Pearl Harbor (2001)

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 | Best Friend | Nurse | Pilot

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 10 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 (f) (w) | Germany:16 (f) (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:

The takeoff sequence for Doolittle's Raid was filmed onboard the USS Constellation CV-64 off the coast of San Diego, CA, and the USS Lexington Museum CV-16 in Corpus Christi, TX.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Doolittle raid is loaded with errors. First, the 16 bombers are shown flying together at somewhat high altitude and in formation on the way to Japan, whereas each plane actually flew the mission as a single sortie at very low altitude to avoid radar detection. Next, the Japanese targets are shown to suffer very heavy bombing damage, whereas very little damage was actually done (the psychological damage to the Japanese, however, was considerable). Finally, Japanese land and air defense forces are shown to offer heavy resistance to the American bombers during the attack, whereas the bombers were not detected before the attack and were unopposed during the attack.

Quotes:

Gooz: Be careful with the lady folk... they cloud the mind.
Danny: Thanks Gooz.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Stargate: Atlantis: Midway (#4.17)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Jumpin' at the Woodside

It's as awful as you've heard. Really.

This bloated, overblown, tediously overlong, hilariously cheesy 'Titanic' wannabe showcases plenty of expertise in the visual effects department and nothing but laughable bombast everywhere else. 'Titanic' worked because James Cameron knew how to find the balance between fictional, old-fashioned cornball romance and a devastatingly true-life disaster. The sinking of the ship was not just a stunning achievement technically but also truly emotionally draining. Cameron had respect for his subject matter.

This monstrosity, on the other hand, is a disrespectful, clueless chump of a movie that plays like Bay thought he'd been far too restrained on 'Armageddon'. The bombing sequence is full of headless, armless and legless corpses, drooling shots of soldiers getting blown up, lovingly composed shots of torpedoes heading towards their targets, and a detailed succession of explosions, bullet hits and crashing planes so endless that I got the feeling that, rather than wanting us to realise the horror of the attack, Bay just can't leave anything unseen. It's warnography of the worst kind.

As for the screenplay, put a peg on your nose. Every line of dialogue is either a pompous pronouncement, a howlingly clichéd clanger, a hindsighted historical prediction, or what seems like the beginning of a momentous speech. Seriously, how were the crew not chewing their jumpers in an attempt to hide their laughter? Josh Hartnett's okay though, and likable for the first time, while Ben Affleck embarrasses himself, Kate Beckinsale does herself no favours as she climbs another rung on the Hollywood ladder, and decent actors like Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin, Dan Aykroyd, Tom Sizemore and Jennifer Garner are wasted in varying levels of blathering idiocy.

Meantime, Hans Zimmer's score blasts us into submission, coating every vaguely patriotic, heroic or romantic moment with music so glutinous that it's like being held down while someone pours a bucketful of golden syrup into your face. In fact, uber-hack Bay overplays the entire thing, using every manipulative technique at his disposal, from slo-mo to quiet sound with 'moving' music to at least a billion million shots of people looking up at planes. This movie is a whole new kind of bad, and it makes '1941' look like a straight-faced docudrama.