The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • 93

ViDEO NEWS AND REVIEWS OF DVDs AND VIDEOS 'PEARL HARBOR': ENOUGH ALREADY In May of last year, Buena Vista released the movie "Pearl Harbor." It was three hours long. In December, Buena Vista released the two-disc DVD set "Pearl Harbor: The 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition." It was hours long. And on Tuesday, Buena Vista will release the four-disc DVD set "Pearl Harbor: The Director's Cut." It is approximately the same length as World War II and includes such necessary DVD goodies as footage of footage. That's right, film of people shooting film. All this Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor begs the question: When is enough enough? The answer: Now.

First a little background. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese bombers attacked the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor on Hawaii. You know about that; it was in all the history books.

The attack began shortly before 8 a.m. and ended at about 10 a.m. Two hours. Just the simple theatrical film "Pearl Harbor" lasted longer than the attack. Part of that was because you can't just end a movie with America in disarray.

You need closure. So director Michael Bay extended the movie to include Jimmy Doolittle's famous attack on Tokyo, in which America got closure. And revenge. But a DVD must have more. So the "60th Anniversary Edition" got a "making of" featurette and a History Channel documentary.

Now what's left for this extravagant fourdisc set? Deleted scenes? Seriously. At three hours, how many deleted scenes could there have been? Plenty is left. Twelve more hours of stuff. Here's what you get, "Pearl Harbor" fans. You get the movie.

It's a new R-rated "director's cut" that extends the film's length from 183 minutes to 184 minutes. Essentially there's more gore. The movie has a trio of separate audio commentaries. On the first one, you can listen to an engaging Michael Bay, the director, interviewed by Wesleyan College (Connecticut) film professor Jeanine Basinger. Why Basinger? She was Bay's film professor at Wesleyan College! The second track features producer Jerry Bruckheimer and actors Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Alec Baldwin.

The third audio track provides technical commentary from costume designer Michael Kaplan, supervising art director Martin Laing, production designer Nigel Phelps, cinematographer John Schwartzman and composer Hans Zimmer. So after watching the new R-rated version, you can watch the film three more times, listening first to the director, then to the producer and the actors, and finally to the tech crew. After you've watched the movie four times, you can turn to the goodies. First up is the History Channel documentary "One Hour Over Tokyo," which plays like a History Channel documentary. What else? A "Production Diary" that HUB FARM RESTA It's Daylily Time Blooming and Ready While you're here enjoy dinner overlooking our beautiful flower gardens.

(812) 923-5255 www.joehubers.com By VINCE STATEN Special to The Courier-Journal MARL HAECR Man FIGHT "Historical," "Storyboards," "ILM" and "Stan Winston Special Effects I have to admire all the care and effort that Buena Vista put into assembling this DVD set. I don't know of any movie with this elaborate a DVD. That said, you'd have to be a huge, Huge, HUGE fan of "Pearl Harbor" or of Pearl Harbor to make it through all the various tricks, bells and whistles. I'm not. But if you are, you are going to love this.

After you get through your marathon viewing session I'd set aside at least two days you can play with the box. "Pearl Harbor: The Director's Cut" is packaged to look like a soldier's war journal. There are pamphlets and postcards, pictures and FDR statements, and various pockets and pouches where the discs are, sort of, hidden. The package folds out to a length of feet, which is almost as long as the movie. Of interest to those who watch DVDs on a portable player while flying or riding, the movie audio track includes a Dolby Digital 2.0 "headphone" mix that simulates surround sound.

Hey, the film did win an Oscar for Best Sound Editing. I saw "Pearl Harbor" originally in the theater, lucky me, and I remember the moment when it all fell apart: the scene in which Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale are discussing their relationship. Beckinsale remembers the good times. "Then all THIS "All THIS" was the attack on Pearl Harbor. Free-lance writer Vince Staten's video column runs Saturdays.

E-mail: (COMEDY CARAVAN JUNE 26-50 ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR LAVELL CRAWFORD LINE LAFF 459-0022 PEARL HARBOR shows the airfield attack, the Arizona sinking, the Doolittle raid, the nurse-strafing scene and other scenes, all with director's com- ments. There are a couple of features detailing the actors' boot camp. There's some Super 8mm clips shot during production to replicate old war footage. There's "Oral History: The Recollections of a Pearl Harbor Getting numb yet? Hey, we're just getting to disc four. Here may be the best goody of all, an "Interactive Attack Sequence," the studio's name for the complete 21-minute attack sequence from four angles: "The Movie," "On the Set," "Storyboard Animatics" and a composite of all three.

And on the audio track you can choose between the final movie mix, on-set production sound, a music-only track, a sound-effects-only track and three separate audio commentaries: from second unit director and visual FX supervisor Eric Brevig, storyboard artist Robert Consing or real survivors of the attack. Next is something called "Deconstructing Destruction," a conversation on the visual effects of the attack sequence with director Bay and effects guy Brevig. Then there's a short called "Animatic Attack" about how the computer graphics worked. You're not done yet. Now you can take a trip on an interactive timeline called "When Cultures Collide: From Perry to Pearl Harbor." It's, like, educational.

If you have DVD-ROM access, there's the "Pearl Harbor Definitive Winding it up is an elaborate photo gallery of almost 300 stills, divided into six categories: "Production Design," "Publicity," HOMELESS FAMILIES NEED YOUR CAR! DONATING YOUR CAR, BOAT OR REAL ESTATE PROVIDES FUNDING FOR OUR SERVICES TO HOMELESS FAMILIES AND MAY OFFER YOU A TAX DEDUCTION! Volunteers of Kentucky LOUISVILLE 774-8026 9 A.M.-5 P.M. LEXINGTON 254-3469 1-800-928-2588 9 A.M.-5 P.M. Saturday, June 29, 2002 SCENE Page 15.