Pearl Harbor (2001)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Michael Bay

Writer (WGA):

Randall Wallace (written by)

Release Date:

25 May 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Romance | War

Tagline:

It takes a moment to change history. It takes love to change lives.

Plot:

Pearl Harbor follows the story of two best friends, Rafe and Danny, and their love lives as they go off to join the war.

Plot Keywords:

Pearl Harbor | Friend | Pilot | Nurse | Best Friend

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 9 wins & 34 nominations

Cast

Ben Affleck	...	Capt. Rafe McCawley
Josh Hartnett	...	Capt. Danny Walker
Kate Beckinsale	...	Nurse Lt. Evelyn Johnson
Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Petty Officer Doris Miller
Jon Voight	...	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Alec Baldwin	...	Lt. Col. James Doolittle
Tom Sizemore	...	Sgt. Earl Sistern
William Lee Scott	...	Lt. Billy Thompson
Greg Zola	...	Lt. Anthony Fusco
Ewen Bremner	...	Lt. Red Winkle
Jaime King	...	Nurse Betty Bayer (as James King)
Catherine Kellner	...	Nurse Barbara
Jennifer Garner	...	Nurse Sandra
Sara Rue	...	Nurse Martha
Michael Shannon	...	Lt. Gooz Wood

Also Known As:

Pearl Harbour (UK) (promotional title)
Tennessee (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sustained intense war sequences, images of wounded, brief sensuality and some language.

Runtime:

183 min | USA:184 min (director's cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS-8 (one 70 mm print for Tokyo Dome, Japan) | DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

Taiwan:PG-12 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Alberta) | Iceland:12 | Malaysia:U | Brazil:12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:MA (director's cut) | Australia:M | Chile:TE | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Germany:16 (director's cut) | Hong Kong:IIA | India:U | Ireland:12PG (original rating) | Ireland:12 (video rating) | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M (original rating) | New Zealand:R16 (director's cut) | Norway:15 | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | South Korea:12 | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | Sweden:15 (director's cut) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | USA:PG-13 | USA:R (director's cut)

Filming Locations:

Angel's Gate Park - 3601 Gaffey Street, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

There are four 100% CG shots in the film: the shot of the bomb falling toward the USS Arizona, the two shots of the explosion of the Arizona as it jumps upwards in the water, and the two Japanese Zeroes pitching down towards Battleship Row.

Goofs:

Continuity: Evelyn finds out she's pregnant on December 6th. Yet when April comes around and she goes to talk to the Major about the Doolittle raid, she shows no sign of being pregnant even though she is at least 4-5 months along.

Quotes:

Danny: Y'all pilots?
Gooz: Uh, we're working on it. There's a lot of switches and stuff. Pride of the Pacific.
Earl: Who are you?
Danny: Terrors of the Skies.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Valiant (2005)

Soundtrack:

Bunk Bed Blues

The cinematic equivalent of defacing a war memorial

This honestly has to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Never mind the plagiarism of other, better movies; the empty-headed and monumentally annoying love story; the pathetic so-called "acting" (only Dan Aykroyd and Tom Sizemore make any sort of impact); the banal script and laughable dialogue; the cheesy music and rock video editing; or the gee-whizz attitude to violence and explosions. What really galls about this turkey is its offensiveness: surely none of the poor souls who perished at Pearl Harbor behaved as stupidly as portrayed here!

One scene sums up Jerry Bruckheimer, Randall Wallace, and Michael Bay's attitude in making this film. While military personnel and civilians are bombed and blasted, raked with gunfire, drowned and crushed in a sickeningly titillating way (whoever described this as war as pornography was spot on!), the filmmakers are more concerned with the plight of a small dog whose owner has just been shot. When the pooch is rescued, the obvious intent was for a heartwarming moment; but this was the moment at which this trash went from being extraordinarily dumb to being extraordinarily infuriating. Thousands of people dying, but we are expected to relate to a bloody dog!!!

Who are these people? I agree that there is a place for mindless action movies and a comic book approach to violence. But when you impose such an approach on what should have been a human (not to mention, humane) drama, evoking the terror of war and remembering, respectfully, the memory of those who sacrificed everything in one of the great turning points of 20th century history, I'm afraid that you have lost the plot in a big, big way.

The shame of it is that, given the budget and the resources at their disposal, Bruckheimer and co have missed a golden opportunity to present a really memorable, classic, and respectful motion picture. But, as they count their earnings, I am more than confident that making such a movie was the last thing they ever intended.

Cynical, mawkish, cliched rubbish of the highest order, this is the cinematic equivalent of defacing a war memorial.