Pearl Harbor Blu-ray Disc Review

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Title: Pearl Harbor

Region: A

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Genre: World War II Romantic Drama

Stars: Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Alec Baldwin, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Kate Beckinsale, Jon Voight, Mako, Dan Ackroyd, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Garner, and Colm Feore

Writer: Randall Wallace

Director: Michael Bay

Feature length: 183 minutes

Extras: “Unsung Heroes” History Channel Documentary, “Journey To The Screen – The Making Of Pearl Harbor” Documentary, “There You’ll Be” Faith Hill Music Video, Theatrical Teaser, Theatrical Trailer, Movie Showcase

Languages: English PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound, English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf And Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Blue BD Case

Chapter Stops: 44

Sound: PCM 5.1 Uncompressed Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2001/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Touchstone Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

When I was in high school I went with my parents on a summer trip to Hawaii. There we went to the Battleship Arizona Memorial as most commonly seen by people my age when they were growing up on of all the places The Brady Bunch. It is an amazing site, but being 15 years old at that time, I did not take away the magnitude of the event other than the fact that I was there for a brief period of time while on a family vacation. Flash forward to 2001 and “Pearl Harbor” is playing around the corner from where I used to live. I had seen the teaser and the trailer and I went to see the first show and I really enjoyed the film. I was surprised that many people did not care much for it and wondered what they were expecting. Sure the film is not perfect, but I was not expecting perfection, I was expecting to see a dramatization of the tragedy of Pearl Harbor in a way no one had ever seen it before and felt that when I left the theater I got my money’s worth. However I must admit that I walked out thinking about how great the special effects were and so forth as well as how pretty Kate Beckinsale is, but I did not walk out feeling changed emotionally as I have with other films. However since I was not expecting this film to do that I was still not disappointed.

Flash forward to the tragedy that occurred in my hometown of New York City with the destruction of the World Trade Center. That area of Manhattan was my favorite part of the city. I had worked around there for many years. When I was in college I did an internship at the Tribeca Film Center, which is near by, and even got some freelance work as a story analyst there and whatnot. My favorite area was the World Trade Center because it was so bright and near the river so one could feel a cool breeze during the summer time and it was very clean too. I would do a lot of shopping both within and around the area of the center buying DVD-Videos, clothes, and books. Practically every subway and the New Jersey PATH train stopped within or around the World Trade Center and there was even a mall beneath it too. The night before the attack I was planning on going to the World Trade Center to visit a bookstore on the ground floor and I was planning to go so I could be there by 9am, but at the last minute I decided not to go and my older brother who worked in midtown Manhattan at the time could not swing going there either for me so I stayed in. The next morning a friend calls me and says “a plane just hit the World Trade Center” and I turned on my TV and much like the people who were at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked, I could not believe what I was seeing. I honestly thought it was some navigation error at first until the second plane hit the other tower. The rest has been history. I could go on about friends and family who were actually there or nearby, but this is a Blu-ray Disc review and my point on bringing this up was that for everyone who lived in NYC at the time as well as the world, the thought of something like that happening was simply as unthinkable as a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor some 60 years or so earlier.

I can say without reservation that life has not been the same since for anyone here and the irony of Michael Bay’s epic World War II drama being released a few months prior to the tragedy has changed the way Americans will relate to the film even though there were a lot more people who died on September 11, 2001. There are enough parallels between the two sneak attacks to write a book. So it was with great appreciation that Buena Vista Home Entertainment granted me the opportunity to review there Blu-ray Disc release of Pearl Harbor, which is the theatrical cut of the film and not Michael Bay’s Director’s Cut that was released as a Vista Series Four-Disc Set back in 2002.

For the first time on a North American optical disc release, Pearl Harbor is presented all on one disc instead of spread across two-discs as was the case with the previous DVD editions. Given the interactive abilities and storage capacity of a Blu-ray Disc, I wish Buena Vista Home Entertainment included both versions of the film via seamless branching since the actual running time between the two versions is only one minute and the scene edits are mostly increased derogatory language and gore, but considering this is a period piece and a war film, I think the language while hurtful is an illustration of how some Americans felt back then and reflects an attitude however ugly that is of that time. In sixty years I think a generation not yet born will look at all of the anti-terrorism TV shows and feature films since the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and I have no doubt that the paranoia illustrated in these programs will be discussed in the same way as the American attitude toward the former Soviet Union was reflected in popular culture during the Cold War. Hopefully by that time humanity as a whole will be living in peace with each other and not in war.

The DVDs released in 2001 and 2002 respectively were among the best looking the format had to offer at the time and the image on this Blu-ray Disc is among the best Buena Vista Home Entertainment releases on Blu-ray Disc that I have seen with a beautiful widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio presentation that can be viewed in true high definition at a maximum resolution of 1080p where available. It has no defects and no compression grain. The images are consistently sharp throughout. The English PCM Uncompressed 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is aggressive and well mixed. “Pearl Harbor” is a great demo Blu-ray Disc for anyone who wants to show off the picture and sound capabilities of their systems and Blu-ray Disc in general. There are even three scenes in the Movie Showcase section on the disc that can be viewed individually or as one reel through a “Play All” feature (4:42) that gives viewers a quick sampling of some of the effects and battle scenes from the film. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack does not have as high of fidelity as the PCM track, but it is still well mixed and of a very high quality when compared to other Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtracks. A French Language Dolby Digital Soundtrack is also included as an option along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles.

Extra value materials are all presented in letterboxed or pillar boxed (1.33:1) aspect ratios and are taken directly from the DVD release. I was very disappointed that the teaser (2:01) and the theatrical trailer (2:04) were not presented in full high definition as many other distributors already do even when the rest of the extras are elements from a previous DVD release and the trailers are not even given 5.1 Surround Sound while the Faith Hill music video for “There You’ll Be” is presented with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound like the previous DVD releases.

The making of Pearl Harbor documentary (47:27) and The History Channel special “Unsung Heroes” (45:26) are also included on this Blu-ray Disc release. The seamless interactive menus are easy to navigate. This could and really should have been a more expansive Blu-ray Disc even if it required a second disc for the extra value features. As is though, it does deliver a stunning high definition picture and Lossless Surround Sound that makes the disc still worth checking out now that Pearl Harbor is available on Blu-ray Disc at retailers on and offline courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

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