Just as “Titanic” director James Cameron utilized fictional characters to help make a slice of history even more compelling for moviegoers who would not ordinarily watch “The History Channel” on cable, Michael Bay follows suit here.

We immediately meet Rafe (Ben Affleck) and his east Tennessee childhood friend Danny (Josh Hartnett). Rafe and Danny used to sneak into Danny’s father’s cropduster, and it has been their cherished dream to be fighter pilots. Rafe is cocky and dashing, but he is thought by others to be stupid because he has trouble reading, and, according to his own words, “he gets letters backwards.” Of course, dyslexia was not diagnosed as a learning disorder in the 1930s. Danny, on the other hand, is quiet and studious.

Their friendship is tested when Rafe meets Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), a beautiful army nurse, and the two fall in love. When it is believed that Rafe was killed flying for the RAF in the Battle of Britain, Evelyn and Danny get entwined romantically in Hawaii. As can only happen in movies, Rafe survives incredible odds and obstacles to come ashore in Honolulu a few days before the Japanese aerial attack. Suddenly, Rafe, Danny, and Evelyn find themselves in a very hard-to-believe eternal triangle. While Affleck, Hartnett, and Beckinsale give it their considerable best, it is unlikely that their characters will connect with audiences the way Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jack and Kate Winslet’s Rose did in 1997's “Titanic.”

Director Michael Bay does a lot better when he brings history to the screen. The Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor and nearby American military installations lasted about an hour and the bombardment is shown on screen in real time, so this movie, while not as graphic as “Saving Private Ryan,” is not for the squeamish.

The film tries to downplay the brutality of the Japanese military government in the 1930s. Even before Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had proven to be oppressive occupiers as millions of Chinese, Manchurians, and Koreans will readily attest. It was because of their wanton aggression that FDR decided to cut off Japan’s supply of oil and other vital resources; however, we are not told of this in the film. We are only apprised that the USA was economically strangling Japan and that was Tokyo’s justification for Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto (Mako) even states his regrets that he cannot prevent war with the US. I tip my hat to Michael Bay for keeping a Hollywood tradition in hiring Mako to play Yamamoto. Mako has been in hundreds of films and television programs about the War in the Pacific, including that corny 1960s Ernest Borgnine program, “McHale’s Navy.”

It is unfortunate that Bay did not give more screen time to Cuba Gooding, Jr., who plays a real life war hero here named Dorie Miller. The soft-spoken Miller was a Navy cook with no special military training, yet when his comrades were being annihilated by enemy aircraft, Miller grabbed a machine gun and shot down two planes.

The best acting in this film comes from its supporting cast. Dan Aykroyd is wonderful as Captain Thurman, a skilled Navy decoder who believes weeks prior to December 7, 1941, that the Japanese will attack Pearl Harbor, lacking the hard evidence to back up his hunch. Jon Voigt is unrecognizable and thoroughly credible as FDR. Alec Baldwin turns in his best performance since “Glengarry Glen Ross,” portraying Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the man who led a daring raid on Tokyo in April 1942 at a time when American morale was understandably low. Baldwin shows that a military leader can win the respect and love of his men without having to resort to psychotic Patton-like bluster. The filmmakers would have liked for us to believe that Doolittle’s aerial commando attack on Tokyo was the turning point in the battle of the Pacific since it serves as the rousing finale here. The truth is that it was not until 1943's Battle of Midway Island, for which the famous Forest Hills movie theater is named, that the tide permanently changed in our favor.

Forget the movie’s facts, for they’re twisted and misleading. I believe that, to gain a true sense of what happened, every American should either pick up a textbook or, if the means are available, visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Honolulu. At this memorial, one can see the remnants of the USS Arizona, where over 1100 sailors lost their lives and were buried within the ship. This coming December 7th marks the 60th anniversary of the day that, as President Roosevelt correctly predicted, continues to live in infamy.