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'Pearl Harbor': The Thinking Man's Set
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 4, 2002
Pearl Harbor (Vista series director's cut)
[Photo: Touchstone Pictures]
Ben Affleck played soldier Rafe McCawley in Pearl Harbor.
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When is enough ever enough for Disney? If there's a way to make a buck on anything past its logical expiration-of-interest date, the Mouse House will do it. Let's re-release The Parent Trap on home video and call it a special event, or turn a moderate hit such as Tarzan into a Broadway musical. Mickey has long arms, and plenty of them, to reach into the most remote wallet and pull out a profit.
The latest example is what feels like the 27th version of Pearl Harbor to be released on DVD, and the movie's barely a year old. We had the basic edition just in time for the 60th anniversary of the attack, a 60th anniversary gift pack to doubly commemorate the occasion and double-feature sales with The Rock, Armageddon and Enemy of the State. Okay, that doesn't equal 27 versions, but they were accompanied by at least 22 more movies' worth of hype.
Now comes another DVD set proclaimed as the definitive one, but who knows? Certainly, the Vista series edition -- part of Disney's ripoff of Criterion Collection's cinephile pleasures -- appears to be exhaustive. The cover notes declare this to be "the most extensive exploration of moviemaking ever presented. There's never been anything like it before." Probably because it fills four discs (the movie sprawls over two) with behind-the-scenes footage and historical background that could be completely enjoyed only by World War II veterans and Josh Hartnett junkies.
Some bonus material, such as the making-of documentary Journey to the Screen and footage for the History Channel, are available on at least one of the previous DVD versions. Three commentary tracks are included: Director Michael Bay (too self-congratulatory); producer Jerry Bruckheimer with actors Hartnett, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin (too reverent to Bay's excess), and the film's production, cinematography and costume designers (too technical).
Let's get real: Pearl Harbor wasn't a thinking person's movie to begin with, with an hour of things blowing up and twice as much schmaltz. No amount of explanation will make it more intelligent. But it's patriotic, and that counts for something in the marketplace, as Disney knows. One wonders if it would bother with such an extravagant DVD project had the events of Sept. 11 not occurred.
A few extras are eye-catching, such as footage of the actors going through "boot camp" to get into that whole military vibe. The attack sequence gets dissected through Bay's animated "storyboards," his dryly in-depth conversation with visual effects supervisor Eric Brevig, and an option allowing users to see the action from different angles with a few remote control clicks. It's all very academic for such a popcorn flick with an accent on corn.
Production diaries, an interactive time line of Pearl Harbor-related events and photo galleries pad the set to its approximate 12-hour attention requirements. Anyone who makes it through the set deserves a medal.
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