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.

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.

Possible spoilersPearl was one of many lengthy mini-series made in the latter 1970s and early 1980s, and the passage of time has been good to this film. The cast is surprisingly good, the plot moves well, and the contrasts involved in the film are striking.There are two main subplots which revolve around the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack - first is the relationships between MP Colonel Jason Forrest, his wife, and varied others under Forrest's command, notably his XO Captain Calvin Lanford (a particularly effective performance by Robert Wagner). The second is the relationship between Navy Junior Grade Lieutenant Douglas North (Gregg Henry in his most memorable performance) and his family, headed by his Navy Commander father (Richard Anderson, who plays about the only officer in the film whose head stays on straight throughout), along with a local Japanese news writer with whom Doug went to school in Oahu, Holly Nagata (Tiana Alexandra, who if I read her IMDb biography right, was all of 16 when this film was made).The interaction between Doug and Holly is the best part of the film, as we see the less-than-enthusiastic reaction by Doug's father and mother Ellie (Marion Ross overdoing it at times) and the hostile reaction by Holly's tradition-minded mother and father to the presence of Doug in their daughter's life; Holly's plea to her father for tolerance is a strikingly effective speech showing a fact too often forgotten in PC circles - bigotry is a two-way street.The greatest contrast in the film lies in its use of stock SFX/action footage from 1970's Tora! Tora! Tora! - the comparative decadence and ill-discipline of the American side contrasts sharply with the near-Cylon-esquire discipline of the Japanese First Air Fleet as it sails toward Hawaii. Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the First Air Fleet, is here portrayed by So Yamamura via footage from Tora! Tora! Tora!, with new dubbing in both Japanese and English; some of the English dubbing is unintentionally humorous over some post-attack scenes involving attack leader Mitsuo Fuchida and his crew chief, and officers aboard the carrier Soryu when the fleet's recall order goes out - given what these men actually say (via Tora Tora Tora's captions) the new dubbing mixes things up a little.The film gets some details wrong - when Nagumo gets word that the first wave has sunk numerous US ships, he orders the launching of the second wave; in fact the second wave took off an hour before the first wave made contact with their targets. The film also gets wrong the exact time the first wave broke off its attack and also shows torpedo planes in the second wave, when only the first wave had such. Granted, this is nitpickery and doesn't really detract from anything.The actual attack is presented in most of its entirety - some key scenes missing include early torpedo hits on Battleship Row and hits on the West Virginia before her skipper gives the order to counter-flood and stop her from capsizing. The film uses superior sound FX in presenting the attack - the sound FX used by 20th Century Fox are good, but Warner Brothers uses far better explosion, strafing, and piston airplane engine sounds here; the sound FX used here sound even better, despite being recorded in mono, than many stereo sounds used in later films.The fate of Holly and Doug is by far the best character interplay throughout the film and is especially strong at the end; the film skips an important detail that Silliphant's subsequent novelization includes to great effect (some extra dialogue between Holly and Doug where Doug notes he "didn't use anything" from their date in her car), a detail that adds enormously to the relationship between Holly and the North family. The North family also gets a great scenery-chomping scene between Commander North, Ellie, and their daughter Patricia at their hotel early in the attack amid rumors that President Roosevelt has surrendered Oahu to the enemy; Patricia and Ellie are hysterical as Michael struggles to keep them calm, and when Patricia asks her mother if she's ever been raped (wanting to know whether to resist should the Japanese invade the island) the stunned silence by Ellie and Commander North is strikingly effective.The North soap opera ultimately is what really holds this film together and makes it as good as it is.

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.