Pearl Harbor/Wall Banger

Wall Bangers from Pearl Harbor include:

At one point in the Bruckheimer/Bay film Pearl Harbor, the leads disobey orders to land in order to do a "cool" flyby stunt. Not only is this an ill-placed Homage to Top Gun (also produced by Jerry Bruckheimer), but the film also tries to justify this by making it crucial to fighting off the Japanese attack later.
For people who study WWII history, another one is the statement that "P-40's can't outrun Zeroes. We'll have to outfly them!" Problem is, this is near when Americans were dogfighting Zeroes for the first time. The powers that be didn't know what they were capable of yet. Why should our leads?
- The above Fridge Logic is unintentionally mitigated by the fact that the pilot's statement is completely wrong. The P-40 had a higher max speed than the Zero (both in level flight and while diving), but was less maneuverable. A horizontal dogfight is the worst possible tactic in this situation.
The aviators of the Imperial Japanese Navy were the best-trained, most experienced fighter pilots in the world at the start of World War II. Most of the American fighter pilots were complacent at best. (This is averted with the leads of the movie, who have had other flying experience, but two pilots flying demonstrably inferior aircraft against the cream of the IJN requires a massive suspension of disbelief). The skill level of American pilots relative to Japanese pilots wouldn't level out until later in the war because the Japanese didn't rotate their best pilots into training billets periodically the way the Americans did. As the war went on, the Americans got better as the Japanese got worse.
Early on in the movie there is a scene the supposedly takes place at Mitchell Field on Long Island (it is now a shopping mall). Problem...there is a mountain in the distance.
The Romantic Plot Tumor.
The complete omission of the likes of Kenneth Taylor and George Welch. During the attack, Taylor, Welch and a handful of others managed to get into the air and did whatever they could to fight back. In this movie, Rafe and Danny are the only ones to do so. (It's been said that Rafe and Danny were - at least in this part - supposed to be based on Taylor and Welch.) Having any fictional characters taking part in real-life events is nothing new to movies, but them being the only ones to perform a noteworthy act that real people did? Ridiculous and insulting. It stinks of a desperate attempt to make Rafe and Danny look like heroes and at the expense of real-life heroes. Unsurprisingly, Kenneth Taylor was quoted as denouncing the movie.

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