Pearl Harbor Subtitles were too small (1 Viewer)

[Robert Spalding]

OK, I have a 36" TV so I know it's not that, but the subtitles for the Japanese were way too small. any one else think so?

excellent movie though.

 

[Nathan_R]

I have a 56" WS set, and I still think the subtitles were a little small. Still, good flick. That's the only technical problem I had with it.
~~Nathan

 

[David Lambert]

They were too small here, too.

My wife borrowed this from her best friend. Both of them enjoyed this movie from start to finish. I recognize that most of the HTF enjoyed the battle sequence, but not before or after.

I felt exactly opposite. To me, the battle sequence was the most painful part of the show! Oh, the battle looked and sounded great...and the "human interest" story that framed it was okay enough; similar to the Armageddon love story in a lot of ways.

But the battle scene seemed to be built to stun you with visuals and audios, not with it's ability to story-tell (or history-tell for that matter). Perhaps it imparted a sense of "war is hell", and that's about it.

My complaint is related to this thread in that the small subtitles emphasized this whole problem. The subtitles showed up most during the battle sequence. When you're watching a Bay-style quick-cut/flash-edit set of scenes, type that small that goes so quickly is just lost. DVD is terrif' in that you can pause it or back it up; replay it as many times needed to find out what's being said by the Japs. Problem is, it detracts from the action flow to do that.

I'm sure we'll still buy our own copy of the Uber-Edition in May, for the missus if nothing else. But I'm back in the Tora! Tora! Tora! camp. Heck, In Harm's Way and even The Final Countdown pulled off the storytelling aspect of the Day of Infamy, [rant]much[/rant] better than that!!

 

[Jack Gilvey]

I thought I was the only one. Strange decision.

 

[Barry S]

Yes, I had trouble reading the subtitles for the Japanese scenes. They were way too small and I had to pause and squint just to be able to read them.

 

[MichaelO]

There were subtitles????

 

[Tiffany A]

Just watched this today! I concur on the small subtitles. They were way to small, in a hard to read font, and were not on the screen long enough. Perhaps someone who saw this at the theatre can say how they looked on the screen...and did they leave them up long enough to read them?

On a different note, IMO the film was not as bad as I had heard from some, but quite a mediocre and predictable love story (behind the war story).

 

[Tim RH]

I have a 21" and I could read the subtitles perfectly fine. Maybe you guys need to get your vision checked if you are squinting at the text on a 36"+ screen.

 

[Scott Simonian]

I have a 55" RPTV and I thought they were very small. They werent unreadable, I did have to try hard to read them though.

 

[Terry H]

YES! I complained about the subtitles in another Pearl Harbor thread and didn't get a single response. I'm relieved to see I wasn't the only one who felt this way after all.

 

[cafink]

Are these actually burned-in titles (as opposed to "soft" player-generated subs)? How do they compare to the subtitles on Close Encounters of the Third Kind? I thought the subtitles on that disc were extremely small.

 

[TedD]

I suppose it depends on your setup. On my 12' wide screen, seated 15' away, the subtitles were perfectly readable.
I believe that they are on the print, not generated by the player, and they look like they were sized for a reasonable size theater screen in a reasonable size theater.
Yet another reason why a constant height screen is the best choice for a home theater.
Ted

 

[Ron Eastman]

On my 50" screen they were nearly unreadable. A different font would have helped.

 

[Artur Meinild]

Definitely too small. Love what they did with TPM.

 

[Robyn Young]

I totally agreed. I'm used to watching subtitled movies, and I have very good vision. They were very, very difficult to read on my 32" tv.

Glad I wasn't the only one who thought that.

robyn

 

[Albert M]

way to small.

 

[Richard_D_Ramirez]

I think those subtitles are a part of the film. I remember noticing the size of the subtitles during the theatrical release.

8^B

 

[Jeff Kleist]

This is why they move the subs into the "black bars" on many movies. To avoid this problem

As long as they keep the subs in a 16:9 area, I prefer they do that

 

[todd stone]

Weird I was thinking of this last night. I agree

 

[Deane Johnson]

I have a seven foot screen and they seemed too small. I can certainly agree that on a smaller screen they would be really tough to follow.

Deane