A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941.A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941.A tale of war and romance mixed in with history. The story follows two lifelong friends and a beautiful nurse who are caught up in the horror of an infamous Sunday morning in 1941.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 14 wins & 51 nominations total
Jaime King
- Betty
- (as James King)
Matthew Davis
- Joe
- (as Matt Davis)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
I don't understand, why people are rating this film so bad. In my opinion its a good mixture between action and love story. Maybe a little bit more action. And in my oppinion a film hasn't to be 100% accurate, when it's enjoyable to watch it. If you want accurate things, then you have to watch some documentarys and not action films.
Pearl Harbor is a terrific movie with a well developed storyline and a fantastic cast.I really don't understand why this movie gets so much hate,it's a good story and despite the historical inaccuracies,I think it stays true to the events in the way that the characters behave and the drama that develops throughout.Many people complained about the love story,saying that it was unnecessary,but I completely disagree,the development of these three characters and the love and rivalry that occurs makes their story a lot more personal, it is definitely what kept me watching for the whole three hours,it was sweet,romantic and tragic,and I don't think the tragedy at the end would have been any bit as upsetting without this conflict that was shown previously.Ben Affleck,Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett all deliver great performances,they really became these characters and were living in the moment for each scene,there was great chemistry between all three,and despite some of their lines being very cheesy,they certainly didn't deserve Razzie nominations.Where the movie does fall flat is the fact that it tried to be the Titantic of war movies,I get that it was a huge movie at the time and Michael Bay was trying to make his own version of it,but trying to be like another film is never a good mind set for filmmaking and that is certainly a significant part of why many people criticized this movie.It may have a few flaws,but I still had a great time watching Pearl Harbor and certainly didn't consider it a waste of three hours,and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good drama or war film.
Follows the lives of two best friends as they enter the war as pilots and both start to fall for the same woman.
Best Performance: Kate Beckinsale
Follows the lives of two best friends as they enter the war as pilots and both start to fall for the same woman.
Best Performance: Kate Beckinsale
I don't care how much people hate this movie and how cheesy it is. It's entertaining, gripping, beautiful, romantic and a good old war/love epic i always circle back to time and time again. Plus Josh Hartnett in a pilots uniform? HEK YESSSSSSS!
The film opens in 1923 and shows farm boys Rafe and Danny as close friends in Tennessee, who share a passion for flying... They join the United States Army Air Corps in 1941 and both show an ability at being daring pilots while training under the command of Jimmy Doolittle, in Long Island...
Their life is changed when they encounter a beautiful dedicated nurse called Evelyn Johnson...
Rafe falls for Evelyn and volunteers for service in the Battle of Britain He continues his love affair by letters with Evelyn who ends up with Danny in Hawaii - Pearl Harbor, where the US Pacific fleet is gathered at rest...
News comes back that he was shot down over the English Channel, and assumed dead Keenly distressed, Evelyn eventually finds relief in the arms of Danny... They go too far, too soon, leading to exactly what you would expect...
By the time that Rafe reappears, Evelyn is in love with Danny
Kate Beckinsale brings warmth and intelligent sweetness to her character... She is quietly at a loss, holding back her tears, when she finds out she must choose between the two charming fighters she loves...
The film honors those who underwent Pearl Harbor The great shots plunge viewers into mass destruction, chaos and incompetence... We see hundreds of Japanese planes approaching towards their unsuspecting targets Sailors sauntering along the decks of their moored vessels when the torpedo planes, armed with special shallow-running devices, headed for the battleships, their prime targets
Bay's cameras move sometimes fast, and sometimes in slow motion to show the savage blow Scenes, out of focus, evoke the sense of disorientation and fear, also of bravery in the midst of confusion in the island's base hospital...
'Pearl Harbor' is a fight between love and glory against a backdrop of America's entry into World War II... The film has some moments of excitement and grandeur
Schwartzman gets some extremely nice-looking scenes of the Hawaiian twilight... His shots of Katesitting atop a rock, reading Rafe's love-letters, totally unaware to the striking Hawaiian surf that threatens to pull her out to seaare incredibly beautiful
Their life is changed when they encounter a beautiful dedicated nurse called Evelyn Johnson...
Rafe falls for Evelyn and volunteers for service in the Battle of Britain He continues his love affair by letters with Evelyn who ends up with Danny in Hawaii - Pearl Harbor, where the US Pacific fleet is gathered at rest...
News comes back that he was shot down over the English Channel, and assumed dead Keenly distressed, Evelyn eventually finds relief in the arms of Danny... They go too far, too soon, leading to exactly what you would expect...
By the time that Rafe reappears, Evelyn is in love with Danny
Kate Beckinsale brings warmth and intelligent sweetness to her character... She is quietly at a loss, holding back her tears, when she finds out she must choose between the two charming fighters she loves...
The film honors those who underwent Pearl Harbor The great shots plunge viewers into mass destruction, chaos and incompetence... We see hundreds of Japanese planes approaching towards their unsuspecting targets Sailors sauntering along the decks of their moored vessels when the torpedo planes, armed with special shallow-running devices, headed for the battleships, their prime targets
Bay's cameras move sometimes fast, and sometimes in slow motion to show the savage blow Scenes, out of focus, evoke the sense of disorientation and fear, also of bravery in the midst of confusion in the island's base hospital...
'Pearl Harbor' is a fight between love and glory against a backdrop of America's entry into World War II... The film has some moments of excitement and grandeur
Schwartzman gets some extremely nice-looking scenes of the Hawaiian twilight... His shots of Katesitting atop a rock, reading Rafe's love-letters, totally unaware to the striking Hawaiian surf that threatens to pull her out to seaare incredibly beautiful
(Please excuse my French, it's probably wrong)
Roll up, roll up! See the cinematic spectacle of 2001! See the horrible
deaths of 2500 or so people commemorated by a film about two guys who
fly fast planes really fast. See them go ZOOOOOOOOM, see them go
WHIIIIZZZZ! See them reprise the 'flypast and debriefing' scenes from
Top Gun. Watch the beautiful love story unfold. See the true love two
people have for one another tested and broken when Kate Beckinsale
comes between them.
See a fine young actor reduced to playing Token Black Guy. Watch as he
fights to prove he's more than a Token Black Guy, even though he's
given so little to do that he ends up as nothing more than a Token
Black Guy (even though, unlike the two guys in the planes, Token Black
Guy actually existed).
Watch the awful bombing of a military target. Watch the heroic bombing
of a city. Watch Jon Voigt recreate Peter Sellars' unforgettable
character Dr. Strangelove.
Watch the whole reality of war, and the lives and deaths therein
trivialised to make a Big Dumb Action Movie that thinks it's some kind
of ghastly tribute to the American dead of December the 7th.
Or better still... don't!
On the other hand, if you want an unrealistic film with ponderously
paced romance, fighter planes zooming all over the place and nice
explosions, check this out. It's a lot of fun. Just don't take it
seriously - you'll only encourage them!
Did you know
- TriviaWhen shooting the scene where Rafe (Ben Affleck) and Danny (Josh Hartnett) manage to get off the ground during the attack, and are chased by three Japanese Zeroes, one of the real planes clipped a palm tree and crashed. The pilot was dazed, and suffered only a broken finger.
- Goofs(at around 1h 20 mins) The Japanese are shown flipping a calendar from the 6th to the 7th of December on the morning of the attack. This is done for American audiences who are familiar with the date of the attack being 7 December 1941. Clocks aboard the Japanese ships were kept on Tokyo time, so for them the attack actually took place the morning of 8 December. The Japanese version of the film shows the calendar flipping from the 7th to the 8th.
- Quotes
Admiral Yamamoto: I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant.
- Crazy creditsUnusually, Pearl Harbor started without showing the opening Touchstone and Bruckheimer logos; they only showed up after the end credits.
- Alternate versionsThe VHS & HDTV versions of the movie are presented in 16x9 pan and scan with the battle scenes presented in 1.85:1.
- ConnectionsEdited into Transformers (2007)
- SoundtracksThere You'll Be
Written by Diane Warren
Produced by Trevor Horn and Byron Gallimore
Performed by Faith Hill
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $140,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $198,542,554
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $59,078,912
- May 27, 2001
- Gross worldwide
- $449,220,945
- Runtime3 hours 3 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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