Over three hours long and with a massive budget of $140 million dedicated to creating the most stunning visual effects that reflected the horrors of war, Pearl Harbor was intended to be one of the best war films in history when it was released in 2001.
Photo: Buena Vista Pictures / I Love Cinema
Directed by Michael Bay, who had just made Armageddon, and starring two rising actors, Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, Pearl Harbor was a true box office success more than 20 years ago, grossing more than 450 million dollars. But on a critical level, the film encountered a concrete wall: a general rejection by the specialized press who did not believe in Bay’s approach of following the Titanic pattern, but this time in a context of war to achieve a new blockbuster.
Comparisons with Titanic, released four years earlier and the highest-grossing film of all time at the time, were very present in reviews of Michael Bay’s film. Just like Titanic, Pearl Harbor also tells a love story with a historical backdrop that nothing It is more than an event that left thousands of victims, in this case the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the context of the Second World War.
Likewise, Pearl Harbor also had an impressive budget and a director’s determination, as James Cameron did years before, to put the most innovative visual advances at his service to make a stunning film. Its more than three hours long
Read the article at QuandoCinema
The 1990s action film that boosted Michael Bay’s career can be seen today via streaming
If you pause Pearl Harbor at 121 minutes and 57 seconds, you’ll see one of the most famous characters in film history in an appearance no one expected
Streaming: A $140 million epic war film that’s still hard to beat
