Make no mistake; "Pearl Harbor" is a terrible, terrible movie. Director Michael Bay ("Armageddon," "The Rock") has managed to take one tragic moments in American history (brought about by our own reluctance to recognize a world outside our shores) and make us feel nothing for the men involved; in indulging his almost pornographic love of explosions, Bay elicits pity only for the inanimate ships and planes. The choice--artistic and visually appealing as it may have been--to follow the bombs and torpedoes as they stalk their iron-sided prey means that the human factor is completely withdrawn, and that while there certainly may have been a multitude of man-shaped ants crawling over the hull, the scene would play no differently without them.

At the time of the film's release, there were many complaints that the effects and horror of an attack of this magnitude was ignored in order to gain a PG-13 rating and a bigger box office. This director's cut, rated R, does attempt to correct that, but ends up going too far--false limbs fly, digital wounds rend themselves open on fleeing soldiers, and waxy mannequins (or their severed heads) stare at the audience. The bad part isn't that this gore was added, but that it was added so poorly; a horror film slapped together by a pair of high schoolers would likely have more tact, taste, and talent behind the blood.

The packaging design for this set is wonderful--much better, in fact, than Pearl Harbor deserves. Styled after a thick leather book or folder, the packaging resembles a keepsake book. Open the front flap and you're presented with a few grainy shots taken from the film, as well a copy of the "Day of Infamy" speech on a faux-aged piece of paper. Continue opening and there are more photos, a tattered book cover concealing a booklet detailing the discs' contents, and a series of four postcards depicting the stars of the film as period propaganda, held in place by an elastic strap with a real metal buckle.

The discs themselves are sealed in a folder, with four separate sleeves within. Each has an image of a different player in the attack; disc one has a Naval plane, disc two shows the rivets on a Japanese Zero, disc three is the hull of a ship, and disc four looks to be one of the military ambulances.

As on the previous 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition, the film itself is split between two discs. This isn't really about the length of the piece, but due to the archival quality for which disc producer David Prior ("Fight Club," "Titus") strove; in order to retain the highest possible image and sound quality, absolutely none of the digital info has been glossed over. The majority of the film is found on disc one, ending with FDR asking Congress to declare a state of war; if nothing else, this allows the viewer to pretend that Bay ended the movie where it made sense, rather than limping on for another hour.

For the six of you who still prefer full-screen to letterboxed presentation, there's a brief feature on disc one demonstrating the differences between the two.

There are three commentaries from which to choose: the first finds Bay sitting down with his film professor, Jeanine Basinger, to be spoon-fed questions and delude one another about the film's artistic merits and over-reaching meaning; on the second track, Jerry Bruckheimer, Josh Hartnett, Ben Affleck, and Alec Baldwin have a grand old time making fun of themselves; the final commentary sees the production team (cinematographer John Schwartzman, production designer Nigel Phelps, costume designer Michael Kaplan, art director Martin Laing, and composer Hans Zimmer) using their time to complain about Bay and the project in general.

Also on disc two are a Faith Hill video, a brief commercial for the National Geographic special on Pearl Harbor (which itself was a glorified commercial for the movie, so I guess they're even), and a 47-minute "making of" feature.

The real meat of the special features is on discs three and four. A production diary provides an hour's worth of behind-the-scenes footage and has optional commentary by Michael Bay as well as on-screen trivia. Twenty-two minutes of footage shot during the actors' stints at boot camp (and officer's training) are included, as well as the theatrical teaser and trailer. Under the heading of The History are two hours of documentaries taken from the History Channel, covering Doolittle's raid and sharing the stories of Pearl Harbor survivors.

Disc four finishes this set with nearly 90 minutes of visual effects dissection, multiple still galleries (including promotional materials stripped of text and titles, allowing the art to shine through), and a highly informative interactive timeline examining the mutual histories of Japan and the United States which runs just over an hour.

As a bonus for those who purchased an earlier copy of this film, there's even an offer for a ten dollar rebate when upgrading to this set.

Split between two discs to preserve quality, "Pearl Harbor" looks and sounds amazing; the colors are all full and saturated, blacks are thick and oily, and the engines and explosions all roar and rumble as they should. This is truly a wonderful presentation, brought low only by the actual material it presents.



Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age