Why does Hollywood have to make a three hour movie about a terrible day in US history and turn it into 'As The World Turns'? I could not believe that I sat through this piece of junk. It was 2 1/2 hours of 'General Hospital' and 1/2 hour of reality. It's a shame that Hollywood feels that 99% of the films that come out today must contain some kind of soap opera setting to satisfy what they think the lady folks wish to see. I find that to be rather insulting to women and I am not a female. There is nothing romantic about December 7,1941. It gets 1 star for the actual attack sequence. I must mention that I highly doubt that while they flew over head, the Japanese pilots were signaling to the American children to take cover. Silliness. If you wish to see a great film on Pearl Harbor, seek out 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' and let this one rot. Pearl Harbor (Two-Disc 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition)
The Vista Series has released the biggest and greatest DVD package ever assembled with "Pearl Harbor- The Director's Cut." The new 184 Minute cut is edited better. The attack sequence is more realistic and graphic, the reason for this cut's R-rating. And the four-disc set features hours of behind-the-scenes footage, two documentaries on the real attack and the Doolittle Raid, and commentary tracks from Michael Bay and Janine Basinger; Jerry Brucheimer, Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Alec Baldwin; The Director of Photography, Costume Designer, Visual Effects Supervisor and Composer. A great addition to the DVD collection. And if you think this is good, then get ready for the November release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring- The Director's Edition" four-disc set! Movie Grade: A+; DVD Grade: A+
Lacking any kind of character development, this film falls far short of the bar set by other recent WWII movies, like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Both Raf (Affleck) and Danny (Harnett) waltz through the film without any change in their demeanor, remaining young cocksure pilots, untouched by the events surrounding them. The enemy here is faceless and politically correct while death is Disney-fied and sterile. Also, strangely absent is the character's racial hatred of the Japanese, characteristic of the period. Micheal Bay's strong point has always been his fast and innovative cinematography, but it alone cannot fill the gap left by a sub par script. Like Titanic, this film is good for one thing only, visual effects. Written by the screenwriter of BRAVEHEART, another film with more good press than actual substance, the only reason PEARL HARBOR should be purchased by anyone is ILM's fantastic special effects work. The attack sequence alone is well worth the price of the DVD. And the great thing about DVD? You don't have to fast forward to the good part.
Let this be said at the outset, Touchstone Pictures' "Pearl Harbor" will not go down in cinematic history as the greatest film ever made. There are points of corny dialogue, as an actual history it is a disaster, and at some of its most crucial moments, the story suddenly goes oddly flat. Yet, in spite of its obvious shortcomings, it works reasonably well as an evocation of how the nation saw itself seeing itself, as well as providing some undeniably spectacular special effects and a love story that is better than the critics have made it out to be.The story is fairly straightforward. Two boys who grew up together as best friends fascinated by the daring-do of the World War I air aces, join the Army Air Corps on the eve of World War II. The older man, Rafe (Ben Affleck), is cocky, self-assured, and eager to be a hero. The younger man, Danny (Josh Hartnett), is sensitive, somewhat shy, and was presumably traumatized by his father's emotional breakdown after fighting in the trenches of France during the Great War. When Rafe joins the Eagle Squadron, a British unit for American volunteer pilots, and is subsequently presumed killed in action, Danny first comforts, and then falls in love with, Rafe's girlfriend, a Navy nurse named Evelyn - played by the lovely Kate Beckinsale. On the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, Rafe returns - it transpires that he had been rescued by a French fishing boat and was hiding out in occupied France - causing a love triangle that is interrupted by the Japanese attack. In the end, Rafe and Danny reconcile just before both participate in the April, 1942 Dollittle raid on Tokyo, with Evelyn waiting back at Pearl to find out if her men will make it home from the mission.The critics have said that the portrayal of the attack is the strongest part of the film and that the love story is dispensable. Actually, the reverse is true. For a student of history, the "historical" aspects of the film are either inaccurate, incomplete, or simply false. Speaking as a Washington, DC area resident, it is unclear why the local audience did not break out in giggles when the Navy Department building that appears on screen is actually the House side of the U.S. Capitol. (One wag called it the Navy Department's House of Representatives annex.) The battle scenes, though indisputably gripping, are almost too glitzy, with Japanese and American warplanes performing tactics best suited to Star Wars X-wing fighters, and at least one shot with 1990's vintage aircraft carriers being included in a "fleet at sea" scene. This is mostly good visual stuff, but for anyone with a little historical knowledge, it is distracting. (One big exception - the sequence showing the capsizing of USS Oklahoma is very well done.)The love story, on the other hand, has all of the feel of a 1943 vintage romance and war movie. Somewhat hokey and a little overwought, but nevertheless compelling. The viewer gets a feel not so much for the times themseleves, but for the cinema at a time when Americans went to the movies both for entertainment and for reaffirmation. The movie evokes the world as it was in 1941 as viewed through the prism of moviegoers during the war and its immediate aftermath. It is a mixture of innocence, foreboding, nostalgia and cliche.To be certain, sometimes the story falls flat. Although Affleck, Beckinsale and Harnett all put in good performances, they do not have enough time - even in a three hour movie - to convey all the information that the viewer needs to be fully engaged with the characters. (The novel that came out with the movie fills in many gaps.) Also, the scene where Evelyn sees Rafe alive for the first time is oddly muted. Evelyn is shocked at first, but moves straight to confusion over her feelings for both Rafe and Danny. The expected intervening step - joy at seeing Rafe alive - never transpires, making the whole scene seem an anti-climax.Also, the movie never makes explicit that although Evelyn loves Danny, Rafe is her true love. Instead, she is made to seem that she is not making a choice, thereby draining some of the dramatic oxygen. Nor does it clearly explain on what basis Rafe and Danny seem to reconcile, instead there is a scene in which both characters seem to go from wary antagonism to renewed affection in a split second. (Again, the book clarifies much.)One other peculiar aspect of the movie is its rather grim tone - surprising in a summer movie. Although Wallace and Bay work tirelessly to bring out themes of pride and patriotism, they never fully succeed. It is just too hard to look at wrecked battleships and shattered corpses to feel all that good. Even the end sequences, which are emotionally the most powerful - and arguably the best dramatice scenes - in the movie, do not create feelings of patriotism so much as a sense of wistfulness. The audience feels happy for the characters, but it is mixed with a sense of loss. This will probably be effective with older audiences, but may lack the emotional lift that the under 30 crowd seems to require of its movies.Notwithstanding these weaknesses, the "period" feel of the movie works. The viewer gets a glimpse of movies circa 1943. Oddly, "Tora! Tora! Tora!," which is an outstanding and historically more accurate movie, fails to deliver in this category - the characters in that movie could as easily be in 2001 as 1941. (As to those critics who complain that "Pearl Harbor" is not about Pearl Harbor, you probably name your cats, Kitty, and your dogs, Spot.)As to the performances, almost all the cast perform well, if not always up to their finest earlier work. Affleck is convincing as the cocky pilot, and his sequences with Beckinsale demonstrate the same kind of restrained, and for that seemingly more authentic, emotion as he showed as the cocky ad agent in "Bounce." (Though, overall, he is better in "Bounce.") Beckinsale is gorgeous in 1940's vintage attire and hairstyle and brings off even the most cliched lines - and she gets her fair share - with a naturalness that makes them acceptable to 21st century audiences. Hartnett has the toughest job as the introspective Danny in a cast of very prominent characters, but pulls it off to remarkable effect.As to Cuba Gooding Jr., Dan Akroyd, Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin and the rest of the cast, all do creditable work. The one exception is the Japanese actor, Mako, whose Admiral Yamamoto is played without the subtlety that Soh Yamamura brought to the role in "Tora!, Tora!, Tora!." An occassional physical gesture, such as shaking his head with regret when he delivers the obligatory -for Pearl Harbor movies - "sleeping giant" line, might have made his character seem more real. Instead, each line is delivered as if Yamamoto was reading a cue card. (NOTE to the subtitle writer: It's "The rise OR fall of our empire..." not, "The rise AND fall of our empire...")Taken together, "Pearl Harbor" is not the strongest movie, but its feelings are real and it definitely taps into the anxiety, harshness,beauty, courage, and heroism that Americans equate with the movies of that period. That probably accounts for "Pearl Harbor's" bad reviews. The critics, and unfortunately probably most younger audiences, want an action story or a love story, and cannot relate very much to, or empathize with, evocations of a world long since past and that seems, in retrospect, pitiably naive. That is sad, but less for the talented and underapprecited cast and crew of "Pearl Harbor," than for the viewers who will see it. - Ben Affleck - Kate Beckinsale - Romance - War'
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