University of Virginia Library

'You Are There'

The film however has a "You
Are There" approach, which often
slips into looking like
"Mission: Impossible." We see title
cards, such as "Pearl Harbor,
December 6, 1941," or
"Washington, D.C., early Sunday
morning. December 7." Those I can
tolerate, but during scenes with
new characters, there'll be
something like "Cordell Hull, Sec.
of State," or "Frank Knox, Sec. of
Navy," flashed on the screen over
the action. Of course the Japanese
high command gets the same
treatment, and in their case it's
necessary, but I wonder if this
device gets out of hand towards the
end of the film.

Unfortunately, there is a further
problem with title cards and this
relates to the subtitles. It seems
that to be authentic, war films now
use genuine German or Japanese
actors. This is far better than using
character actors, or trying to dub
the voices, but the white subtitles
don't show up on white naval
uniforms. For the amount of
money spent on the film, you'd
think someone would have thought
of using yellow subtitles.