Director Michael Bay (ARMAGEDDON, THE ROCK) uses a tragic romantic triangle to set the stage for the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in this epic tale of love, loss, and... more
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essentially a frame for an impressive depiction of the Japanese attack on that "day of infamy", deploying all the modelwork, CGI, stunts and special effects necessar...
essentially a frame for an impressive depiction of the Japanese attack on that "day of infamy", deploying all the modelwork, CGI, stunts and special effects necessar...
essentially a frame for an impressive depiction of the Japanese attack on that "day of infamy", deploying all the modelwork, CGI, stunts and special effects necessary to trump previous screen re-enactments in Tora! Tora! Tora! and From Here to Eternity. At heart, it's another Top Gun-style exercise in heroically sublimated homosexuality as Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Dan (Josh Hartnett), lifelong buddies, fall out over a ridiculous contrivance that allows both decently to fallin love with a nurse (Kate Beckinsale) but forget all their differences when the fighting starts--as expected, their big climax comes in each other's arms, with Kate left behind as one wounded buddy extracts a promise from the other to look after his unborn child. Historical snippets are interleaved, with Mako and Jon Voigt stiff under the prosthetics asAdmiral Yamamoto and Franklin Roosevelt, and a lot of detail is given about things like the wooden rudders on the new Japanese torpedoes, the chaos in the understaffed hospital as the heroine is forced to make lipstick triage marks on wounded men's foreheads and the terrible effects of strafing. A surprisingly bright little performance from Dan Aykroyd (a sole reminder of 1941) as an intelligence analyst is balanced by an insufferably smug one from Cuba Gooding Jr as a token black supporting hero. It's the first film of the George W Bush era: aggressive and dumb as a rock, utterly uninterested in period--no one in this WWII-era army smokes, swears or uses racial abuse (Gooding's boxing opponent sneers at him because he's a cook)--and awkwardly straddles a dignified treatment of the Japanese and America's actual spasm of hatred after the attack (one soldier refuses to be treated by a Japanese doctor, but that's it). When Pearl Harbour is bombed, we see endangered dogs, drowning men and dead women, but when Tokyo gets blasted in payback only buildings are destroyed and in long-shot. Michael Bay (Armageddon) remains a jittery director, a great second-unit man who can't deal with people or stories. It borrows from Titanic and Saving Private Ryan, but tidies the war of the latter up so it can still haul in a broad audience and therefore misses the real tragic sense of the former.--Kim NewmanOn the DVD: Considering there are two discs in the special edition of this special effects homage, the second DVD is woefully short of extras. There is a 45-minute featurette on the highs and lows of bringing Michael Bay's magnum opus to the screen which, along with the usual interviews with cast and crew, features the more compelling eyewitness testimony bringing the events of December 7, 1941 to life. The irony of the second disc focussing on the research and quest for historical accuracy is a little difficult to swallow, considering that the film is little more than a paper thin, overly romanticised muddle of history and fantasy, but for those wanting to experience the real events on that fateful day rather than the Hollywood version, this is an excellent antidote. The movie has been THX digitally mastered for superior sound and picture quality improving those big-bang special effects and is presented in anamorphic widescreen with 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Unlike the Region 1 release, there's no DTS track but the 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is more than up to the challenge of the effects laden assault, with different elements of the Japanese attack rumbling between the speakers and making you feel you're in the thick of things. -- Kristen Bowditch
essentially a frame for an impressive depiction of the Japanese attack on that "day of infamy", deploying all the modelwork, CGI, stunts and special effects necessary to trump previous screen re-enactments in Tora! Tora! Tora! and From Here to Eternity. At heart, it's another Top Gun-style exercise in heroically sublimated homosexuality as Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Dan (Josh Hartnett), lifelong buddies, fall out over a ridiculous contrivance that allows both decently to fallin love with a nurse (Kate Beckinsale) but forget all their differences when the fighting starts--as expected, their big climax comes in each other's arms, with Kate left behind as one wounded buddy extracts a promise from the other to look after his unborn child. Historical snippets are interleaved, with Mako and Jon Voigt stiff under the prosthetics asAdmiral Yamamoto and Franklin Roosevelt, and a lot of detail is given about things like the wooden rudders on the new Japanese torpedoes, the chaos in the understaffed hospital as the heroine is forced to make lipstick triage marks on wounded men's foreheads and the terrible effects of strafing. A surprisingly bright little performance from Dan Aykroyd (a sole reminder of 1941) as an intelligence analyst is balanced by an insufferably smug one from Cuba Gooding Jr as a token black supporting hero. It's the first film of the George W Bush era: aggressive and dumb as a rock, utterly uninterested in period--no one in this WWII-era army smokes, swears or uses racial abuse (Gooding's boxing opponent sneers at him because he's a cook)--and awkwardly straddles a dignified treatment of the Japanese and America's actual spasm of hatred after the attack (one soldier refuses to be treated by a Japanese doctor, but that's it). When Pearl Harbour is bombed, we see endangered dogs, drowning men and dead women, but when Tokyo gets blasted in payback only buildings are destroyed and in long-shot. Michael Bay (Armageddon) remains a jittery director, a great second-unit man who can't deal with people or stories. It borrows from Titanic and Saving Private Ryan, but tidies the war of the latter up so it can still haul in a broad audience and therefore misses the real tragic sense of the former.--Kim NewmanOn the DVD: Considering there are two discs in the special edition of this special effects homage, the second DVD is woefully short of extras. There is a 45-minute featurette on the highs and lows of bringing Michael Bay's magnum opus to the screen which, along with the usual interviews with cast and crew, features the more compelling eyewitness testimony bringing the events of December 7, 1941 to life. The irony of the second disc focussing on the research and quest for historical accuracy is a little difficult to swallow, considering that the film is little more than a paper thin, overly romanticised muddle of history and fantasy, but for those wanting to experience the real events on that fateful day rather than the Hollywood version, this is an excellent antidote. The movie has been THX digitally mastered for superior sound and picture quality improving those big-bang special effects and is presented in anamorphic widescreen with 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Unlike the Region 1 release, there's no DTS track but the 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is more than up to the challenge of the effects laden assault, with different elements of the Japanese attack rumbling between the speakers and making you feel you're in the thick of things. -- Kristen Bowditch
Advantages: Realistic and convincing special effects Disadvantages: Blatant Jingoism and major patriotism on the american side
Pearl Harbor is a classic example of a Hollywood war film, a vehicle which makes the second world war look glorious, virtuous and sexy. While the second world war was nothing like this, an audience can do nothing to change this impression other than demand the production of more historically accurate films, like the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan (1998). This opening sequence is seen by many modern historians as the most historically accurate ... ...the studio has a hit. Pearl Harbor does this by taking a historical event and adding a love story. Because Pearl Harbor involves a tale of lost love it is easy to relate to. With this ability to relate to the film, it is possible to reach a large audience and make a higher profit. Pearl Harbor also combines two generic conventions in the one film (typical of most high concept films). Pearl Harbor is a combination of both a war film and a romance. ...
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...for the US Pacific fleet, Pearl Harbour undergoes a surprise bombing attack by the Japanese, did they declare war. After sixty years, Hollywood heavyweight, Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon, Top Gun, Bad Company, The Rock, Bad Boys 1 & 2, Beverly Hills Cop, Gone In 60 Seconds... the list goes on) decided to make a big blockbuster adaptation of this horrific tradegy and huge loss of life.
The script, penned by Randall Walace - "Braveheart" was placed ... ...showcase of effects laden eyecandy, Pearl Harbour stars Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale, plus an impressive supporting cast in a "breathtaking story of love, loss and heroism" (not my words).
After the obligitory opening credits, we are on a farm in 1924 with two young boys Rafe and Danny. Both boys depend on one another and are therefore best friends. Rafe is dyslexic and Danny is vulnerable, especially to the likes of his burnt ...
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Advantages: Great action scenes Disadvantages: Not as good as it thinks it is
...Both are based in Pearl Harbor, about as far as you can get from the war, according to Rafe, but we get to see some of the political intrigue and military manoeuvring between America and Japan. The Japanese believe war is inevitable and plan a huge surprise attack on the massed fleets of the Navy. The tension builds as we realise our heroes are caught up in one of the darkest days in American history. And then Rafe turns up, alive and well. That's ... ...coherency after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The film should have quickly wrapped up the love story and got out of there but unfortunately it goes on (and on) for a lengthy sequence detailing the American 'retaliation'. This is where the gung-ho, jingoistic patriotism gets the better of the story. The ultimate response to Pearl Harbor was, of course, the horror of Hiroshima, but this couldn't be tied into our heroes' stories. Not content with fighting ...
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Advantages: The action sequences and special effects Disadvantages: Corny, stilted, sloppy, sentimental clap trap
...the latest great war epic, Pearl Harbour, at the weekend, that has been advertising itself all over the place as THE definitive film about the event that catapulted the USA into the Second World War, and which changed forever the course of world history.
This film actually lasted about an hour more than the actual attack itself, which was all over in a little under two hours.
Yawn!!! After a very short period of time I found myself wishing that ... ...trap has to do with Pearl Harbour is a question you will probably ask yourself about a dozen times, as your senses are numbed and your popcorn and Coke begin to run out.
~ ~ The action, when it finally comes, is unquestionably brilliant.
The film made heavy use of computer generated special effects for the action sequences, and the technique is very effective.
You are suddenly woken up from the stupor that you have fallen into, as thousands of ...
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Advantages: Half an hour of some of the best scenes and special effects in a film Disadvantages: The Love triangle, The hour and a half build up
...film, based on events at Pearl Harbor, that brought the Americans into the war. But back track to before the war we first meet our two main characters as kids, Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) and Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck). Who the first time we see them have been flying a crop dusting plane at only 9 years old. We then fast-forward and find them in the Air Force together. Rafe falls in love with a nurse, Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), whom he is ... ...who is then reassigned to Pearl Harbour, where conveniently Danny happens to be serving. Rafe goes missing during a dogfight with the Germans and the news throws Danny and Evelyn together. But he’s not really lost and returns a few weeks later, around about the same time the entire Japanese fleet has disappeared and are planning an attack on Pearl Harbor. So with both ace pilots now in the same place it only seems right that the attack should ...
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Actor(s): Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin, Tom Sizemore, Ewen Bremner, Josh Hartnett
Director(s): Michael Bay
Genre: Drama
Classification: 12 years and over
Production Year: 2001
Running Time: 3 hours 3 minutes
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Plot: The life and times of a group of people who find themselves caught-up in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and in the aftermath of the bombing, America's involvement in the Second World War.
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): Touchstone Home Video; Technicolor Distribution Services
Release date: 03/12/2001
No of Discs: 2
Catalogue No: BED 888307
Barcode: 5017188883078
Screenwriter: Randall Wallace
Executive Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer, Randall Wallace
Languages
Main Language: English
Dubbed Language: Turkish
Subtitle Language: English, Turkish
Hearing Impaired Language: English
DVD Description
Director Michael Bay (ARMAGEDDON, THE ROCK) uses a tragic romantic triangle to set the stage for the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in this epic tale of love, loss, and patriotism. When Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale), a beautiful Navy nurse, meets dashing ace Army fighter pilot Rafe (Ben Affleck), the two fall madly in love, only to be separated abruptly when he is called upon to help fight the war in Europe. Unforeseen circumstances lead Evelyn into the arms of Danny (Josh Hartnett), another fighter pilot and Rafe's best friend since childhood. In the meantime, the Japanese military is planning the surprise early morning raid on Hawaii that will pull the United States into World War II. Spectacular special effects vividly recreate the attack in devastating detail as bombs explode, torpedoes shoot through the water, and bullets fly, shaking tranquil Pearl Harbor to its core. Bay deftly captures the patriotism and the loss of innocence of the young men and women who were suddenly thrust into the war. Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin and Mako also star in this tribute to both the fallen and the survivors of one of the most horrific tragedies ever to occur on American soil.
Technical information
Special Features: Journey To The Scene The Making Of Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor The Japanese Perspective, Faith Hill Music Video There You ll Be, Theatrical Trailer
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 English Turkish
Award information
OSCAR: Best Visual Effects 2002 (John Frazier, Eric Brevig)
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