Poster © Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Drama & Romance
RatedPG-13
Runtime3 hr 3 mins
ReleasedMay 25, 2001
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorMichael Bay
StarringBen Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale
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Pearl Harbor (2001)
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| 🎫Get Tickets | ✎Edit History |
| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Pearl Harbor's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Drama & Romance |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 05/21/2001 (Pearl Harbor, Hawaii); 05/25/2001 (Mainland United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 3 hr 3 mins |
| Budget | $140M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, Japanese |
| Pearl Harbor's Interests | |
| General | Biplanes, Navy nurses, Oahu, the Royal Air Force, a date that still carries weight. |
| Music | Hans Zimmer. Faith Hill sings 'There You'll Be' over the end credits. |
| Movies | From Here to Eternity (1953). Life on Oahu in the months before the attack. |
| Television | The Pacific. The war that followed, told through the Marines who fought it. |
| Heroes | Doris Miller (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the real Navy cook honored for his courage that morning. |
| Pearl Harbor's Crew | |
| Director | Michael Bay |
| Writers | Randall Wallace |
| Producers | Jerry Bruckheimer, Michael Bay |
| Cinematography | John Schwartzman |
| Music | Hans Zimmer |
| Edited By | Chris Lebenzon, Mark Goldblatt, Steven Rosenblum, Roger Barton |
| Production | Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films |
| Distributed By | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
At 183 minutes, Pearl Harbor spends most of its time on a love triangle that would barely fill a long weekend. Rafe ships out, Evelyn and Danny grow close, and the movie treats that tangle like it matters as much as the war around it. It doesn’t. Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale are stuck with lines that sound like greeting cards. Then the morning of December 7 arrives, and the film finally takes its subject seriously, showing how fast an ordinary Sunday came apart for the sailors and nurses on the base. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Doris Miller, a real sailor who fought back that morning, and he deserved far more than a few scenes. Critics gave it 24% on Rotten Tomatoes, though moviegoers polled by CinemaScore gave it an A minus. A 3.6 because the people who lived through that morning deserved a movie that cared about them as much as it cares about its love triangle. $492.96 says you read about the real Doris Miller before bed, and you’re glad you did.
What works: The attack sequence finally takes the day seriously, and Cuba Gooding Jr. brings real dignity to Doris Miller.
What doesn’t: The love triangle eats most of the 183 minutes, and the dialogue sounds like it was written for greeting cards.
Who it’s for: Viewers who want a big, old-fashioned war romance and don’t mind the real history taking a back seat.
Spoilers
Rafe survives being shot down over the English Channel and comes home to find Evelyn and Danny together. Danny is killed after the bombing raid on Tokyo, and after the war Evelyn and Rafe marry and raise Danny’s son together.
Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett) grew up together in rural Tennessee, playing pilot in an old crop duster, and by 1941 they're both flying for the U.S. Army. Rafe falls for Navy nurse Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale), then volunteers to fly with the British, whose war against Germany is already underway. Danny and Evelyn are posted to Hawaii, where military life still feels close to peacetime. Then comes the morning of December 7, 1941, and the attack that pulled the United States into World War II. Michael Bay directs. One hundred eighty-three minutes, built around a day the country still remembers.
History buffs, and anyone with family who served. Watch it with them.
the First Lieutenant / Captain Rafe McCawleyphoto: LucaFazPhoto, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
First Lieutenant / Captain Danny Walkerphoto: JoshPopov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Petty Officer Second Class Doris Millerphoto: Bandit1155, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
President Franklin D. Rooseveltphoto: Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jonathan Estrada-Eguizabal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
| Ben Affleck | the First Lieutenant / Captain Rafe McCawley |
| Josh Hartnett | First Lieutenant / Captain Danny Walker |
| Kate Beckinsale | Lieutenant Evelyn Johnson |
| Tom Sizemore | Sergeant Earl Sistern |
| Jaime King | Betty Bayer |
| Catherine Kellner | Barbara |
| Jennifer Garner | Sandra |
| Sara Rue | Martha |
| William Lee Scott | First Lieutenant Billy Thompson |
| Ewen Bremner | First Lieutenant "Red" Winkle |
| Greg Zola | First Lieutenant Anthony Fusco |
| Michael Shannon | First Lieutenant "Gooz" Wood |
| Matt Davis | Second Lieutenant Joe McKinnon |
| Dan Aykroyd | Captain Harold Thurman |
| Kim Coates | Lieutenant Jack Richards |
| Tony Curran | Ian |
| Nicholas Farrell | a Royal Air Force squadron leader and combat pilot commandin |
| William Fichtner | Mr. Walker |
| Steve Rankin | Mr. McCawley |
| John Fujioka | General Nishikura |
| Leland Orser | Major Jackson |
| Ted McGinley | Major Newman |
| Andrew Bryniarski | Joe |
| Brandon Lozano | Baby Danny Walker |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 6.3 / 10 (373,750 votes) → 6.3 / 10 (373,768 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $449.2M; Domestic box office $198.5M; Opening weekend $59.1M; Profit / loss (est.) +$14.6M; Rotten Tomatoes 24%; CinemaScore A−; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 24% (194 reviews); Metacritic 44 / 100; CinemaScore A−; IMDb users 6.3 / 10 (373,750 votes); movie.guru score 4.0.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.