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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, April 24, 2001


Fads & Finds
If you plan to see 'Pearl Harbor,' read the book first

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

Get the book before seeing the movie; that's the idea for "Pearl Harbor: The Movie and the Moment" (Hyperion, $35), a gorgeously mounted photo essay with text on the making of Disney's war-time love story, "Pearl Harbor."

The movie opens nationally May 25, following a Hawai'i premiere May 21 aboard the USS Stennis aircraft carrier.

If the book is a barometer (there are 250 color photos, including evocative images of stars Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale and more), the movie appears to be one that will live in perpetuity. It's a handsome take on a daunting project, smartly assembled to give it a life of its own, with telling commentary from all concerned.

For instance, Affleck says of producer Jerry Bruckheimer: "More than anybody, Jerry understood what was owed to the people who actually experienced this Pearl Harbor .... He wanted it to be resonant and significant and be remembered in the Pantheon of good movies that tell a story of the second World War."

Director Michael Bay, reflecting on the customary Hawaiian blessing preceding the first day of filming: "It's a law in Hawai'i (to render a good-luck sendoff). We had this priest for the first day. I think the 35 minutes he spoke during our shoot day cost us fifty thousand dollars ... Well, thank God, he blessed this movie, because we were working on the water and we all know what happened with 'Waterworld.' "

The volume focuses on cast, production, history and the aftermath, with liberal images, both photos and sketches, that denote the breadth and scope of the events on that Dec. 7 "date that will live in infamy." It goes way beyond conventional promotional fodder and could wind up as a coffee table staple.