Pearl Harbor (2001)

Average rating

(60%)

Starring:	Ben Affleck \| Kate Beckinsale \| Jon Voight \| Alec Baldwin \| Tom Sizemore \| Ewen Bremner \| Josh Hartnett \| Jennifer Garner
Director:	Michael Bay
Studio:	TOUCHSTONE HOME VIDEO
Run time:	183 mins
Genres:	Drama
Languages:	English
Dubbed:	Turkish
Hearing-impaired:	English
Subtitles:	English, Turkish
Released:	December 03, 2001
Also available on:

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.

Screenshots

Rating of 2 stars out of 5

The surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was a major event in US history (awakening the sleeping giant and all that), but this attempt to capture it on-screen by the big-thinking producer/director team of Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon) is a huge disappointment. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the actual attack, which forms the middle act of the film's bloated three hours, is an amazing spectacle — it's almost worth the obscene $135-million budget. However, sheer cinematic power is undermined by our total lack of empathy for any of the cardboard cut-out characters who populate Bay's advert-like world of slow-motion and colour filters (and baseball-playing kids to signify America — yes, we get it). Weaknesses of plot and characterisation are only amplified by the film's unwieldy size and patriotic portent, and the script is toe-curlingly bad. Bruckheimer and Bay presumably think their love story and wartime heroics are charmingly old-fashioned. They have clearly not studied Casablanca or From Here to Eternity.

Highest rated reviews

27 out of 35 people found the following review helpful:

Pearl Jam

N. Stafford. from England, 25th April, 2005

This film is by no small margin, the worst film in human history, and is certainly not to be seen by anybody -- unless of course they happen to be an American. Zealot-like patriotism and an emotional crippled score - bad lines dropped from great heights -- propaganda raining down over the audience --- sunkun jaws in slack-eyed bewilderment. Blasphemies are whispered in the cinema - anger, resentment, anti-Americanism sets in. Bodies head for the door, dark shadows against the screen. That small difference between being patriotic and being patronising, is what the producer/director team of Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay (The Rock, Armageddon) always misjudge. But this time it's serious.

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11 out of 13 people found the following review helpful:

How does Michael Bay get it so wrong so consistently?

A Customer from Scotland, 1st May, 2005

Here's how the film works. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy goes missing, presumed dead. Boy's best friend falls in love with same girl. Boy returns to find he is involved in a love triangle. Girl is confused, and is torn between boy and boy's best friend. Brief clip of Pearl Harbour being bombed. Anyway, back to this love triangle, completely unaffected by the supposed reason for making this film. Girl still can't decide, and starts playing silly games. Lots of people we were never introduced to die after we haven't had enough to time start caring about them. Cuba Gooding Junior is on screen for more than four seconds, and he gets to fire a big gun. That way, the African American who is just a cook gets to play his part too. America launch a completely historically incorrect, gung-ho attack on Tokyo, which is portrayed as wonderful and heroic, less than an hour after the evil Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbour, oh and no mention of either of the nuclear bombs in case that makes America look bad. Some very contrived shots of an American flag... wait which one was he? One of them seems to have died, but that's just helped the girl make her decision. Yup... just when you thought Michael Bay couldn't make a worse film than Armageddon, he proves you all wrong! He again takes a horrific, this time historical event, and uses it as an excuse to make a love story, where the event itself plays second fiddle and is only very briefly shown. So here's a few things you can do in three hours that will be more enjoyable than watching this film: 1 - paint a wall, then watch the paint dry. 2 - pluck your head hairs one at a time until you create a bald patch. 3 - sit doing absolutely nothing except occasionally saying 'That's not how it happened at all.' At least that way you're not having to endure actually watching the film. It should be -23 stars, not +1. By far this is the worst film of all time.

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Most recent reviews

*** May contain spoilers ***

Romantic...they should have just stuck to that storyline

A Customer from Ealing, 30th June, 2008

I think they should have changed the whole theme and based it towards a more romantic one. The film totally drifted off the point about Pearl Harbor and the story line wasn't coherant. This was because it kept switching back to the war zone and then the love triangle between Danny, Raef and Evelyn. Another problem was I heard that the film was historically inaccuarate, being a history student, I was trying to spot the inaccuracies and I couldn't solely concentrate on the film. I also felt that the relationship between Evelyn and Raef was very complex ( it was nominated a Razzie for the worst screen couple). Anyway I enjoyed the film for any scene with Josh Hartnett.

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