Remembering a dark day in U.S. history

Vets compare 'Pearl Harbor' with the real thing

Glen Roberts, a Marine who survived the Pearl Harbor attack, thought the strongest element of the movie was the battle scenes. "They looked realistic," he says. "They really rang it back in your head"

(CNN) -- Dr. Bob Schmutzler was just 17, a fresh-faced Army private, that infamous day in December 1941 when the Japanese attacked the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor. He remembers seeing the Japanese planes fly low over his station at Luke Field, speeding to their targets in a sneak attack. He fired a rifle at them as they buzzed by.

Nearly 60 years have passed since that day, but Schmutzler relived it recently when he attended an Atlanta, Georgia, screening of the new Disney epic "Pearl Harbor." The big-budgeted film, starring Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale, relives the invasion that catapulted the United States into World War II.

The movie brings back vivid memories for many veterans

Schmutzler said he noticed a few factual inaccuracies -- at one point, pilots are seen flying B-25s, when they actually used P-40 Warhawks, he said -- but he recommended the movie.

"I would recommend it to anybody," said Schmutzler. "I think it's going to raise patriotism in America just a little bit, which is what we need."

He wasn't the only veteran giving "Pearl Harbor" a positive notice. Glen Roberts, a Marine who survived the Pearl Harbor attack, said he thought the strongest element of the movie was the battle scenes.

"They looked realistic," he told CNN's Paul Vercammen after a screening in Los Angeles, California. "They really rang it back in your head."

Tony Iantorno, an Army gunnery sergeant at Pearl Harbor, remembers carrying wounded men into the hospital

Emotional memories

Tony Iantorno, an Army gunnery sergeant at Pearl Harbor, said the movie echoed his memories.

"Especially the part where they were carrying all those wounded guys into the hospital, because I was stationed there at hospital point and I was asked by the crew of the of motor launch that was picking the bodies up if I would help carry the bodies to the hospital," Iantorno recalled.

But the moviemakers did take some poetic license with history, said Navy nurse Peggy Swann Dye, who was 27 at the time of the attack.

Dye said she enjoyed the film, but the portrayal of the nurses didn't match her memory. In "Pearl Harbor," Beckinsale and her friends play nurses who make a sport of hooking up with military men. Beckinsale's character ends up falling in love with Affleck's character, and his friend, played by Josh Hartnett.

"The nurses were a little far out in this one," says Dye. "I don't remember being so risqué."

	QUOTE GALLERY

John Blankenship, who was a 19-year-old Army corporal, identified with the love triangle threaded through the 183-minute movie.

"To me that was super, because I know when I came home to my old girlfriend, I know exactly how it was," he said.

'That's Hollywood'

Schmutzler explained that the love triangle was needed to help sell the movie to the masses.

"That's Hollywood," Schmutzler said. "I don't think people would go to see a documentary, unless you want to watch the History Channel. But if you want to go for entertainment and still be educated, I think it was very well done."

Some veterans are happy to see the movie tribute to the battle, before it's impossible to hear first-hand accounts of the attack.

Navy nurse Peggy Swann Dye thought the nurses in the movie were "a little far out." "I don't remember being so risque," she says

"We're losing (Pearl Harbor) survivors very fast nationwide. We have 7,400 left," said Warren Hutchens, who was a Bugle Corps corporal. "We used to have 16,000."

But now, this movie is helping their memories live on.

"(The movie) will spark a lot of things in the young people and they will think about Pearl Harbor," said Ed Sowman, a sailor who fought at Pearl Harbor. "They'll know more about it."

-- CNN Showbiz Today Reports correspondent Paul Vercammen and CNN writer Jamie Allen contributed to this report.