade, Shaara never really made any money from the novel.  Nor did he live long enough to reap the benefits of his creation in the years to come – including the movie adaptation called ”GETTYSBURG”.  

Released in the fall of 1993, ”GETTYSBURG” starred Tom Berenger as Longstreet, Jeff Daniels as Chamberlain, Sam Elliot as Buford Richard Jordan as Armistead, and Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee.  The movie was directed by Ron Maxwell and produced by Ted Turner.  And despite being over four hours long (the running time is officially four hours and fourteen minutes), managed to surprisingly maintain my interest without me falling asleep.  And that is something that the 1939 Oscar winner, ”GONE WITH THE WIND” cannot boast.  True, one could say that ”GETTYSBURG” is a movie filled with a great deal of combat in compare to Margaret Mitchell’s story, which featured no combat at all.  But despite being a story about a famous battle, ”GETTYSBURG” featured a lot more narrative drama than it did combat action sequences.  And yet, director Maxwell managed to keep the movie at a good pace – with the exception of one period in the story.

Ronald Maxwell had not only directed ”GETTYSBURG”, but also wrote the screen adaptation of Shaara’s novel.  I must admit that Maxwell did a pretty good job in closely following the novel.  Although there were times when I wish he had taken a few short cuts.  Actually that time occurred in the series of conversations leading up to the final action sequence – namely Pickett’s Charge up Cemetery Ridge on the third day.  It simply lasted too damn long.  I had found Chamberlain’s discovery of his first sergeant’s death, Longstreet’s instructions to Pickett and the latter’s brigade commanders, and Longstreet’s gloomy prediction about the Charge dramatically satisfying.  But honestly . . . I could have done without Armistead’s speech about Virginians to the English observer – Lieutenant Colonel Fremantle (James Lancaster), Armistead’s last conversation with Richard Garnett, Chamberlain’s conversation with Hancock and the sequence featuring the Confederate troops cheering Lee.  It was only during this last act that the movie threatened to bore me.

There had been complaints that ”GETTYSBURG” had failed to make any allusions to the slavery issue.  Well, whoever made those complaints had obviously failed to see the movie.  Not only did Longstreet commented about the slavery issue to Fremantle – before the latter immediately changed the subject – but an encounter with a runaway slave led to an interesting conversation about race, slavery and bigotry between Chamberlain and the 20th Maine’s First Sergeant Kilrain (Kevin Conway).  There were other aspects of the movie that I had also enjoyed – Buford’s commentary about the importance of the Gettysburg location, the aforementioned Longstreet’s prediction about Pickett’s Charge and Lee’s ironic comments about being a military commander.  And I also enjoyed some of the movie’s more comic moments – Chamberlain’s efforts to prevent his brother Tom (C. Thomas Howell) from being too informal in the presence of the 20th Maine men and the conversation between Pickett and his commanders about Darwinism.

But ”GETTYSBURG” is, first and foremost, a war movie about a specific battle.  And like many other war movies, it is filled with battle sequences.  On the whole, I found them pretty satisfactory.  One must remember that this movie had been released at least five years before Spielberg’s World War II drama, ”SAVING PRIVATE RYAN”.  Which meant one should not expect the battle scenes to be particularly detailed in its violence in the same manner as the 1998 movie.  In other words, most of the battles seemed to feature a great deal of musket fire, explosions, and bodies either falling to the ground or being blown sky high – something one would see in television miniseries like ”NORTH AND SOUTH:  BOOK II” or ”THE BLUE AND GRAY”.  The most graphic scene I can recall occurred during a non-combatant scene that featured the field hospital filled with both bodies and body parts, where Longstreet visited one of his division commanders, John Bell Hood.  However, I must commend at least two battle sequences.  The actual charge up Cemetery Ridge had a great sweep, enhanced by Kees Van Oostrum’s photography from a helicopter.   That effectiveness of that sweep was nearly ruined when the Confederate troops finally reached the Union position.  There, the scene became nothing more than a confusing mess of both Union and Confederate troops merely shoving each other around.  Too bad.  Another memorable battle sequence featured Chamberlain and the 20th Maine’s conflict with the 15th Alabama regiment on Little Round Top.  The battle started in a generic manner as the two regiments exchanged musket fire.  But once the 15th Alabama came across the 20th Maine’s position, the violence became rather detailed and spilled into hand-to-hand combat and short-range firing.  I can even recall one Union soldier slamming the butt of his musket into the crotch of a Confederate.  And the 20th Maine’s charge down Little Round Top turned out to be as exciting as the charge made by Pickett’s division up Cemetery Ridge.

But it was the cast that really impressed me – especially the performances of Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Richard Jordan, Kevin Conway, Stephen Lang and especially Jeff Daniels.  Berenger did an excellent job of portraying the very human James “Pete” Longstreet, Lee’s ”Old Warhorse”.  But his most poignant moment occurred when his Longstreet regretfully ordered Pickett to commence his charge without uttering a word.  I was amazed at how the actor allowed Longstreet to age within seconds during this sequence.  Martin Sheen portrayed Robert Lee beyond the historic icon as a brilliant, yet obviously flawed man.  Both Conway and Lang gave vibrant performances as the Irish-born Buster Kilrain and George Pickett.  Lewis Armistead turned out to be Richard Jordan’s last role and many have claimed that it was one of his best.  I heartily agree.  In fact, one of his finest moments on screen occurred when his Armistead rallied his troops up Cemetery Ridge by sticking his hat on his sword (which actually happened, by the way).  Unfortunately, Jordan died of a brain tumor nearly three months before the movie’s theatrical release.  For me, the heart and soul of ”GETTYSBURG” turned out to be Jeff Daniel’s masterful portrayal of the talented Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.  Not only did he managed to portray the Union leader as a flesh-and-blood human being, he also gave one of the best speeches – in which he attempted to convince the remnants of the mutinous 2nd Maine to join his regiment – on the silver screen.  It seemed a shame that Daniels had never received an acting nomination or award for his performance.

I would not go as far to say that ”GETTYSBURG” is one of the best war movies ever made.  Quite frankly, it is not.  But it is one of the better Civil War movies I have ever seen.  Not only did director/screenwriter Ronald Maxwell managed to adhere closely to Michael Shaara’s novel, but maintain a steady pace for a movie that turned out to be over four hours long.  It presented its historical characters as human beings and not waxwork dummies that seemed prevalent in a good deal number of other Civil War movies.  And more importantly, it provided a history lesson on one of the most famous battles during that particular period.  I heartily recommend it.

"GETTYSBURG" (1993) Photo Gallery

Below are images from "GETTYSBURG", Ronald Maxwell's 1993 adaptation of Michael Shaara's 1974 novel, "The Killer Angels":



"GETTYSBURG" (1993) Photo Gallery