World War Two Movies and Documentaries
 
 

· Home
·
Movie index
· Documentary index
· Posters and stills
· Movie soundtracks
· Top 50 movies

Search Now:
In Association with Amazon.com

 

Pearl Harbor

Released: 2001
Director: Michael Bay
Staring: Ben Affleck, Josh Harnett, Kate Beckinsale

To call Pearl Harbor a throwback to old-time war movies is something of an understatement. Director Michael Bay's epic take on the bombing that brought the United States into World War II hijacks every war movie situation and cliché (some affectionate, some stale) you've ever seen and gives them a shiny, glossy spin until the whole movie practically gleams.

Planes glisten, water sparkles, trees beckon - and Bay's re-creation of the bombing itself, a 30-minute sequence that's tightly choreographed and amazingly photographed, sets the action movie bar up quite a few notches. And in updating the classic war film, Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) use that old plot standby, the love triangle--this time, it's between two pilots (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett) and a nurse (Kate Beckinsale) who find themselves stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, during what they thought would be a nice, sunny tour of duty. Then, of course, history intervened.

For the first 90 minutes of the movie, Affleck and Beckinsale find a nice, appealing chemistry that plays on his strengths as a movie star and hers as a serious actress - he gives her glamour, she gives him smarts. Their truncated romance - the beginning of which is told in flashback so we can get right to the point where he has to leave her to go to England - works, thanks to their charm. They're no Kate and Leo from Titanic (a strategy the film strives hard toward), but they're pretty darn adorable in their own right.

Hartnett, as the not entirely unwelcome third wheel, squints bravely but makes only a slight dent in the film. Everyone else in Pearl Harbor - from Cuba Gooding Jr.'s brave navy seaman to Jon Voight's able impersonation of FDR - is pretty much a glorified walk-on, taking a backseat to the pyrotechnics and action sequences that keep the three-hour film in fairly constant motion. But when that action does take hold, Pearl Harbor is quite a thrilling ride. © Amazon.com

Click on the links below for more information or to purchase this movie from Amazon.com:
VHS Pearl Harbor
VHS Pearl Harbor (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Pearl Harbor
DVD Pearl Harbor DVD Gift Set
DVD Pearl Harbor (Vista Series Director's Cut

The soundtrack was composed by Hans Zimmer, whose previous credits include Gladiator and The Rock. To hear samples at Amazon.com click here: Pearl Harbor 

A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook has been written to accompany the film. It's a lavish, colorful commemoration of an infamous day, and a major motion picture release. For more information about this book at Amazon.com, click here: Pearl Harbor : The Movie and the Moment

Buy this movie for your collection...

DVD

DVD (Vista Series Director's Cut)

DVD Gift Set
(Feature Film/ Beyond The Movie)

VHS

 

 
  | Terms of service | Contact us | Copyright © World War Two on Film 2003 |