BY DOUG OSWALD
Infidelity,
homophobia, suicide, prostitution, sex, blackmail, racism, pompous military
officers, family disagreements, GI bar fights and inter-racial relationships.
“Pearl†dips into all this and more in a three-part TV mini-series from 1978. The
series borrows liberally and literally from movies like “From Here To Eternity,â€
“In Harm’s Way,†“Tora! Tora! Tora! and “Midway,†and also serves as a
forerunner for one of the best TV mini-series of this kind, “The Winds of War.â€
Each
episode opens with narration by Joseph Campanella explaining the impending Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor and the oblivious nature of Americans enjoying their
stay in paradise. John Addison’s title music evokes the tropical locale and
plays over scenes of vintage Honolulu photos prior to America’s entry into WWII.
Hawaii was a much more exotic place even after WWII.
The
melodrama of the series is focused on the American residents of Honolulu in the
days prior to the attack interspersed
with scenes of the Japanese Navy making its way across a stormy Pacific ocean.
The Japanese are depicted as all business in this series, which is a shame
because it would have been interesting to get a sense for what the characters
were thinking personally about the audacious military strategy..
The
Japanese carrier scenes and most of the aerial attack scenes are represented by
footage literally taken from the classic 1970 movie, “Tora! Tora! Tora!†The Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor occurs halfway through the second episode, after we’ve
met the characters and know all of their dalliances in paradise.
The
series features a “Who’s Who†of some of the well-known movie and TV stars from
the late 1970s: Angie Dickinson, Dennis Weaver, Robert Wagner, Lesley Ann
Warren, Tiana Alexandra, Gregg Henry, Katherine Helmond, Adam Arkin, Brian
Dennehy, Max Gail, Char Fontane, Audra Lindley, Richard Anderson, Marion Ross,
Allan Miller and Mary Crosby.
The
series was written by Stirling Silliphant, no stranger to melodrama, as he
wrote the screenplays for “In the Heat of the Night,†“The Poseidon Adventure,â€
“The Towering Inferno†and “The Swarm†as well as thrillers like “Shaft in
Africa,†“The Killer Elite,†“The Enforcer†and “Telefon.†The story is
entertaining and held my interest throughout. The more salacious topics are
handled as one would expect from a late 1970s TV production which means there’s
a lot of talking about sex, but we see very little action other than the military
type.
The
battle scenes are also sanitized for a late ‘70s TV audience and limited mostly
to nurses aiding men in bandages, the main characters discussing the attack and
scenes the attack taken from the aforementioned “Tora! Tora! Tora!†In the era
of “Saving Private Ryan†and “Furyâ€, the series feels a bit lacking in this
respect, but this was typical of TV at that time.
The
performances are pretty one dimensional, but the cast is engaging with their
allotted time on camera. The period costumes and vehicles help as does the
on-location filming in Hawaii. The popularity of “Pearl,†a Warner Bros.
production broadcast on ABC, may have influenced the choice by Columbia and NBC
to produce the similar six episode TV mini-series remake of “From Here to
Eternity†in 1979 which then became a short lived 11 episode series in 1980.
I
watched “Pearl†when it was first
broadcast back in 1978 and I’m glad it’s available for those who enjoy this
type of war time melodrama. The two-disc set is part of the Warner Archive
collection and is manufactured on demand. There are no extras on this three
part mini-series which clocks in at four-hours and 39 minutes.
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