Pearl Harbor (2001)

[Plain Old Tele]

Discuss.

[baumer]

I'm going to stand up for Pearl Harbor.  I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that I love Bay's style and that style really lends itself well to the film.

 

 

A grand epic of a movie, written in 2001
 

 Pearl Harbor is a marvelous amalgamation of both history and entertainment.  It is incredibly well made and it is entertainment at it's finest. By the time this film has finished it's domestic run, it will probably end with close to 200 million and you can add another 200 or 300 million in foreign receipts. The film has to be doing something right. I don't know many people ( not paid critics that seem to have a personal vendetta against Jerry Bruckheimer ) that have not enjoyed this film. I happened to love it.

I think by now everyone knows that this is a film that is based on a historical event and it is surrounded by a love story. And you can probably guess what is going to happen to the main characters about ten minutes into the film. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is the execution. What you have here is a film that takes time to develop a love story and then it surrounds it by the imminency of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This effectively keeps you interested and a little tense about the film. You know the attack is going to be devastating, we have all read the history books, but what you can't be prepared for is how well it is done. 

Michael Bay showed his flair for the absurd when he did Armageddon. He also showed that he was a visionary icon when he did the same film. Bad Boys was also very well done, in particular some of the chase scenes involving Will and Martin. But this is a film unlike many others that I have seen. The battle scenes are realistic and scary. The airplanes coming in what looked to be just feet from the ground was nothing short of brilliant. Michael Bay has some kind of eye for detail and some kind of balls for attempting some of the stunts and shots that he did. The effort that must have went into every shot in this film is tantamount to it's success. You had the feeling that you were there. There was so much going on at one time that it must have taken the efforts of four or five directors to keep everything in sync. 

I don't really have much more to say about the film except to say that it epitomizes what the summer film is all about. It is big, brash, grandiose and loud. You should see this film. It is a fantastic piece of work and one that will entertain you and enlighten you over three hours. Judge for yourself. Don't be led astray by someone that sees 3 films a day and has developed a sense of mendacious storytelling and has become a cynic. This is a great film! 

9 out of 10- Highly, highly recommended.

 

[Lordmandeep]

Worth it for the attack itself skip the rest. 

[DAR]

There was no need to add the love story in this, you could make a compelling movie without it. C-

[acsc1312]

I'm with B on this one. I'll defend this movie until the day I die.A-

[Kvikk Lunsj]

I loved this movie when I first saw when I was 10 years old but when I watched again when I was older I hated it. Such a historical inaccurate film and a wasted love story.

[A Marvel Fanboy]

The movie is very good. The photography and music in this is probably the best among Bay films.

 

B+

Edited May 26, 2013 by firedeep

[Sam]

Quite entertaining movie but IMO, overlong with uninteresting love story. I found most of the acting performances quite average, especially from Ben Affleck. I like the supporting ones like Cuba Gooding Jr. and Alec Baldwin though.

 

The plus points are Pearl Harbor has very beautiful cinematography and music. You can't deny the great sense of visual style that Bay has. As well as his styles and skills at shooting action scenes.

 

And Kate Beckinsale, such a gorgeous woman!

 

Overall, consider that I can get past the historical inaccuracies (and there are a lot) I think it's a fairly enjoyable war epic, romantic, drama movie with good visuals and actions.

 

So on that, it would be a B. 

[Hiccup]

I liked this movie much better than Titanic. *braces for attacks*

 

9/10 / 90%/ A

[BoxOfficeZ]

Pearl Harbor is a 3 hour movie of a hilariously bad romantic sub-plot between people so bland its hard to take the movie seriously. The attack itself is okayish I suppose, but its easy to pick out modern US destroyers in the harbor without even trying. The CGI is a bit outdated. The battleship sinking scenes were decent. 

 

According to Hollywood, apparently Hawaii in 1941 had no Asian people at all. 

 

Music is the only half decent thing in this mess of a movie. 

 

C-

Edited January 12, 2014 by BoxOfficeZ

[Goffe]

It is funny or emotional in the right moments, the romance is not ridiculous, there isn't an unnecessary and boring action sequence every 10 minutes and Bay allows himself to have shots longer than 5 seconds, the lack of quick edits makes it possible to fully admire the spectacular visual Bay creates, PH is his best looking film to this day. The attack on Pearl Harbor is easily Bay's best action sequence, only of the few in his career to have any weight, to show the horrors of war/violence in a bad light. Also, the score is in a class of its own, definitely among HZ best. It never feels like 3 hours long, even though the last hour should have been trimmed a bit.

 

I'm surprised how much vitriol it gets, but I think people hate Pearl Harbor because it's almost the opposite of what they expect from a Michael Bay film.

 

Pearl Harbor 80/100

Transformers 70/100

Bad Boys 50/100

Transformers 3 45/100

The Island 40/100

The Rock 35/100

Transformers 2 30/100

Armageddon 20/100 

Edited September 13, 2015 by Goffe

[Kosko]

so damn sad in so many ways. i love this movie and it's well done and well written and you really really really love the characters. be prepared though

[RobinHood26]

C- (70)

[filmlover]

Outside of the bombing sequence and Kate Beckinsale at her most beautiful, this movie is total garbage.

[excel1]

Watched this over the weekend for the first time in forever. Remember the trailer is amazing and the media hype surrounding this was deafening when it was released. 

 

A tale of 2 movies - this has to be the most up and down film I have ever seen. The highs are incredible and the lows are LOL worthy.

 

What works:

-All the visuals: the film is simply stunning to look at. The cinematography is simply outstanding - at 19 years old, the film has not aged a day (unlike many other films released in 2001). The special effects are spectacular- the planes, explosion, scenery are all incredible. There are basically no clouds ever in Pearl Harbor it seems (except when the planes need them LOL) so the constant blue sky ands sunshine are very nice to look at.  The long shots of the planes guiding are beautiful. And it has to be said...the people. Beckinsale and several of her nurse friends are just stupid good looking. Even straight men can admit that Affleck and Hartnett are studs. To top it off, Bay basically only shoots people from the best angle so you can perfectly make out their toned faces, etc. The film is striking to look at.

 

-All the action: the main battle scene is among the top 5 action sequences of the new millennium, no doubt. Just beyond thrilling. Many creative shots, incredible special effects - the raid is infinitely rewatchable. The battle of Britain and Doolittle Raid are also great though main attack by the Japanese is an utter showstopper.

 

Frankly, had they only shown the 1 hour ish long build-up and battle in theaters, this would have had many repeat viewers in theaters. Since they had to sit through the first and last hours, however...didn't happen.

 

-All the sounds: Hans Zimmer unleashed. Emotional, epic, fitting perfectly - this is brilliant music. The roar of the plane engines and bombs exploding is also thrilling.

 

What doesn't work:

-Everything else: as soon as you get away from the production values and action, this is a laughably bad movie. Though the friendship angle works actually pretty well, but there is zero development with either romantic angle and the film loses it grip when this happens. Had they lost the "Rafe dies and then comes back" and just focused on the ensemble, it would have been much more straight forward and digestible. TITANIC - which this movie desperately wants to be - played the love story pretty straight forward. This tries to be a soap opera and woof, it isn't good. Acting wise - Kate Beckinsale easily gives the best performance the main 3, convincingly showing a number of emotions and just doing a great job in a general with a fairly generic character. Affleck has his moments, but like others, goes a bit too over the top at times, Hartnett is wooden as hell though his character is supposed to be shy and generally emotionless to contrast to Affleck's brash so its hard to really fault what is a rough role to portray. Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin and Cuba Gooding Jr get mixed results with some good and some bad scenes. Others fair better - Dan Ackroyd, Jennifer Garner and Ewen Bremner are all good in smaller supporting roles- even William Fichtner in a brief early appearance makes you think you're in for something special (which is definitely true in some ways but not in others). 

 

This is a movie worth watching in full once. After that, you'll want to rewatch certain parts over and over while never watching other parts ever again. There is an epic, all time awesome movie somewhere in here, but the final product is not it.

 

C

Edited June 9, 2020 by excel1

[dudalb]

On 4/9/2017 at 5:52 PM, filmlover said:

Outside of the bombing sequence and Kate Beckinsale at her most beautiful, this movie is total garbage.

This. Much of the movie is the worst thing a movie can be:boring.

The charecters are so one dimensional that you can't give a damn about any of them.

If you want a good movie about the Pearl Harbor attack, watch "Tora Tora Tora";if you want a good drama about the US Army in Hawaii before the attacks watch "From Here To Eternity" both of which are vastly superior to this crap.

The actual attack is Impressive, but otherwise the movie is a waste of time. And I am a big sucker for anything World War Two related.

Edited June 10, 2020 by dudalb

[avensis]

it's a beautiful romantic film and a sacred war film. A beautiful cast of actors with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale. The script is quite original I loved it.

Edited January 2, 2023 by avensis

[excel1]

The special effects in the actual Pearl Harbor attack are truly astounding. The film is 19 years old and it looks as if it was filmed yesterday. The 2001 attack scene is 100x more realistic looking than the attack in 2019's MIDWAY.

 

I have watched the attack clips on YouTube probably 10 times since rewatching this movie a few weeks ago simply incredible action. 

[ShouldIBeHere]

In hindsight this movie gave me the first inkling that I was gay... I was obsessed with Josh Hartnett for a while after watching this, lol.

 

Really liked the attack scene and the music and I think it still holds up in those departments.

 

This could have been a great war movie if a) not for the convoluted exposition and love story that made the unnecessary detour to England necessary and b) the heroic patriotism (though there are some scenes in which the Japanese side is at least somewhat humanized).

 

Still not better than a C-

[excel1]

Read Randall Wallace's (insanely long) 1st draft of this film a few days ago. While the romance is still horrible, there is much more actual Pearl Harbor-related material here and it adds a lot to the story. This really deserves a more legitimate take on the material. 

 

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/pearl_harbor_early.html