Product Description
Director Michael Bay so much wanted for Pearl Harbor to be his Titanic an epic love story that takes place within one of the most tragic, violent, and talked-about events of the 20th Century. But, with Michael Bay being the director he is, it had to not just equal, but eclipse James Camerons Oscar-winning watery thriller. Instead of sinking one boat, Bay sinks a couple of dozen. Not content with presenting a simple boy-meets-girl story, Bay turns Pearl Harbors romance into a love triangle. And, in an effort to outdo James Horners work on the earlier film, Bay hired Hans Zimmer to wring every last emotional drop from his audience and his listeners. And he succeeds almost.
The central story involves two best friends from rural Tennessee Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) who enlist themselves in the US Air Force in January 1941. Rafe quickly meets Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), a beautiful nurse in the Navy, and the two fall madly and passionately in love. Growing increasingly frustrated at his Governments refusal to get involved in the war in Europe, Rafe volunteers to be transferred to a Unit helping the British RAF in and, despite Evelyns vigorous protestations, is granted his request. Rafe is shot down in combat over the English Channel, and presumed dead. Stricken by grief and turning to each other for solace, Danny and Evelyn tentatively begin an affair of their own, and are further encouraged by their respective transfers to the idyllic Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii. However, tragedy looms just around the corner, not just because Rafe turns up alive and well and wanting his girl back, but because the Japanese have sided with the Nazi aggressors, and are planning a surprise attack which will change the future of the world forever
For about 45 minutes, Pearl Harbor is an amazing, breathtaking, truly brilliant film. As the first of the Japanese warplanes skim over Hawaii on the morning of December 7th 1941, until the fateful moments when the USS Arizona and her crew slip underneath the waves of the Pacific, Bays dazzling pyrotechnics, lightning fast editing and deafening sound design place the listener squarely in the middle of the battle you find yourself ducking in your seat as planes seemingly whiz overhead, holding your breath for the tragically doomed crewmembers of the sunken navy vessels, and cheering when Rafe and Danny take to the skies themselves. Its just a shame that the love story before it and afterwards is so leaden and uninspiring. Individually, Affleck, Hartnett and Beckinsale are competent performers, and the assembled supporting cast (Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Alec Baldwin) is impressive. It just that Randall Wallaces screenplay seems intent on flogging every last drop of faux-emotion from the film, adhering to every possible genre cliché along the way. Is this really the same man who wrote Braveheart?
If nothing else, the one thing Pearl Harbor finally does do is to prove that there is much more to Hans Zimmer than the ear-shattering action music for which he has become famous. The main romantic theme from Pearl Harbor is a lovely creation, featuring a series of soothing string passages overlaid by a simple, three-note motif for piano and synth and, occasionally, support from a solo soprano voice. Zimmer is not noted for the delicacy of his orchestral palette or the attractiveness of his themes, so it may come as a surprise to many that he is capable of such restraint. Cues such as the opening Tennessee, the soaring And Then I Kissed Him, the cathartic release during War, and the conclusive Heart of a Volunteer, which includes a noble solo horn performance of the main theme, and a cooing choir to increase the emotional kick, rank among some of the best melody-driven moments of Zimmers career.
It is well documented that Zimmer labored long an
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