Pearl Harbor [VHS] [2001]

‘I joined the army to do my patriotic duty….and ...to meet guys’ Nurse Martha.This 2001 American war and romance was a massive success at the box office but was panned by the critics and its easy to see why. Opening to a highly romanticised view of a crop dusting bi-plane flying against a shimmering setting sun, it sets the romantic feel to the first part of the film. Two boys are at play, they both love aeroplanes and skip forward to 1940 they join up as flyboys. What follows is an emotional love story set against the backdrop of Pearl Harbour that plays like ‘The Battle of Britain’ meets ‘Titanic’ bumps into ‘Top Gun’ and stumbles over ‘Private Ryan’.For general entertainment this certainly merits a ***** rating. There are beautiful looking people by the boat load, romance that puts Titanic to shame and action sequences that still overawe . The dropping bomb scene has become an icon and is now a much loved presentation technique for news broadcasts in the ‘real world’ and the film is always fast paced and maintains the interest throughout it’s almost 2 hour run time. There are also some good lines thrown in that give humour.So why the criticism; The love angle has a number of twists and turns –as does the basic war backdrop, but much is very obvious and lacks real thought. Historical accuracy has been smudged to provide entertainment value but to the general viewer these are easily overlooked or not obvious. What does jar in quite a few places is that ‘gung ho’ attitude and phraseology that’s thrown into the script which also puts people in positions and places they would be extremely unlikely to be in, but that’s what separates entertainment from reality.The first disc holds the film and enters straight to a menu offering scene selection, set up [basically if you want subtitles or not] and play running for 176 minutes. The second disc has theatrical trailer and bonus material which opens other menus and is basically a making of, and must have 64 minutes to bring it up to the 3 hour run time advertised [but I haven’t played it all so can’t confirm this].So there you have it, it’s public vs critics when it comes down to it. If you liked the films mentioned above, want a romance with war [or war with romance] that is hugely emotional and entertaining, then this is difficult to beat. If you want realism [either romance or war] look elsewhere. Personally I loved this film, but certain elements and obvious script did jar badly for me, hence **** rating.

Great Film. Classic Michael Bay style. Only issue is that I find numerous films on Amazon Video have bad lip synchronization including this one.

I liked the length of the movie, the actors and of course the storyline.The special effects were amazing.

I saw this movie up to five times, and still having to seeing again

I will admit that I am not the most accurate person when it comes to the history of the world, so thus I am unable to speak of this film from a historical point of view. I will say this: I did enjoy the film even if it was a wee bit long (but that's okay, since it is a war movie). My only issue was the relationship between Hartnett and Beckinsale's characters. Your best friend dies in the war and the first person you think of hooking up with is his girl? There are literally plenty of other fish in the sea. When Afleck's character returned, I had to slap the space bar on my laptop and laugh at the sticky situation these two new lovebirds found themselves in.As I said previously, I am not entirely sure about how accurate this movie was in portraying the historical events of Pearl Harbour but judging from many other reviews, I'm guessing the producers didn't do the best job at the keeping the film accurate. But yet again, in their defence, if you want accuracy then you should go hit some documentaries.But I must say this: Affleck and Hartnett's portrayal of the relationship between two best friends was spot on. There wasn't a time when I felt as though their friendship was forced. What was also touching was Affleck's tendency to want to protect his best friend. We see this in the beginning of the film when as children he displays this characteristic by slamming his best friend's dad on the head with a plank. However, tables turn when Hartnett's character literally takes bullets for his best friend.I will admit that I did cry a little (okay, a lot) at the end of the movie because it dawned on me how unfair life can be. I found myself frustrated at how everyone's plans did not work out the way they wanted. But that's just me. I tend to think a little too deeply at times. The movie is good. Apparently not historically accurate, but good.

A brilliant and believable portrayal of war time action and loss due, in the main, to hesitation and reluctance by the military chiefs of the time to believe and understand their intelligence data. The background love stories were believable, well portrayed and heart braking. A magnificent film.

Used to love this when I was younger and wondered if I would still enjoy it but it exceeded my expectations. Great production considering it was made 20 years ago

Son's favourite movie!was over the moon when he got his very own copy!