Pearl Harbor: Strength and Honor Edition
 a TRUE FANEDIT by ADIGITALMAN
By removing the love triangle this turns out to be a great action and war movie about a day the US will never forget. member ratings: |
(14 votes, average: 9.29 out of 10, rated)
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INTENTION and EDITING DETAILS:
I write this having completed my first viewing of the final cut. This may be the finest re-edit I’ve done. Using the R-rated Director’s Cut as my basis, I have completely removed the awful romantic love triangle and thereby turned this into a kinetic war movie that focuses entirely on the lead-up and attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Like Titanic, Pearl Harbor was really two movies in one. A story of a historical disaster, and a love story. It made Titanic float, but it made Pearl Harbor sink. By removing the ham-fisted love story, the movie becomes a visually stunning actioner that hits the gas and doesn’t let up for two hours.
We see the genuine comradery between lifelong buddies Rafe and Danny without any pointless tension thrown in. We respect Evelyn as a capable nurse who rises to an incredible challenge. She isn’t romantically linked to either character, which keeps the focus on the looming war from all sides … Rafe’s combat post in the RAF, Danny, the other flyboys and nurses posted at Pearl, the newsreels, the intelligence and analysis in Washington, and the preparation of the Japanese for the attack. When all hell breaks loose, we’re squarely focused on it, and not on false tensions written out of a marketing playbook.
Some scenes were moved around in the first act to improve flow, but rather than pulling out little bits here and there, I mostly lopped out giant sections and left others intact. Just remember, the Ritalin-challenged quick-cut editing style is Michael Bay’s work, not mine. The most finessed part of the edit is the bar scene upon Rafe’s return. Instead of having lifelong friends sniping at each other and descending into fisticuffs over a woman, we have Danny somewhat speechless and in awe of his friend who has returned from the dead. Moments like that aren’t moments for anger and hate, they’re cause for celebration, and that’s how the scene now plays out.
Oh, and Bruce Willis is taken right the F— out of this film. If there ever was a moment that pulled me out of a movie, it’s was seeing John McClane limping around in triage behind Jennifer Garner’s bewildered Nurse Sandra. That one shot drained all the emotional investment the attack built up. All it needed was a “Yippie-kay-yay” as a final punch. Whatever. It’s gone, and Jennifer Garner’s moment of clueless despair right along with it. It only improves her character and keeps you emotionally invested in Nurse Betty’s death.
Kate’s voiceover brings the film to a pitch-perfect close. No cheesy scenes of “the family” flying about in the clouds. The end is more patriotic, more noble, and yes, more uplifting than a crop duster.
What we’re left with is a film that pays genuine tribute to the men (and women) who fought and died at Pearl Harbor, and those who lived on to fight out World War II. Clocking in at 2 hours 8 minutes (including credits) it feels like the perfect length.
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Brilliant!
No more love scene, no more friendship fallout, just cuts to the main point of the film. Pearl Harbour.
The added R rated bits were great too, i didnt even know there was an R version.
Only minor gripe, was that by reducing so much of the love story, a little character development was lost, if i remember the bit in the hospital when they get their injections, woulda been good to keep in. Aside from that though, this is still the best version of Pearl Harbour ever.
great work.
Review by bat-fink — January 26, 2008 @ 8:29 pm
I really liked this edit.
The first time I viewed the original with friends we all said it would have been a brilliant movie if only they had left the love story out, I even considered trying to give this a shot myself but never got around to it.
Well its great to see that someone has attempted this and pulled it off brilliantly, a splendid job and its now a great modern war movie, I could even show this to my grandad and he would agree that it was boys own stuff now.
thank you
Review by klaatu — July 1, 2008 @ 9:09 am
I have never seen the original Pearl Harbour, and in watching the Strength and Honour version, I don’t feel as if I have missed anything. All the story elements are still there and not once did the arc feel wrong. This is skillful editing at its best! Recommended edit from a great Faneditor!
Review by heavyg — July 12, 2008 @ 9:00 am
Just finished watching it and I will say it is pretty damn impressive what you have done! I think the only jarring edit was around the 20 minute mark in the transition to the first “battle over britain” scene – even then I can handle it, all things considered. Otherwise, you would never know that close to an hour of material was cut out of the film! I will have to say congratulations on de-suckifying PEARL HARBOR. Now someone send a copy of this version to Matt Stone and Trey Parker!
PS: now that the Blu-ray is out, have you considered making a Blu-ray version of this edit? If not, would a dual-layer version look any better? As it stands, the image quality is decent enough, but being such an excellent edit it would be nice to have a version with the best possible video and audio. Regardless, I appreciate what you’ve done here and look forward to other edits.
Review by Monroville — November 6, 2008 @ 9:49 am
This is my FAVORITE FAN EDIT of all time (even better than the Star Wars edits). A friend wanted to watch Pearl Harbor not too long ago and I said, I’ll NEVER watch that piece of crap again, let me show the movie as it should have been….and away we went in the wild blue yonder….this is it!
Review by mntpowder — November 2, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
This is much better than the original edit in so many ways, it plays out as ‘proper war movie’ all the R rated scenes added are all truely wonderfull and add so much more the the scene’s making them far more realistic.
It’s runs very smoothly, my only gripe is the ending the last 5 minutes, (as in the original) they crash land in the rice fields then it cuts back to the home scene with no real feel of how they got there and what went on in between. Besides that i loved it i was glued to the screen throughout, thanks for an excellent edit.
Review by chancer127 — February 9, 2010 @ 10:09 am
I actually watched this quite some time ago but only now remembered to rate it. This what a truly great fan edit can be. People always talk about how editing certain films is merely an exercise in “turd polishing.” Herein, ADM took a turd and turned it into a gem. The ridiculous love story is seamlessly excised, along with several ridiculous pieces of dialogue. My only minor gripe is that ADM left the cheesy opening with the bad kid actors.
The movie is now about war, victory and loss. It seems almost paradoxical, but by taking out the love story, ADM has made the film MORE emotional.
Editing is an unequivocal 10 for all technical aspects.
Plot and entertainment get a couple 9’s because I do think ADM could have taken more liberties in a few spots. Still effing awesome. WATCH THIS EDIT!!!
Review by buddythegoon — April 18, 2010 @ 12:00 am