Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7277 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-03-19
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 183 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A big summer blockbuster, Pearl Harbor is pitched as a romantic epic, but the story is essentially a frame for an impressive depiction of the Japanese attack on that "day of infamy", deploying all the model work, CGI, stunts and special effects necessary to trump previous screen re-enactments in Tora! Tora! Tora! and From Here to Eternity. At heart, it's another Top Gun-style exercise in heroically sublimated homosexuality as Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Dan (Josh Hartnett), lifelong buddies, fall out over a ridiculous contrivance that allows both to decently fall in love with a nurse (Kate Beckinsale) but forget all their differences when the fighting starts. As expected, their big climax comes in each other's arms, with Kate left behind as one wounded buddy extracts a promise from the other to look after his unborn child.

Historical snippets are interleaved--with Mako and Jon Voigt stiff under the prosthetics as Admiral Yamamoto and Franklin Roosevelt--and a lot of detail is given about such things as the wooden rudders on the new Japanese torpedoes, the chaos in the understaffed hospital as the heroine is forced to make lipstick triage marks on wounded men's foreheads and the terrible effects of strafing. A surprisingly bright little performance from Dan Aykroyd (a sole reminder of 1941) as an intelligence analyst is balanced by an insufferably smug one from Cuba Gooding Jr as a token black supporting hero. It's the first film of the George W Bush era: aggressive and dumb as a rock, utterly uninterested in period--no one in this WWII-era army smokes, swears or uses racial abuse (Gooding's boxing opponent sneers at him because he's a cook)--and awkwardly straddles a dignified treatment of the Japanese and America's actual spasm of hatred after the attack (one soldier refuses to be treated by a Japanese doctor, but that's it). When Pearl Harbour is bombed, we see endangered dogs, drowning men and dead women, but when Tokyo gets blasted in payback only buildings are destroyed and in long-shot. Michael Bay (Armageddon) remains a jittery director, a great second-unit man who can't deal with people or stories. It borrows from Titanic and Saving Private Ryan, but tidies the war of the latter up so it can still haul in a broad audience and therefore misses the real tragic sense of the former. --Kim Newman

Synopsis
Director Michael Bay (Armageddon, The Rock) uses a tragic romantic triangle to set the stage for the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in this epic tale of love, loss, and patriotism. When Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale), a beautiful Navy nurse, meets dashing ace Army fighter pilot Rafe (Ben Affleck), the two fall madly in love, only to be separated abruptly when he is called upon to help fight the war in Europe. Unforeseen circumstances lead Evelyn into the arms of Danny (Josh Hartnett), another fighter pilot and Rafe's best friend since childhood. In the meantime, the Japanese military is planning the surprise early morning raid on Hawaii that will pull the United States into World War II. Spectacular special effects vividly recreate the attack in devastating detail as bombs explode, torpedoes shoot through the water and bullets fly, shaking tranquil Pearl Harbour to its core. Bay deftly captures the patriotism and the loss of innocence of the young men and women who were suddenly thrust into the war. Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin and Mako also star in this tribute to both the fallen and the survivors of one of the most horrific tragedies ever to occur on American soil.

Customer Reviews

Good...
Seen the film years ago, bought it on blu ray to see what it was like, picture is ok, thought it would have been better on blu ray, sound is noticably clearer. good buy nonetheless

PEARL HARBOR
THIS WAS IN MY OPINION ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES BEN AFFLEK HAS DONE BECAUSE OF THE BROAD RANGE OF EMOTIONS HE HAD TO PORTRAY. IT IS CERTIANLY MY FAVORITE, RIGHT UP THERE WITH BOUNCE, AND HOLLYWOOD MAN. I PERSONALLY PREFER MOVIES WHERE HE HAS A LEADING ROLE LIKE PEARL HARBOR, BOUNCE, FORCES OF NATURE. JERSEY GIRL WAS A GREAT MOVIE!! PEARL HARBOR IS ALSO EXCELLENT IN THAT ALL THE ACTORS WHERE TOP NOTCH AND MEMERABLE CHARACTERS. THE SET DESIGNS WERE SO BELIEVEABLE AND COSTUMES WERE RIGHT FOR THAT ERA. THE MUSIC WAS WONDERFUL ALSO AND THE WAY IN WHICH IT WAS FILMED. I BELIEVE IT WILL BECOME A CLASSIC.