Big USA Today Article about 3 disc/R Rated Version of "Pearl Harbor" (1 Viewer)

[Mark E J]

The director's cut will be just that: the director's cut, no PG-13 cut. It is being spread over 3 discs because the DC will be spread over 2 with an intermission. This makes me think that there might be a lot more extra footage than just violence.
The rough cut of the film is 40 minutes longer than the theatrical and contained shots of the USS Nevada making a run for open sea, the B-17's arriving, the USS Ward sinking the Japanese sub, and shots of Military family members being attacked during evacuation. It also is supposed to have an additional scene of an adult Danny his father about the nature and horrors of war.
By the way from what I hear the extra violence will be considerable. According to the USA today article you will see a guy get cut in half, and in the script the scene with Dorie Miller and the West Virgina Captain was much more graphic and true to life:
:Spoiler:
The script scene was much more historical with Miller being called in by another officer to help move the injured Captain who had been disembowled.
Also Billy death was far more gruesom showing his legs being cut of by a strafing Zero. He crawls around legless on the runway before being blown apart by a near by bomb.
:Spoiler:
I ofcource have know way of knowing wether or not these scenes will actually be in the DC. But it certainly seems that way. Maybe Mr. Prior can shed some light on this.
BTW I hear that the Bruce Willis cameo was not in the rough cut either.

 

[Mark E J]

Do we know for sure it'll be only a 5 minute diffence? because it seems odd that it would be spaced over two discs with an intermission if all their adding is a few minutes.
[Edited last by Mark E J on August 15, 2001 at 06:09 PM]

 

[Gareth Flynn]

This looks like a fantastic package - it seems David Prior is about to raise the standard yet again! However, I'm gutted about the missing trailers. Both the original teaser and the full theatrical trailers are mini works of art in their own right, and I would like to plead with the powers that be to come to some sort of arrangement that would allow them to be on there (hell, use an Easter Egg if you need to

)
As for the differences between the theatrical cut and the director's cut, from what I gather it's a lot more than just an extra few minutes of violence - whole scenes have been removed and replaced. I simply can't wait!

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I love how Bay mentions "racial slurs" as something new and cool!
To me, this just sounds like more cash registers ringing for Disney. I don't see how adding MORE carnage or explosions could make this movie any better.
Please don't attack me. I just don't think that any amount of new footage could turn this into a good film.
But any news of this sort is good for DVD and its enthusiasts, so I'm all for the multiple editions. It gives us options, and that's all we ask for.
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Scott
TheAngryJew's Movie Reviews at HBS.com
AOL IM: TheAngryJew29

 

[Sean Cullen]

Will the National Geographic documentary be included in the director's cut?
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[Jason Hughes]

I'm just glad Disney has announced the three disc set at the same time as the regular edition. I'm a DVD slut and will likely buy both, but I'm sure there are a lot of people that will just wait the extra month for the SE.
UNIVERSAL : please take note of the above (not that you seem to care).

 

[HalS]

While Bay specifically says he'd prefer that people be able to see the R rated version in theaters, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
As someone else mentioned in this thread, December this year is tightly packed with releases. December 7th already has two of the most high profile releases of the year: Ali and Oceans 11.
Also, generally re-releases of films soon after they initially left theaters rarely work (unless it's tied to the Oscar noms/winners). Witness they spent an estimated $5 million to put out Spy Kids last weekend and it pulled in only a little more than a million.
There are certainly reasons other than purely hoping to increase the box office (in the case of Spy Kids, it's works as promotion for the video) but it's one thing to re-release Spy Kids in the middle of August when the industry tends to start to slow down and quite another to do it in December when studios are already going to be fighting tooth and nail over screens.

 

[Elbert Lee]

Good deal. Looks like Disney/Buena Vista, New Line, Fox, and Paramount are moving forward in the DVD industry. Funny how Warner, once the champion of the format, seems to be receeding.... Can't blam them since their films have been steadily declining since Matrix (anybody watch "Sweet November"?)
I liked this film. It had great cinematic sequences and a great movie soundtrack musical score, but the sum of its parts couldn't add up to a film that moved most audiences they way that it should have. I don't think Bay has fully matured into this genre, but it's better having tried than not make the attempt. It's too early to tell if he's on to a James Cameron career path...
ELbert

 

[Adrian_P]

I found this movie to be moderately enjoyable. After coming out of the cinema I said I wouldn't buy it on DVD unless it was a really impressive DVD package with both DD and DTS soundtracks. Well this Director's Cut looks just about enough to convince me to buy it with all those extra goodies.

 

[Andy Kim]

With the length of the movie, DTS, DD, and a few commentaries, I don't think this one would've made 1 disc. I'm sure the intermission was placed there to pizazz the break between disc 1 and disc 2, rather than the intermission being the cause of the movie being placed over 2 discs, which I think is a nice touch. It beats having the screen go blank, cueing you to put in disc 2.
It seems like they pulled all the stops in making this a memorable release in every detail you can think of from menus (hopefully) to a specially designed THX trailer (again, hopefully).

 

[LarryV]

I know most of you guys get chicks, but hey I admit it, I don't! So, an eveneing spent watching one of my favorite actress's buttox in one of my favorite films is as good as it gets for me.
Also, people need to remember that about half of todays young women are openly bi sexual, so I mean it's not just for us "guys" anymore. Im tired of being stereotyped or something.
THANK YOU DISNEY!

 

[David-alexander]

http://www.dvdfile.com/software/dvd-video/index.html#08152001
Link Removed
what do you think guys ?
http://www.posternow.com/cgi-bin/post er_e/p_e.pl?f=*INTERPRET%2C*TITEL%2C*SEARCH&t=te_overview&start=1&dif=10&c=Pearl%20Harbor&search=ALL
[Edited last by David-alexander on August 15, 2001 at 09:40 PM]

 

[Kajs]

I have a question/obersavtion...
They said it will be 5 min longer, but they also said a lot of the love story will be cut out. Now thinking logically about this, if they delete stuff and make the running time 5 minutes longer they have to fill in that "deleted" space, i.e. there will be more than 5 min of "new" footage. Right?
I also am happy about the added "butt shot", but it does seem weird that it was mentioned in that article (even though it wasn't a quote from Bay, as some people stated.)

 

[David-alexander]

maybe 10 or 15min added in total, I guess.
yeah, on second thought, it's kinda disrespectful to mention this in an article. it's certainly not in the press release !
[Edited last by David-alexander on August 15, 2001 at 09:58 PM]

 

[Mitty]

God this is f*cking annoying.

When Harbor opened in May, he expressed regret that the horrors were muffled by a mandated PG-13, the family-friendly rating required by his agreement with Disney. He said then, "I would have liked to have made this movie more violent."

So, I'm an adult, and I spent upwards of $10 to rent the experience of this movie, but to maximize their profits, they gave me the teeny bopper version. To add insult to injury, they then release the REAL version on video, and expect me to be grateful for it.
Studios - the definitive version should play IN THEATRES, not on video!
Michael Bay should be ashamed of himself for being such a sellout. The guy has made nothing but smash successes so far in his career. His past successes should have given him great bargaining power, provided he had any balls.

 

[SteveMc]

I read the news on Digitalbits with mixed feelings. I thought the movie, although long, was decent enough to buy on DVD. I wil lprobably wait for the R-rated cut of the film since I felt the attack sequence seemed kind of empty and unreal. I expected it to hit me like Saving Private Ryan but it came no where near that intensity. It just bugs me when a comapny puts out 18 different versions of the film, it confuses people too much as to which one they are buying. Like Universal has to put out 4 different version of MiB...just a minor pet peeve i guess. But for me, the R-cut all the way.
------------------
Crash
"I don't even own a gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack."
Help us get the Friday the 13th films-UNCUT. Click Here or here

 

[Elbert Lee]

I agree - But then again, Disney and Bruckenheimer are the real bosses. Michael Bay is no Lucas, Speilberg, Cameron, or Scorcese for that matter. He hasn't proven capable of producing/directing a film on his own without Bruckenheimer so he has to bow to marketing pressure from above.
I think that one day he may get to Cameron's pre-Titanic clout. That's it. He doesn't have the creativity to come up with the stories that Cameron has, yet he is a good workhorse action director, with a touch of cinematic style and there's no denyting that his pictures look like summer event movies all the way...
Elbert

 

[HalS]

Michael Bay should be ashamed of himself for being such a sellout. The guy has made nothing but smash successes so far in his career. His past successes should have given him great bargaining power, provided he had any balls.

He didn't have the power to win that battle. There will probably be a book or two written about the production of Pearl Harbor. It's well known that Eisner and other higher ups at Disney did not want to make the film originally. To finally get them to make the film, most of the principals gave up their up front high priced salaries, and there were strict budget limits put in place. Along with a guarantee the film would be brought in PG-13, since that can make a huge difference in box office. A R rating on a film with that size of a budget would be a disaster and you can't ignore that. Disney is a publically traded company and has a duty to it's shareholders.
Now you could debate whether or not Bay or any other filmmaker should have walked and just elected not to make the film under those circumstances but that's another story.
None of the compromises he was forced to make is anything shocking. As we were talking about in a different thread, you're making art within one of the biggest industries in the world. Business considerations come into play, that's just the reality of the situation. Honestly, I think if you look at it from both perspectives, you'll understand. As a filmmaker you want everything possible for your production. As a financier/studio you want to give every possible chance to see the $100+ million you spent on the film to be earned back and then some. On EVERY film, the two sides come to some agreement in a way that tries to preserve both of those things. That's just the way it is.

 

[Scott H]

Now didn't I tell you guys, back on 07/11, that there would be two releases and one would be 3-discs

 

[Mark E J]

It should be pointed out that Michael Bay quit 4 times in protest to the crap that Disney was doing to the production. Sure he has had some success and some clout, (obviously since they let him film diffrent versions of scenes to make a DC later) but no one outside of maybe Spielberg can stand up to Eisner.