| Pearl Harbor | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Michael Bay |
| Produced by | Michael Bay Jerry Bruckheimer Executive producer: Randall Wallace |
| Written by | Randall Wallace |
| Starring | Ben Affleck Josh Hartnett Kate Beckinsale Cuba Gooding, Jr. Tom Sizemore Jon Voight Colm Feore Mako Alec Baldwin |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
| Cinematography | John Schwartzman |
| Editing by | Roger Barton Chris Lebenzon Mark Goldblatt Steven Rosenblum |
| Studio | Jerry Bruckheimer Films |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 25, 2001 |
| Running time |
183 minutes (Theatrical Cut) 184 minutes (Director's Cut) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Japanese |
| Budget | $140 million[1] |
| Box office | $449,220,945[2] |
Pearl Harbor is a 2001 American action drama war film directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplay. It features a large ensemble cast, including Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Colm Feore, Mako, Tom Sizemore, Jaime King and Jennifer Garner.
Pearl Harbor is a dramatic reimagining of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Doolittle Raid. Some of its scenes were among the last to be filmed in Technicolor. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Pearl Harbor was a box office smash, earning $449,220,945 at the world wide box office.[2]
Contents |
In 1923, two Tennessee boys, Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker, pretending to fight the Germans, climb into Rafe's father's biplane cropduster and accidentally start it, giving them their first taste of flying. Soon after, Danny's father (William Fichtner) comes to drag him home, berating him for playing with Rafe and beating him. Rafe attacks Danny's father calling him a "dirty German"; Danny's father counters by explaining that he fought the Germans in World War I and wishes that they never witness the horrors of war.
By 1940, as grown men, Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Danny (Josh Hartnett) are First Lieutenants in the United States Army Air Corps under the command of Major Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin). Rafe meets Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), a Navy nurse who passes him for his physical examination even though he has dyslexia, and is instantly smitten. The two soon begin dating and fall in love. However, Rafe has volunteered to serve with the Royal Air Force's Eagle Squadrons. Before Rafe leaves for England, he makes a promise to Evelyn that he will come back for her. Evelyn and Danny are transferred with their respective squadrons to Pearl Harbor. Rafe is shot down over the English Channel and presumed killed in action. Three months later, Evelyn and Danny bond over their mourning for Rafe and unexpectedly develop feelings for each other. They soon begin their own relationship. On the night of December 6, 1941, Rafe unexpectedly returns, having survived the crash and been stranded in occupied France in the interval. He quickly realizes that Evelyn and Danny are now together, and feeling hurt and betrayed, the two friends soon get into a fight at the local hula bar. The next morning, on December 7, they are interrupted by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by Zero fighters, Val dive bombers and Kate torpedo bombers.
The surprise Japanese air raid sinks the battleships USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma and many other ships. Back at the hospital, Evelyn helps tend to the dozens of wounded who come in and must help decide who can and cannot be saved. Meanwhile, Rafe and Danny are the only two who manage to get airborne and shoot down seven Japanese aircraft with P-40s using their reckless tactics, including an old game of theirs called chicken. The two men then go to the hospital, where Evelyn takes blood from them for the hundreds of injured soldiers, and later aid in trying to rescue the many men still in the harbor. In the aftermath, the survivors attend a memorial service for the fallen victims after the U.S. declaration of war on Japan. Rafe and Danny are both promoted to Captain, awarded the Silver Star and assigned to now-Colonel Doolittle for a dangerous and top-secret mission. Before their departure, Evelyn meets Rafe and reveals that she is pregnant with Danny's child, although she doesn't want Danny to know so he can focus on the upcoming mission. She says that she is going to remain with Danny, though deep down she will always love Rafe just as much. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Jon Voight) wants to send a message that the Japanese homeland is not immune from bombing. Danny, Rafe and others are to fly B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, bomb Tokyo and some Japanese occupied territory in China. The two men succeed in their bombing but crashland into a rice field in Japanese territory when their bombers run out fuel. Just as Rafe is about to be shot, Danny flies over head and shoots the attacking Japanese soldiers. Danny's plane then crashes and he is wounded. Japanese come in and attack Rafe and start to hold the others captive. They tie Danny to a cattle holder. Rafe picks up a gun and kills several Japs. Danny acts as human shield for Rafe and is fatally wounded. Rafe holds a dying Danny in his arms, telling him he can't die because he's going to be a father. With his dying words, Danny tells Rafe to raise his child for him. The crew arrives back in Hawaii and a hopeful Evelyn awaits. She sees Rafe and is excited, but then sees him carrying Danny's coffin. The film ends a few years later with Rafe and Evelyn, who are together again, and their son, Danny (biologically Danny's son), back at the farm in Tennessee visiting Danny Walker's grave. Rafe then takes his son flying, and the two fly off into the sunset in the old biplane.
The proposed budget of $208 million that Bay and Bruckheimer wanted was an area of contention with Disney executives, since a great deal of the budget was to be expended on production aspects. More inflammatory was the effort to change the original film rating from an R to PG-13. Bay wanted to graphically portray the horrors of war and was not interested in primarily marketing the final product to a teen and young adult audience. Budget fights continued throughout the planning of the film with Bay "walking" on several occasions with the final $135 million budget that was "green lighted", the largest in Hollywood history at the time.[1]
In order to recreate the atmosphere of pre-war Pearl Harbor, the producers had the advantage of staging the film in Hawaii and using the current Naval facilities. Many active duty military members stationed in Hawaii and members of the local population served as extras during filming there, although for the sake of expediency and due to the present use of the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, the set at Rosarito Beach in the Mexican state of Baja California was utilized for scale model work. Formerly serving as the set for Titanic, Rosarito served as the ideal location to recreate the death throes of the battleships in the Pearl Harbor attack. A large-scale model of the bow section of the USS Oklahoma mounted on a gimbal produced an authentic rolling and submerging of the doomed warship. Production Engineer Nigel Phelps realized that the sequence of the ship, rolling out of the water and slapping down would involve one of the "biggest set elements" to be staged. Matched with computer generated imagery, the action had to reflect precision and accuracy throughout.[3] In addition, to emulate the ocean, a massive, stadium-like "bowl" was filled with water. The bowl was built in Honolulu, Hawaii and cost nearly $8 million. Today the bowl is used for training for scuba diving and deep water fishing tournaments.
Pearl Harbor grossed $200 million at the domestic box office and $450 million worldwide. The film was ranked the sixth highest-earning picture of 2001.[2]
Despite the box office success, critical reaction to Pearl Harbor was negative, and the film earned only a 25% approval from critics on the review-compiling website Rotten Tomatoes, making it Bay's second worst reviewed movie to date, losing to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The film also has a Metacritic aggregate score of 44, indicating mixed or average reviews. While it earned praise for its technical achievements, the screenplay and acting were popular targets for critics.[4]
Roger Ebert gave the film one and a half stars and wrote, "The film has been directed without grace, vision, originality, and although you may walk out quoting lines of dialog, it will not be because you admire them" and criticized its liberties with historical facts: "There is no sense of history, strategy or context; according to this movie, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because America cut off its oil supply, and they were down to an 18-month reserve. Would going to war restore the fuel sources? Did they perhaps also have imperialist designs? Movie doesn't say".[5] Michael Bay responded to Ebert's criticism of his film: "He commented on TV that bombs don't fall like that. Does he actually think we didn't research every nook and cranny of how armor-piercing bombs fell? He's watched too many movies. He thinks they all fall flat — armor-piercing bombs fall straight down, that's the way it was designed! But he's on the air pontificating and giving the wrong information. That's insulting!"[6]
Nonetheless, on a similar refrain, A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "Nearly every line of the script drops from the actors' mouths with the leaden clank of exposition, timed with bad sitcom beats".[7] USA Today gave the film two out of four stars and wrote, "Ships, planes and water combust and collide in Pearl Harbor, but nothing else does in one of the wimpiest wartime romances ever filmed."[8]
In his review for the Washington Post, Desson Howe wrote, "although this Walt Disney movie is based, inspired and even partially informed by a real event referred to as Pearl Harbor, the movie is actually based on the movies Top Gun, Titanic and Saving Private Ryan. Don't get confused".[9] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine wrote, "Affleck, Hartnett and Beckinsale - a British actress without a single worthy line to wrap her credible American accent around - are attractive actors, but they can't animate this moldy romantic triangle".[10] Time magazine's Richard Schickel criticized the film's love triangle: "It requires a lot of patience for an audience to sit through the dithering. They're nice kids and all that, but they don't exactly claw madly at one another. It's as if they know that someday they're going to be part of "the Greatest Generation" and don't want to offend Tom Brokaw. Besides, megahistory and personal history never integrate here".[11]
Entertainment Weekly was more positive, giving the film a "B-" rating, and Owen Gleiberman praised the Pearl Harbor attack sequence: "Bay's staging is spectacular but also honorable in its scary, hurtling exactitude ... There are startling point-of-view shots of torpedoes dropping into the water and speeding toward their targets, and though Bay visualizes it all with a minimum of graphic carnage, he invites us to register the terror of the men standing helplessly on deck, the horrifying split-second deliverance as bodies go flying and explosions reduce entire battleships to liquid walls of collapsing metal".[12]
In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "here is the ironic twist in my acceptance of Pearl Harbor-the parts I liked most are the parts before and after the digital destruction of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese carrier planes" and felt that "Pearl Harbor is not so much about World War II as it is about movies about World War II. And what's wrong with that?"[13]
Like many historical dramas, Pearl Harbor provoked debate about the artistic license taken by its producers and director. National Geographic Channel produced a documentary called Beyond the Movie: Pearl Harbor[15] which covers some of the ways that "the film's final cut didn't reflect all the attacks' facts, or represent them all accurately."[16]
Many Pearl Harbor survivors dismissed the film as grossly inaccurate and pure Hollywood. Historian Lawrence Suid's review is particularly detailed in the major factual misrepresentations of the film and the impact of them, even in an entertainment film.[17] Historical inaccuracies found in the film include the early childhood scenes depicting a Stearman biplane crop duster in 1923, as the aircraft was not accurate for the period and the first commercial crop-dusting company did not begin operation until 1924,[18] with the U.S. Department of Agriculture not purchasing its first cotton-dusting plane until 16 April 1926.[19]
The inclusion of Affleck's character in the Eagle Squadron was another jarring aspect as serving U.S. airmen were prohibited from doing so, though some American civilians did join the RAF.[20] Countless other technical lapses such as painting the Japanese Zero fighters green for effect even though Bay knew that was inaccurate, but liked the way the aircraft looked so that audiences could differentiate the "good guys from the bad guys" was another aspect that rankled film critics.[21]
The greatest criticism came when actual historical events were altered for dramatic purposes. For example, Admiral Kimmel was not on a golf course on the morning of the attack (he was planning to meet General Short for a regular game, but cancelled as news of the attack came in), nor was he notified of the Japanese embassy leaving Washington, D.C., prior to the attack. The first official notification of the attack was received by General Short several hours after the attack had ended. The report of attacking an enemy midget submarine, in real life, did not reach him until after the bombs began falling.[22][N 1]
Critics decried the use of fictional replacements for real people, declaring that Pearl Harbor was an "abuse of artistic license."[24] The roles that the two male leads played by Affleck and Hartnett have in the attack sequence are analogous to the real historical deeds of U.S. Army Air Corps Second Lieutenants George Welch and Kenneth M. Taylor, who took to the skies during the Japanese attack and, together, claimed six Japanese aircraft and a few probables. Taylor, who died in November 2006, previously declared the film adaptation "a piece of trash... over-sensationalized and distorted."[25][N 2] Additionally, the combat scenes between the P-40s and the Zeros would not have been fought at wave-top height or with the aircraft darting around various obstacles as seen in the movie as such tactics would have been suicidal for both participants.
Attacks against Battleship Row and Pearl Harbor have been further dramatized. The movie depicts the four other battleships that survived the attack with severe damage, Maryland, Nevada, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania being sunk and rendered irreparable. These ships managed to escape further damage during the attack, although Tennessee herself was seen trapped in a listing manner during the attack, and Nevada being beached after the attack. Utah was not depicted.
Other inaccuracies concerning the attack on Battleship Row include showing one of the battleships' lattice masts spectacularly collapsing onto the deck of another vessel, which did not occur in the actual attack. In another scene, a crewman onboard Arizona is nearby when the bomb that was to ultimately destroy the ship pierces the deck and comes to land in the forward ammunition locker. In the movie, the sailor has time to investigate and even make a brief comment before the bomb detonates, killing him and most of the crew onboard. During the actual attack, the fatal bomb detonated within a fraction of a second of hitting the vessel, leaving no time for any crewman in the area to have visually seen it, much less have time to make a comment, in which had torn Arizona's bow completely apart in seconds. The portrayal of the resultant magazine explosion and the subsequent destruction of the vessel, while spectacular, was also inaccurately depicted.
Sensationalizing the real-life deeds of Doris Miller's actions during the battle "rubber stamps the legend" surrounding the black seaman's actions. In the film, Miller comforts Captain Mervyn S. Bennion, on the bridge of West Virginia (which was sunk during the attack, although not clearly visible in the film, while actually being fully visible during the actual attack) who has been mortally wounded by a torpedo striking his ship, and is with him when he dies. Miller delivers the Captain's last orders to the ship's executive officer and then mans a machine gun. In reality, Miller picked him up after he was wounded (by fragments when a Japanese bomb hit one of the Tennessee's gun turrets and penetrated the crown armor) and attempted to carry him to a first-aid station. The Captain refused to leave his post and remained on the bridge and continued to direct the battle until he died of his wounds just before the ship was abandoned. While Miller did man an antiaircraft gun, he was never credited with any kills (as opposed to the one shown in the film). Fellow crewman Ensign Victor Delano who comforted the Captain in his final moments, then managed to get two machine guns going, showing Miller how to fire one, knew the true story would show that Miller did not even "know how to shoot a gun."[22]
A scene in New York involved the backdrop of the RMS Queen Mary in her commercial colors but by 1940, had actually been repainted grey, for refit completion to serve as a troopship already serving the Royal Navy, mainly in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
The movie was also criticized for the way it "distinguished Americans from Japanese, including the wearing of black clothes, the lack of a social life, family or friends, and the devotion to warring, juxtaposing these with the portraits of Americans".[26]
The soundtrack for the 2004 film Team America: World Police contains a song entitled "End of an Act" whose lyrics describe the emotion of longing for someone as well as panning the hapless Pearl Harbor. The song's chorus recounts, "Pearl Harbor sucked, and I miss you" equating the singer's longing to how much "Michael Bay missed the mark when he made Pearl Harbor" which is "an awful lot, girl". The ballad contains other common criticisms of the film, concluding with the rhetorical question "Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?"[27]
Satirical newspaper The Onion commemorated the 10th anniversary of Pearl Harbor's release with an article comparing what is viewed as the poor quality of the film to what is viewed as the terror of the actual Pearl Harbor attacks.
"The truth is, we were never prepared for an atrocity of this magnitude, and I guess it all happened so quickly that we never had a chance. Even now, all these years later, it makes me sick just thinking about it."
— The Onion satirically quoting Josh Hartnett on the film.
A Commemorative 60th Anniversary Edition was released on December 4, 2001. The feature was spread across two videotapes in letterbox format, and tape two also included Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor, a 50-minute documentary on little-known heroes of the attack, and a Faith Hill music video.
Around the same time a two-disc DVD of the Commemorative 60th Anniversary Edition was released. This release included the feature on disc one, and on disc two, Journey to the Screen, a 47-minute documentary on the monumental production of the film, Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor, the Faith Hill music video and theatrical trailers.
A Pearl Harbor DVD gift set that includes the Commemorative Edition two-disc set, National Geographic's "Beyond the Movie" feature and a dual-sided map was released concurrently on December 4, 2001.
A deluxe Vista Series edition of the film was released on July 2, 2002. It contained an R-rated director's cut of the film, with numerous commentaries from the cast and crew alongside a few "easter eggs". The director's cut of the film included the reinsertion of graphic carnage during the central attack (including shots of eviscerated bodies being torn apart by strafing, blood, flying limbs and so forth); small alterations and additions to existing scenes; Doolittle addressing the pilots before the raid; and the replacement of the campfire scene with a scene of Doolittle speaking personally to Rafe and Danny about the value of friendship. It runs at 184 minutes compared to the 183 minutes of the theatrical cut.
This elaborate package, which DVDtalk.com called "the most extensive set released comprising of [sic] only one film" includes four discs of film and bonus features, a replication of Roosevelt's speech, collectible promotional postcards and a carrying case that resembles a historic photo album. The bonus features include all the features included in the commemorative edition, plus additional footage. There are three audio commentaries: 1) Director and film historian, 2) Cast and 3) Crew. Other features include: "The Surprise Attack", a multi-angle breakdown of the film's most exciting sequence (30 minutes), which includes multiple video tracks (such as previsualization and final edit) and commentaries from veterans/ Also included is the "Pearl Harbor Historic Timeline", a set-top interactive feature produced by documentarian Charles Kiselyak (68 minutes). The "Soldier's Boot Camp" follows the actors as they take preparation for their roles to an extreme (30 minutes)), "One Hour Over Tokyo" and "The Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor", two History Channel documentaries along with "Super-8 Montage", a collection of unseen Super-8 footage shot for potential use in the movie by Michael Bay's assistant, Mark Palansky; "Deconstructing Destruction", an in-depth conversation with Michael Bay and Eric Brevig (of Industrial Light and Magic) about the special effects in the movie and "Nurse Ruth Erickson interview" complete the extra features component.
On December 19, 2006, a 65th Anniversary Commemorative Edition high-definition Blu-ray Disc was released.
At the 2001 Academy Awards, Pearl Harbor was nominated for four awards, winning one for Best Sound Editing. Its other nominations were for Best Sound Mixing (Greg P. Russell, Peter J. Devlin and Kevin O'Connell), Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Song.[29]
At the Golden Globe awards it was nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
At the 2001 Golden Raspberry Awards Pearl Harbor was nominated for six awards: Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor (Ben Affleck), Worst Screenplay, Worst Screen Couple (Affleck with Kate Beckinsale or Josh Hartnett), and Worst Remake or Sequel (presumably of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!); but lost to Tom Green's Freddy Got Fingered in all but the latter category, wherein it lost to Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes.
At the 2002 World Stunt Awards Pearl Harbor was nominated for the Taurus Award, Best Aerial Work.[30]
Pearl Harbor is the soundtrack, on Warner Bros. Records, of the 2001 Academy Award-winning film Pearl Harbor starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Alec Baldwin. The original score was composed by Hans Zimmer.
The album was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (lost to the score of Moulin Rouge!). The song "There You'll Be" was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
|
|||||||||||
fil:Pearl Harbor (film)