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Pearl Harbor: The Director's Cut - Vista Series

I think the question burning on everyone's mind is, "Does the world really need another DVD edition of Michael Bay's 'Pearl Harbor?'" Disney must be on its hands and knees milking the old war epic cow for everything they can get out of it; for what other reason would they see it fitting to re-release the movie in a four-disc edition complete with the features that should have been included with the first edition back in December of 2001? Not only has the supplemental material expanded, but the movie is being dubbed as a "director's cut" version, which is to be the subject of my writing today. ***

When "Pearl Harbor" was released back in summer of 2001, critics and audiences were split down the middle. Some hailed it for its old-fashioned appeal and stunning special effects, while others viewed the fictional love triangle as appalling and corny, and the attack sequence a bomb itself due to the filmmakers' insistance on a PG-13 rating to attract bigger box office figures. I stood on both sides of the fence: the love story is too much he-said-she-said dribble, but the forty-five minute depiction of the bombing of the Hawaiian naval base is outstanding and brilliantly composed. For what it was worth, I felt Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer had fashioned one good movie sandwiched between two trite, run-of-the-mill debacles. ***

And now we have Michael Bay's uncut, unrestricted version of the film, and to be honest, there's not much of a difference. In fact, what there is of the movie that is making a fresh appearance is a turn-off, from the inclusion of small instances of bloodshed and war-related death, to various lines of dialogue that include vulgarities during stressful moments. Clocking in at a running time of 184 minutes, what you have is one more minute of boom for your buck, which would be better spent purchasing a movie like "Black Hawk Down" or "Tora! Tora! Tora!" ***

The love story is still the same old treacly mess, featuring two young pilots, Danny (Josh Hartnett) and Rafe (Ben Affleck), falling for Evelyn (Kate Beckinsdale), a nurse who is stationed in Pearl Harbor. Rafe falls for her, then is sent to England; word gets back to Danny and Evelyn that Rafe died in combat, and then they fall in love. Of course, he's not dead, and things blow up for the love triangle right in proximity to the real explosions of December 7, 1941. ***

It's kind of like the "Titanic" of the war movie genre, a love story set against the backdrop of a major historical event. But while James Cameron's script was flawless in its seamless binding of fiction and nonfiction into something mesmerizing and truly affecting, Randall Wallace's script for "Pearl Harbor" induces grimaces of pain and suffering from an audience that will quickly grow tired of the same humdrum lines of dialogue and soap opera plotting. You never come to care for the characters outside of the situations they face during the attack, and the plot twists that come during the movie's final third are more "Peyton Place" than they are "From Here to Eternity." ***

None of this has changed with the director's cut; it's all still there, waiting to plague anyone who dares to tread its path. But what has changed is the attack sequence, a once-magnificent portrayal of pivotal events that has become cartoonish and exploitative as a result of addition, more graphic footage. This is not war violence along the lines of the brilliantly composed "Black Hawk Down," or "We Were Soldiers," but a mish-mash of images that seem forced into the overall action without any sense of place or purpose. ***

Take, for example, a scene in the hospital in which a nurse, so stricken with fear and stress, drops a tray of medical utensils onto the floor. From her, the camera pans over to an image of a dismembered hand and foot lying in a small pot. A picture like this is supposed to be shocking, and withhold some measure of meaningfulness, but when filtered through Bay's candy-corn point-of-view, it just becomes off-putting. There are other inclusions as well, which encompass a dismembered head, bullets strafing the flesh of various running men, a bomb that rips a man literally to pieces, and even the insertion of a head wound to the newsreel cameraman who takes a hit when a hangar is attacked (you can even see that the animation doesn't fit right into the picture). ***

Such additional material makes me yearn for the restricted appeal of the sequence in the PG-13 version. Sure, the action was downplayed as a result of producer intentions for huge marketing numbers, but at least it possessed some measure of stability. With the director's cut, Bay seems anxious to stand up to his film's competitors by showing us a side of "Pearl Harbor" we've never seen before, and ends up ruining furthermore what was, at the very least, a serviceable forty-five minutes of good filmmaking.

While it hasn't made a great mark on movie history, "Pearl Harbor" swoops onto DVD with the greatest transfer of sound and image quality to date, boasting clear images and a booming soundtrack that make the purchase worth it for tech buffs. The images, measured at a ratio of 2.35:1, have excellent color fidelity, with accurate fleshtones and hues that accentuate the various sequences and events. The bombing sequence is pristine, razor-sharp and crisp, for a picture that provides no distractions or artifacts. The sound design is one of the best available on the market, featuring three different audio choices. The Dolby Digital track and DTS track both feature excellent use of the full soundfield, engaging the viewer into the movie through the surrounds and the front channels. As the attack begins, the planes begin soaring down, transitioning from the surround channels to the forward speakers smoothly. The directionalization of what's going on onscreen transfers brilliantly into the soundtrack, for an experience that puts the audience right in the middle of the action. Deep bass is frequent, without being overpowering or harsh. As an added bonus, there is a first-ever Dolby Headphone track, which channels into the headphone jack of a DVD player and recreates the 5.1 mix into a 2.0 with surprisingly good quality.

Now this is what I call a quality DVD. Not only is this four-disc release of the love-among-the-ruins epic "Pearl Harbor" a vast improvement over the bare-bones release last December, it also enhances what would otherwise be a corny, boring movie by supplying a wealth of special features that focus 99% on the famed attack sequence at the center of the debacle. The director's cut version of the film is more or less the same movie with a few new instances of war violence, but if supplements are your stock in trade, then you've come to the right place. ***

In addition to the commentaries for Discs One and Two, included on Disc Two is the original documentary "Journey to the Screen: The Making of Pearl Harbor," Faith Hill's music video, and the promo for National Geographic's "Beyond the Movie" feature, all of which was seen in the previous release of the movie. ***

Disc Three gets into the brunt of the special features, beginning with an extensive collection of short featurettes and behind-the-scenes footage dubbed "Production Diaries." Here, things like the detonation of real battleships on Battleship Row, the use of real planes from the past, and the rolling over of the U.S.S. Oklahoma, are all shown in their initial stages, showcasing footage taken during the shoot, animatics, and more to evoke the grand sense of craftsmanship. There are also items here on the infamous Dorie Miller, the Doolittle attack and how it was portrayed in the film, and Bay's attainment of permission to shoot footage of the real U.S.S. Arizona to use in the film. This is followed by two documentaries of the boot camp training undergone by the actors, one of which was for the soldiers, the other for officers, a theatrical teaser and trailer, and a collection of Super 8 footage, which looks as if it came directly from 1941, though I doubt any newsreel cameraman was able to get that close to the action. ***

Then there are the History Channel documentaries, "Unsung Heroes of Pearl Harbor," which was also featured on the first release, and "One Hour Over Tokyo." "Heroes" is a detailing of the efforts of American soldiers to get a handle on the situation despite the surprise nature of the attack, and "Tokyo" is a recollection of the Doolittle raid in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. It's interesting to watch these two documentaries and note the similarities and differences between the event and the movie; you'd be surprised at just how faithful the film remains to history, when it's not drowning its audience in syrup, that is. Then there are the recollections of Nurse Ruth Erickson, whose words describe the disastrous event in ways no movie or special effect ever could. ***

Disc Four is devoted entirely to special effects, the main event of the film. It contains the film's best feature, a multi-angle, multi-audio presentation of the attack sequence with the option of watching the storyboards and animatics, final version, or behind-the-scenes footage with either Dolby 5.1 final track, sound effects alone, score alone, or commentaries with various filmmakers. There is so much to take in during this sequence, and watching it broken down into images and words uncovers a great deal of care and hard work put forth into the final product. The rough animatic sequence is also a testament to this, showing the previsualization from Bay, who choreographed his scenes in advance to get a sense of the scope and scale of various shots. ***

There is also a lengthy interview with Michael Bay and visual effects supervisor Eric Brevig, who discuss many of the movie's main effects shots. This interview also branches out into smaller vignettes, which cover the effect in question. The breakdown of the sinking of the Arizona is especially intriguing, considering that its completely animated form and rich detail made it the most expensive shot in the film. Also covered are the roll-over of the Oklahoma, the CG models of the planes put into the computer, and more of the bombing and attack sequence. And the historical timeline is not just one devoted to the events of Pearl Harbor, but also to the history of Japan and America that led to the events portrayed in the movie.

Discs One and Two house the movie, which is accompanied by three different audio commentaries by various members of the cast and crew. The first features director Michael Bay and film historian Jeanine Basinger discussing the movie in broad strokes, not just technical. It opens with Bay's relation of the Pearl Harbor attack to the World Trade Center bombings, and then moves into more of the movie-related material, as they discuss character, special effects, and the overall effect of the movie on them as human beings. To be certain, I don't hold "Pearl Harbor" up on a four-start pedestal, but to hear Bay talk about his work with such passion is more than enough to make even the most cynical realize the effort put forth here. ***

The second commentary features producer Jerry Bruckheimer and actors Josh Hartnett, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin, who talk about a wealth of diverse aspects. Bruckheimer discusses everything from the special effects and location shooting, to the effect of the movie on the survivors of Pearl Harbor during a special screening in Hawaii. Hartnett, Affleck and Baldwin talk mostly about character and working on the film, and it's especially interesting to hear them relate their experiences during the more action-charged sequences. ***

The third commentary is a bit of a mystery: the DVD insert credits only three people, director of photography John Schwartzman, costume designer Michael Kaplan, and production designer Nigel Phelps, as being present during the conversation, while the DVD itself credits supervising art director Martin Laing and composer Hans Zimmer to the discussion as well. As I listened to various selections of the commentary, I noticed the three initial filmmakers remarks about costume, cinematography and incorporating live-action shots into special effects shots, and things like set design and period pieces, but did not find any discussion, much less an introduction, from Zimmer or Laing. Perhaps a foible, but the commentary is informative just the same.