“Pearl Harbor” is a classic tale of romance set during a war that complicates everything. It follows two best friends, Rafe McCawley (played by Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (played by Josh Harnett), through their love lives as they sign up for active duty in World War II.

It all starts when the two childhood friends meet Evelyn Johnson, a Navy nurse, after signing up to be fighter pilots. Rafe falls head over heels before valiantly volunteering to go fight in Britain with the Royal Air Forces Eagle Squadrons while Evelyn and Danny get transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Everything gets complicated between Danny and his best friends former lover, Evelyn, when the two receive word that Rafe had been shot down while on an air raid in Britain. The new lovers are shocked however when, months later, a perfectly alive Rafe comes home to find his best friend courting his former squeeze. The rift between best friends seems insurmountable as Danny tries countless times to speak to Rafe about what had happened all the while Rafe is having none of his explanations. Caught up in the heart wrenching fight between best friends the audience starts to forget the dangers that are looming on the horizon and next thing you know everybody is in the middle of an air raid we now know as "Pearl Harbor."

The film’s success is majorly due to the special effects used by its director, Michael Bay, who is notorious for using huge action sequences in his films. This tendency is seen several times in the film. Under the watchful eye of Michael Bay the air raid on Pearl Harbor seems to effortlessly slide from real life onto the silver screen. The huge explosions coupled with towers falling, battleships sinking, and bombs falling as Pearl Harbor is savagely attacked in the early morning of December 7, 1941, by Japanese Zero Fighters, makes for one of the most intense action sequences I have seen in a film since “Saving Private Ryan.”

It goes without saying that without this dynamite cast this film most likely would not have been nearly as successful as it turned out to be. The cast includes Alec Baldwin as Lt. Col. James Doolittle, Jon Voight as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Petty Officer Dorris Miller, Kate Beckinsale as Lt. Nurse Evelyn Johnson, and many more. They put so much emotion and sincerity into this film that it reaches out and touches the audience and will bring a tear to your eye. This cast without a doubt majorly contributed to the success of the film.

All in all this epic love story that took place in the middle of one of the most horrible wars this country has ever seen made for one of the best films that I have ever seen and I strongly recommend it to anyone who is willing to watch it, and to some who are not.