Pearl Harbor 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition DVD (1 Viewer)

[Brad M]

I missed this movie in theaters so this was my first viewing. I did rather enjoy it. I just finished going through some of the DVD. I thought I'd post what I thought, so here it goes.
Package: The package is not something I care for. Everytime I open it, it makes this sound as if I'm destroying it. The inserts are just sitting inside with no way of holding them. It comes with a coupon book which made me smile. On the front is a $3 coupon for the Tombstone Vista Series DVD. It confirms the date as 1/15. Look for coupons for: Unbreakable, Bridget Jones, Chocolat, Gone In 60 Seconds, Spy Kids, Remember The Titans & The Sixth Sense Vista Series. All are $3 coupons.
Movie: Pearl Harbor is split on 2 discs. The first disc ends right after the declaration of war. There's nothing but the movie on the first disc. The 2nd has the other half of the movie and the extras. I thought the DD 5.1 sounded great. As for EE I'll leave that to you guys who have bigger TVs. :frowning: The History Channel documentary compliments the movie very well. It shows you who some of the characters are based on.
Anyway, probably nothing you have not read before, but there you go. I'm glad to have this movie in my collection.

 

[Brad_W]

I am probably going to be one of the few people that say this, but I hated the movie. I said that in another thread, but I guess I'm biased against Michael Bay. Michael Bay + Directing = lame movie/over-dramatic. Sorry for posting unwanted negative criticism.

Anyway, I just watched this DVD and thought the DTS was well mixed. The only other positive (i.e. non-negative) thing I can say/ask is did the intermission appear in the movie theaters as well? If it did, then I can appreciate that aspect of the film. Oh yes, and any and all CGI used in that movie was flawless, in my opinion.

 

[Tim Glover]

Thanks for the review Brad. Like you I really enjoyed this movie in the theater and can't wait until mine arrives in the mail.

 

[Brad M]

No problem. If you enjoyed it in theaters you'll love the dvd.

 

[Holadem]

I watched this movie this afternoon for the first time. Knowing what to expect (lotsa obvious emotional moments with sweeping music and all), I thouroughly enjoyed it. Really, I firmly believe some people need to lighten up. I you didn't like armageddon and went to see this movie anyway, you only have yourself to blame. I happened to have liked both. The actions scenes were incredible, and even I (an aviation nuts) enjoyed them despite the blatant inacuracies that are to be expected.
I did flinch a little bit when the Commander said something about flying a plane into the juiciest target. Also, to give credit to those who hate this movie, I felt a little bit insulted at the fact that they felt they needed all this music and other obvious devices to make us appreciate the disaster that day was. But then that was before 9/11 I guess.
The picture was excellent on my 32" Toshiba.
I watched it in DD 5.1 because my receiver has been having problems with recent DTS movies. Well, I will simply say that this soundtrack is the best I have heard so far on my system, and I own the Haunting, TS2, SPR DTS, Episode I etc... and have heard most of the soundtrack A list. This ones puts them all to shame on my system. The funny thing is that I watched it in DTS for a few minutes, and as far as I can tell - don't quote me on this, DTS sounded better, which is quite hard to believe when you heard the DD track.
In all, great experience. I won't be watching it again anytime soon, but when I do (with friends etc...), I know I will enjoy it.
I did not check the extras except for the teaser (DD 5.1)and trailer (DPL only, strangely enough).
--
Holadem

 

[Nate Anderson]

I also enjoyed the film, and actually have the disc sitting on the desk beside me. (Funny, it's not supposed to be out till December 4th, yet it seems like we all have it!!!)

Anyhoo...great features, good flick, great picture and sound. Who could ask for more.

I was originally going to wait for the Director's cut, but decided (after seeing it out early at work) that it was the theatrical version I liked, and I figured I'd end up with both anyway...

 

[Elbert Lee]

I actually appreciate Michael Bay films, although I believe he was a bit out of his depth with Pearl Harbor. He's a very cinematic director, but I have to say that he's always trying to paint portraits.

I put this movie on for my parents, who don't have a great command of the English language, and they loved this film. More "sophisticated" audiences saw through Bay's typical directing devices and didn't buy this movie at all. It did not capture the period very well and the devestation tries to hard to impress, but never capturing the depth of Titanic or severity of Saving Private Ryan.

I still had a good time with this movie, but, by no means is it going to be considered a great war film.

Elbert

 

[Brad_W]

It did not capture the period very well and the devestation tries to[o] hard to impress,

As I stated before I did not like this film, but I did enjoy the attack sequence. I think Bay was trying to do a Titanic by putting in a love story with a real life disaster. Not to say that it hasn't been done before pre-Titanic, but just not as popular as Titanic. I also think that if you want to see a great film about the bombing of Peal Harbor, you should watch Tora! Tora! Tora!. Bay's films are too over-dramatic (which is evident from the begining of Pearl Harbor with the two boys trying to fly a pretend plane... ect.). And for some reason, he always puts in bad dialogue/one-liners. As much as I despise Bay's films, at least I watched this movie, gave it a chance, had one or two positive things to say (you don't want to hear my rant on Armageddon).

 

[todd stone]

I too enjoyed the film, and I agree, people need to lighten up and just calm down.

 

[Brad M]

I thought I'd add a little something for you to watch for while viewing the movie. I had posted this in another thread but I wanted to make sure more people got to read this little bit of trivia. Bruce Willis can be seen in the movie. If you want to see him, he can be seen in the scene where the nurse is marking people's foreheads with lipstick. He walks by clearly in the background just after the nurse sees her dead friend. His expression never changes. It is at 2 hrs 1 minute and 52 seconds on disc one. Kinda funny but I don't think it should be there.

 

[Marty Christion]

Brad,

That's an extra that looks kind of like Bruce Willis/ John McLane. Unless you have other corroberating evidence, you probably shouldn't state it as fact. (You also have to realize that this guy looks like Bruce Willis did 13 years ago, not like he does today.)

 

[Brad M]

Sorry Marty, I was going off what some of the other guys said in one of the other Pearl Harbor threads in this forum. They say it's something an ILM guy added in and that it was footage from one of the Die Hard movies. When you watch it his face never changes and he moves quickly through the scene.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Is Pearl Harbor a bad movie? YES
Bay is totally out of his element, but once things start blowing up, and he knows what he's doing and it's great
I'm just mad they didn't do the "side break" right before the attack, then I'd never have to watch the first disc again
The historical innacuracies in this film are inexcusable, as well as the rah rah patriotism and the demonizing of the Japanese commanders into looking like incompetant boobs.
Tora Tora Tora, now THAT's a Pearl Harbor movie!

 

[Mark E J]

The historical innacuracies in this film are inexcusable, as well as the rah rah patriotism and the demonizing of the Japanese commanders into looking like incompetant boobs.

Jeff did you actually watch the film? How can you say that the film demonized the Japanese when it went out of it's way to portray them as noble soldiers forced into war. Hell, the film does everything but apologize for not making our ships easier to sink.

Plus the film made the Japanese look more competant than they really were. The truth is the attack at Pearl Harbor failed horribly despite the damage it caused. The whole point of the attack was to cripple America and make us incapable of fighting back so we would sue them for peace. In reality Adm. Nagumo was an incompetant boob. He made 2 of the worst tatical mistakes of the entire war and single handedly lost the Pacific war for the Japanese.

However this is not shown in the movie. Nor was the delibrate attacks on civilians like the firemen trying to put out the fire at Hickem Field or the non-military air-field that got bombed that day, or any mention of them signing the Axis Alliance with the Nazis and invading Indochina for that matter. (which is why we stopped selling them oil in the first place) Infact the film even edits the famous "Day of Infamy" speach to remove refrence to the half dozen other Islands that Japan attacked and invaded on December 7, 1941. There are many things you can criticize about this film but demonizing the Japanese is not one of them.

BTW exactlly how is patriotism "inexcusable" in the context of Pearl Harbor? This is like saying the patriotism in New York after 9-11 is inexcusable.

 

[Derek Duncan]

Let's get back to the dvd, someone mentioned that there is an intermission. I thought this was going to be added to the DC DVD. Is it it really on this one, that would be great, also what is it like.

Derek

 

[Nate Anderson]

The intermission comes right after FDR's press speech. The intermission piece is a freeze frame long shot of FDR at the podium and the press around. Text slowly fades in, asking you to switch to disc 2. The last hour of the film and all the extras are on disc 2.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I don't know about any of you, but this film had a more emotional impact on me this time than when I saw it in theaters opening day. The difference? September 11th.
As I watched this incredibly horrifying attack unfold in this film, my mind starting wandering, and thoughts of the World Trade Center entered my head. The parralels were too hard to overlook, unexpected attack, peace shattered, lives lost, and America shaken to the core. It was very emotional. O.k. so, this is not a perfect film, fine, we've established that, but after the event's of the past 4 months, can't we just take this films message to heart at least? Don't take anything for granted. This movie is bursting with American pride and spirit at a time when we could all use some.

 

[Oscar]

Ok, i liked this film, i give it a five star rating (hey its my opinion!), but i found the complete Pearl Harbor script on the web, and i think it could have been way better, it putted more respect into the japanese, many of the dumb dialouge was gone, and the love triangle was still there, but it wasnt a very important fact of the film, but Micheal Bay did an excellent execution, but if he would have been more faithful to the original script, the movie would become a classic here is the adress: Link Removed aw darn it, i cannot put a needed sign, anyways the only failure of the original Randall Wallace script is the introduction to the nurses, it just dosent work and makes the film look stupid, ok here is a tip to find the adress go to Yahoo, then search for Pearl Harbor by Randall Wallace, and there you will find it.

 

[Dave H]

I rented this a while back and will NEVER watch it again. The battle scene had great effects and sound. Besides that, this movie did nothing for me and the "love triangle" was ridiculous...much too long to sit through.

 

[Dave H]

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