Nonureva
Really Surprised!
Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
BroadcastChic
Excellent, a Must See
rlquall
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.
trudylyn
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.
David Diamond
This was a mega-TV miniseries in its time after the success of Roots and it generally is average Hollywood entertainment with a good cast. Dennis Weaver, Robert Wagner, Brian Dennehy all give good solid performances. The one to watch for is Angie Dickinson- she is "hot" in this..As historical fiction - its a fairly entertaining romp about the Navy in Pearl at the time of the Japanese attack. Any movie fan should notice that the Producers must have saved millions by editing an enormous amount of footage from Tora, Tora, Tora and cleverly working it into the story.
jacksonc
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...
