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Film Reviews | Regular Feature the admiral's reluctance to have Japan take on the U.S. Some of his lines are questionable, including the "sleeping giant" quote, which appears to have been invented by the makers of Tora! Tora! Tora!. The flying derring-do of Affleck and Hartnett is based on the real life actions of Lieutenants George S. Welch and Kenneth Taylor. Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s character, Doris Miller, was a real individual. He was the boxing champion ofhis ship, was with Captain Mervyn Bennion as the skipper of the West Virginia died (although there were others), did man a machine gun, and did win the Navy Cross for his actions that day. So, how should we historians react to this film? We should embrace it! Yes, embrace it. The film has inspired a new interest in this history in many of its viewers. This production also makes for a great strawman that we can knock down easily in both the classroom and in our writings. We can also use this film to show our colleagues that the embattled field of military history has a large following that other esoteric subfields lack. This interest means classes that will make, which can be important depending on the funding arrangements in place at the institutions where we all work. Finally, we can rest assured that another Pearl Harbor movie will come along sooner or later, and it will most likely be better. Nicholas Evan Sarantakes Texas A&M University—Commerce Nick_Sarantakes@tamu-commerce.edu Showtime's Queer as Folk At its best, Queer as Folk, Showtime's new dramatic series focusing on gay culture, puts its audience on a breathtakingly steep learning curve. Theprogram deftly monitors the effect in the first episode, when Bryan, the roué played by Gale Harold, picks up Justin, the naive young seventeen-year-old played by Randy Harrison. Bryan asks Justin what he likes to do. Not realizing that the question is sexual, Justin says he likes to watch TV. Within a few minutes he is learning the meaning of rimming , or anal-oral sex. Justin thereby neatly mirrors the casual viewer, who might be observing the show merely because he likes to watchTV and suddenly finds himselflearning more about sex than he thought he wanted to know. But such subtly selfreflexive moments are rare in the show: more often than not, Queer as Folk is profoundly confused about what it wants its audience to learn about homosexual desire. Queer as Folk centers on Michael (played by Hal Sparks, who viewers might recognize as the host of Talk Soup), a selfdescribed boy next door, whose voice-over at the beginning of the first episode introduces the audience to the gay world ofPittsburgh , PA. Michael works at the "Big Q," a large discount store, where he is in the closet. His mother, played by Sharon Gless (who played Christine Cagney of Cagney and Lacey) is a wisecracking waitress in the gay diner that the boys frequent. Despite Michael's relationship with a wealthy chiropractor, the real love of his life is Bryan. Bryan is the show's most interesting conceit, posited as an irresistibly attractive, utterly egotistical man who refuses to lie about his desires or compromise them in any way. He sets forth many of the show's more radical claims, like his rejection of monogamy, his critique of the hypocrisy of bourgeois relationships, and his refusal to get involved with anything that smacks of a gay imitation of marriage. A libertine, he fathers a child with one of the lesbians in the show. Financially as well as biologically potent, he has an exquisitely remodeled and furnished loft, nice cars, designer clothes, designer drugs, and enough cash to support both his partying and—in his one sentimental side—his loser father. In the first episode, Bryan takes home Justin, a pupil at a tony private school who is just coming out. After learning about rimming, Justin falls in love with Bryan and spends the rest ofthe series testing Bryan's antiromantic stance. At the end of its first season, Showtime certainly has reasons to be happy: Queer as Folk quickly became the premium cable channel's most popular...

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