Pearl Harbor

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Summary: Titanic 2
Review: Okay, its not really Titanic 2, but it more then likely resembles it. besides the fact that there both histoicly sound, there both love stories, there are 3 wars scenes, and only 1 good one! dont let that through you off! the good war scene is approximatly an hour long! it is a great replica of what happened. and it gets you hating Japs!!!!! which is great fun!, it could have been shorter, and maybe a little better casted. I could relate to the characters!, it is inncrediably accurate, thas why it deserevs 4 stars, A blockbuster at its best

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Summary: verhan77
Review: fast shipping tape in good shape thank you will buy again for this pesron

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Summary: History Isn't All Names & Dates
Review: When you read about the Pearl Harbor attack in history books you see the figures on how many died and what ships where hit but when you see the reenactment of the battle in this movie it will give you a further sense of why it was such an outrage. Keep in mind that as bad as it looks on screen it's nothing compared to what the reality was when war came to Hawaii and to an unprepared U.S. Navy.

Writing as someone who is a graduate student in the field of history I like to see movies like this come out because it raises awareness that these things are not boring and that people had lives just as they do today that were torn apart for years in the war.

That being said much of the movie does not revolve around the actual battle but rather introducing you too and getting you to like the group of soldiers and nurses who eventually witness and bear the brunt of the Japanese attack. There is a certain amount of the standard Hollywood mechanisms of romance, heroism, and special effects wizardry that probably does go astray from what the reality was but I think it works well in this film. The story line has humor, romance, and sadness because of the characters some of whom are killed in the course of the film are not the ones you expect.

It's also cool to see that the people who made this decided to feature and acknowledge the contributions of US armed forces female personnel in the war. True they were not front line combatants as such but in war the front line can shift and does not distinguish between combatant forces and support forces so they were very brave as well. It's also worth noting that some of the scenes were in fact filmed at the very location of the attacks. I believe it was Ben Affleck that commented you could still see the pockmarks from the bullets fired by the Japanese in the concrete as they strafed U.S. personnel on the ground. They also touch on the role of blacks in the film, on the battleships they were primarily galley workers but as with the nurses became front line combatants in the battle and shed their blood just like everyone else aboard.

This is a movie that is rated PG-13 and I would say it probably does push the envelop on R rated because of the graphic battle and hospital scenes although they are a relatively small part of the film overall. Younger children might possibly be disturbed by what is depicted and probably either should not see it or should watch it with a parent who can explain things and reassure them. I say this partly because of the uncertainty facing the country at the time I write this following less than a year after the September 11 attacks.

As the other great attack on America in modern times this story is particularly poignant.

Although the movie is principally about the Pearl Harbor attack it also covers the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. There was talk about the Japanese actually invading the west coast in those days and yet FDR ordered a symbolic attack that resulted in the bombing of Tokyo by a handful of U.S. bombers.

Bottom line I like the movie and while it is long on story and short on historical accuracy in some respects it is still a terrific vehicle to introduce audiences to a significant historical event. "December 7, 1941, a day which will live in infamy" (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) just as September 11, 2001 will.

I recommend this movie at least as a rental especially if you don't know a lot about the battle that brought the U.S. into World War II and changed the world and would like to hear and see a little more.

Rating:
Summary: Bad beyond belief
Review: An abomination on almost every level, "Pearl Harbor" tries to remake "Titanic" by fusing romance, history and gobsmacking CGI, but it sinks without a trace. Though who can blame them for trying? On paper, both films look disastrous: mega-budget, period chick flicks in which nearly everybody dies and everyone knows the ending. But "Titanic" worked (for teen girls with deep pockets, at least), so why couldn't it work again? Maybe with James Cameron at the helm (and Leo in the cockpit) it would have stood a chance, but with Bay and Bruckheimer calling the shots, it tanks. As it stands, this film's singular achievement is to render one of the most significant, tragic and exciting episodes in American history completely and utterly boring. Randall Wallace's dire screenplay with its tired love triangle and upbeat revisionist ending is more than half the problem, and a surprisingly unconvincing Ben Affleck accounts for most of the rest. Cuba Gooding Jr - playing the most interesting character in the entire film - gets about three minutes screentime. The trailer was great, and it might have made a nice music video if Faith Hill's power ballad didn't somehow manage to give you the creeps. What's most disappointing is that everyone involved in this picture is capable of so much more (yes, even Ben). It's torture. Avoid it at all costs.

Rating:
Summary: Pearl Harbor "Titanic"-ized
Review: "Titanic" took a dramatic event and overlaid a stupid love story (the stupidest since, well, "Love Story"); "Pearl Harbor" does the same to the Day of Infamy. For the most part, though, "Titanic" got its history straight. "Pearl Harbor" is loaded with howlers. The ultimate is FDR standing up to get the Doolittle mission approved, but there are others. I had no idea that America had guided missile cruisers in 1941, but there they are being blasted by the Japanese. Nothing took off from Ford Island, but our heros manage to do it anyway. Doolittle didn't take on any fighter jocks for his mission (he had own own cadre of bomber hotshots), but somehow he does here. The list goes on, and that doesn't even count the mistakes on the Japanese side. What did they get right? Well, the Japanese attacked and it was on December 7, 1941. After that, they're kind of shaky.

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Summary: Superficial and Shallow
Review: This is another typical Hollywood rewriting of history. It offers a Jerry Springer version of World War II with love triangles and implausible larger-than-life heroics. I'm tired of hearing how the movie is redeemed, because of the 'brilliant cinematics.' It is a taken for granted that Hollywood can spend millions on big explosions and roaring Dolby Surround Sound, though apparently a decent screenwriter and plot are hard to come by these days. This movie is as juvenile as Independence Day.

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Summary: TREASURE!
Review: The main problem with this Special Version is OPENING the [darn] PACKET and carefully extracting the Special DVD's! Great thought - packaging the DVD's along the lines of the old 78 albums of yore - doesn't quite work here - at least not for the serious collector, unless you want to leave it all unopened. AFTER all of that - there's the question of breaking the seals - do you 'rip' or carefully cut? Nice idea - does not work!

NOW to the movie - Beckinsale, Affleck and Hartnett are a perfct trio. A romance along the lines of the great epics circa 1950 - perfectly dove-tailed into the real scenario of WWII. Punches are not spared and it's true 'in-your face' sometimes gut-wrenching realism. Very unlike the confusing "Black Hawk Down" this one works - and you care about the characters.

Beckinsale well reminds one of a young Kate Hepburn, a superbly modulated performance, Affleck? Great appeal - flawless talent, and Hartnett? Untapped, but very promising.

Now, try "From here to Eternity"

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Summary: Pearl Harbor? Is that where you can go pearl diving?
Review: In all fairness, I haven't seen the DVD or VHS versions of Pearl Harbor--I paid ... to watch it on the big screen and was frankly embarrassed that I paid good money to see an overly-hyped cinema spectacular that had everything except cinematic merit going for it.

From the first scene where a Stearman biplane is seen crop dusting--an unlikely scenario, since the Stearman was not built until nearly a decade later, not to mention the unlikelihood anyone was cropdusting routinely that early due to the unreliability of airplane engines--to the scene where Ben Affleck takes off in a Hurricane and gets shot down in a Spitfire (the crash no doubt a result of his changing planes in midflight)--to the scene where President Roosevelt "stands-up" to show anything is possible, this movie was a disappointment to me.

What's wrong with getting your facts straight?

It isn't that hard. After coming down from a rolling boil after seeing "Pearl Harbor" I got out my trusty VHS copy of "Tora, Tora, Tora" and watched a real movie on the same subject.

There were chances for the directors to pull something out of their butts and resurrect this turkey, because they did do some rather nice special effects, and Cuba Gooding was a believable and very ably portrayed Dorie Miller--but they had him firing the wrong kind of machine gun--Dorie Miller fired a water-cooled deck machine gun, not an army field machine gun. It is correctly depicted in "Tora, Tora, Tora."

I may be a knit-picker and I may be a quibbler and a trivia nut, but it's not that hard to get it right. In fairness, many good war movies have some scene inconsistencies--even such outstanding flicks as "12 O'Clock High," which drew heavily on actual combat footage. We forgive them because they make it up with a meaningful plot with a message.

These directors tried to do for Pearl Harbor what Jim Cameron did for Titanic--they need to borrow Jim's thoroughness and integrity the next time they try something this ambitious. They need the honesty and soul-searching done by Spielberg in "Saving Private Ryan."

This could have been a truly outstanding movie. It wasn't. I will not be wasting more money on it unless maybe I can find one in a pawn shop ...

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Summary: Best Movie Ever!!
Review: When I watched this movie, I fell in love with it and Ben Affleck as well. It was a good movie for a 12 year old to watch because I had studied Pearl Harbor when I was younger. My friend watched it with me and loved it!! Anyone who loves love stories and war combined. Watch this movie!! The guys in it are really cute too!!!

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Summary: the best DVD ever made beside T2: UE, and Star Wars Ep. I !
Review: I already own the original PG-13 DVD ... and now I own the R-rated 4-disc set and I have to say, great DVD, great features, a little more gruesome movie, but the packaging case is cool! I have not viewed all the features yet, but I will be back with a more longer, fuller review. I have seen the added footage and I have to say that this version is not recommended to anybody under 18 unless you have a stomach that can handle heads blown off, a guy's guts hanging out, blood, gore, guts, etc. RATED R for strong war violence and some language (the "F" word has been added to a couple scenes)