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Pearl Harbor
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 105 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): War
Written by: Randall Wallace
Directed by: Michael Bay
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 25, 2001
DVD: December 4, 2001
Running Time: 178 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for sustained intense war sequences, images of wounded, brief sensuality and some language
Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, William Lee Scott, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Kellner, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Jon Voight
Against the backdrop of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, two friends (Affleck, Hartnett) find themselves drawn into the war and in love with the same woman (Beckinsale).
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Armageddon Bad Boys Bad Boys II The Island The Rock Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
The film's immense cast and crew, headed by director Michael Bay, writer Randall Wallace and stars Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale, blend artistry and technology to create a blockbuster entertainment that has passion, valor and tremendous action.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The cast is engaging, the overall visual effects are tremendous and I found myself fairly swept away for most of the fast-moving, three-hour running time.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
The film never quite hits a sure-footed stride. The fictional love story stays fictional. But ''Pearl Harbor'' delivers the main event.
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It expertly capitalizes on the emotional associations Americans have with Pearl Harbor and renders the battle scenes with an excellence that goes beyond proficiency and into the realm of art.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Until a disappointing tailspin in the last hour, Pearl Harbor is the best piece of popular entertainment to come along in years.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Ninety minutes into this massive movie the attack commences, and the spectacular images come hurtling like fireballs. This is, let's be honest, what we're here for, and what most Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movies serve up best: the poetry of destruction.
Read Full Review >Film.com Sean Means
Parts of this three-hour World War II epic are brilliant -- especially the 40-minute sequence in which the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor is stunningly re-created.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The picture is nearly painstaking in its traditionalism, a tale of love, war, and valor in which nostalgia for ''simpler times'' gets mashed together, almost fetishistically, with nostalgia for old movies and for the spirit of knightly self sacrifice during World War II.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A movie meant to explode off the screen -- and it's at its best when those explosions are going full blast.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Works best as a bang-and- boom action picture, a loud symphony of bombardment and explosion juiced up with frantic editing and shiny computer-generated imagery.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky
It's war porn, a movie that revels in the carnage.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
For all its agonizing true-life trappings, has the staying power of a grand-scale video game. Manhattan's sushi bars are in no danger of going dark.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's a Ritalin-deprived sensibility, but it keeps you skating over the dull spots, in which the film unfortunately is rich.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
A crowd-pleasing blockbuster if ever there was one, features as its centerpiece a jaw-droppingly vivid re-creation of the Japanese attack on the U.S.'s fabled (and extremely vulnerable, as it turned out) Pacific fleet.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
"Pearl Harbor" is exactly the kind of prestige project you'd expect from a director like Bay, hitting all its targets with plodding precision and never once achieving surprise.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Clearly, neither screenwriter Randall Wallace nor director Michael Bay ever met a cliche he didn't embrace.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
The 2,400 Americans who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor deserve a nobler memorial than this sentimental hogwash that reduces heroism to "Top Gun" antics and pretty cinematography.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The filmmakers would have been better advised to stick with the Zeroes and spend less time making up heroes.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
A script with the most underdeveloped characters and spectacularly realized visuals since "Titanic."
USA Today Mike Clark
It's an extravaganza worth seeing once -- and maybe later on DVD.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
With all the obvious work that went into this beautifully detailed, giant-scale movie, and considering the historical importance of the subject matter, was it too much to ask for a trace of intelligence, or maturity, or even insight?
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Unfortunately, the bulk of the three-hour epic is third-rate schmaltz that pays only lip service to history.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The film has no soul. An epic about this day of infamy should shake you to the core. But the real infamy about Pearl Harbor is that when you exit, you don't feel a thing.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
I found "Pearl Harbor" annoying but not excruciating—even at three hours, it's less assaultive than either "The Mummy Returns" or "Moulin Rouge."
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Cody Clark
What comes before and after the sound and fury of the bombing raid are reams of banal dialogue.
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
A Michael Bay movie: bang bang, paper-thin characters, wooden screenplay.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
The net result of this mighty effort is perhaps predictable: near total inconsequence.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
If you decide to hit the concessions stand (where you're bound to have lots of company), I'd suggest going out for popcorn during either the first hour or the third, because the second features some pretty good big-screen effects involving planes, ships, and explosions.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
The chaos is convincing, but, less ruthless than Steven Spielberg, Bay eschews D-day panic and mutilation.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Its centerpiece is 40 minutes of redundant special effects, surrounded by a love story of stunning banality.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Just compare their superficiality to the complex characters in "From Here to Eternity" and what's missing here becomes terribly clear.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
Perhaps they should have called this "Bore-a, Bore-a, Bore-a."
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
A brain-dead buddy-movie tearjerker with semi-tasteful romance and tasteful gore mixed in with the derring-do.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Fiction and fantasy to evade reflection on the world we actually live in.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Littered with low points -- lame comedy, dubious history, fumbling drama and a love story so inept as to make a pacifist long for war.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.4 (out of 10) based on 105 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
miranda o gave it a10:
I absolutely love this movie! i cry almost everytime i see it near the end, and when rafe comes back of course! i think the love story is bittersweet, and the film is marked with outstanding special effects during the battle scenes. the only minor flaws with this movie is affleck's mediocre acting and sometimes-corny dialogue. you should definitely buy a copy of pearl harbor!!
Erica H. gave it a9:
One of my favorite movies. Its a bit on the lengthy side, sure. But its made up of a really great cast which, for me, just brings it all together.
Thomas K gave it a0:
When this DVD came out, I was dying to buy it for my collection sure that even though I had not seen it...I was sure to love it. This is the most disrespectful and irresponsible excuse for a film of all time. Worst movie ever, ever, ever! If you know anything at all about WW2 or historical war movies than think of this trash as someone spitting on the graves of those who died on 12/7/1941. This is not about the attack on Pearl Harbor at all. It should be called "As the World Turns" and the DVD is not even worthy of being a coaster on my coffee table. Throw it in the fireplace and let it burn if you have any pride in this country. Worst movie all time.
Jared C. gave it a0:
I prefer war genre's, and this is a good choice, but comparing it to Behind Enemy Lines, U-571, and Saving Private Ryan, this is an embarresment, it was worked out the most terrible way possible, I hated absolutely everything in it.
Gerron K. gave it a9:
"Pearl Harbor" is an intricately made war movie. Forget the superficial romance and the especially bad dialogue in the first 30 minutes of the movie. It gives an intense perspective of what happened on that fateful day and what happened after. I enjoyed the movie a whole lot. It may have been 30 minutes shorter, but as it is it works.
Koen D. gave it a1:
Ridiculous movie. Worst movie I've seen in my entire life.
Dan R. gave it a2:
Armageddon, in its blend of ridiculous action sequences and tear-jerking, sopping sentimentality is perhaps bearable as escapist entertainment because of its science fiction premise. What is so offensive about this film is it's attempt to apply a similar kind of blind action movie for the guys/shallow romance for the chicks aesthetic to an actual, tragic event. Only Cuban Gooding's acting, the production values of the main attack sequence, and the depiction of the intelligence and communication failures that could have prevented the disaster deserve some credit. The rest is insulting.
