Pearl Harbor Date

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Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays (FSG Classics) Review

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(More customer reviews)Decades after the fact, this collection of essays is a bit of a period piece, but some of it holds up quite well. The subject of the famous title story -- which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1967 -- is about the Haight Street scene and, more to the point, the breakdown of human connection that Didion believed that scene represented. She is similarly gloomy about New York in "Goodbye to All That," and about California in "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream." Though she was in her late 20s and early 30s when she wrote this material, she clearly saw much of what was going on in the 1960s as the activities of a different generation from her own. In any case it's these pieces, along with one about John Wayne, that stand out here, and remain, after all these years, pretty close to extraordinary. Some of the other material (a piece about Joan Baez, etc.) is less memorable. I bought this in the hardback Modern Library edition with a useless introductory essay by Elizabeth Hardwick (but a great photo of Didion on the front cover). Should've gone with paper.

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The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, forty years after its first publication, the essential portrait of America— particularly California—in the sixties. It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

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Midway (1976) Review

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(More customer reviews)I saw the movie play in a theatre and I was greatly impressed.
I still enjoy the movie BUT! at the same time I am disappointed.
When it was released first on VHS and now on DVD I was greatly disappointed to see how much film footage has been cut out from the original theatrical release.
In its original release MIDWAY ran for almost 2 hours 45 minutes.
On VHS and DVD it runs for 2 hours 10 minutes. What happened to all the othe extra scenes???
Where is the Battle of the Coral Sea which was shown in the original movie?

Furthermore they cut out the surround sound and made it Mono.
It is ridiculous that the have a Special Feature on Surround Sound, but the DVD was made in Mono sound.
And they call this DVD a Special Collector's Edition???
Come on Universal give us the full extended theatrical release along with 5.1 Surround Sound.

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Midway [VHS]

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Midway (Collector's Edition) (1976) Review

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The Lost Battalion The Complete Uncut Movie Starring Rick Schroder with Bonus Program : Dear Home - Letters From World War I Review

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(More customer reviews)I noticed this film currently has no reviews, and so had to put in my two cents. Anyway, to sum it up, if you are a war film enthusiast like I am, this film is a MUST HAVE. Being produced by A&E, you can be sure it is pretty historically accurate, and still manages to tell the incredible, and TRUE story of a single battalion in WWI that moves forward in one of the last major offensives of WWI. The rest of the Allied adance gets halted, then pushed back, except for this one battalion that doesn't get that memo. The Germans throw everything they have at this unit, and as the American soldiers they were, they kicked ass! :) This battle was so fierce, two or three of the officers got Medals of Honor, with several enlisted members earning Silver Stars and the like. They suffered massive casualties.
And if your afraid that this film, being made by A&E, is some low-budget, bad-acting film only to be tolerated because of the story itself, relax. It might be low-budget- I saw nothing wrong with the special effects, there were nice explosions, the Allied charge across No Man's Land in the first few minutes of the movie was incredible to see, and the wounds received by the men looked plenty realistic- and I would know. I've been to Iraq twice, and counting. :P
Lastly, if you care about such things, Rick Schroder even LOOKS a lot like Maj. Whittelsy, the guy he portrays.
Again, this movie is a real treasure, being not only one of the rare movies made about WWI, but a fantastically-made movie at that.

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Pearl Harbor (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)Why does Hollywood have to make a three hour movie about a terrible day in US history and turn it into 'As The World Turns'? I could not believe that I sat through this piece of junk. It was 2 1/2 hours of 'General Hospital' and 1/2 hour of reality. It's a shame that Hollywood feels that 99% of the films that come out today must contain some kind of soap opera setting to satisfy what they think the lady folks wish to see. I find that to be rather insulting to women and I am not a female. There is nothing romantic about December 7,1941. It gets 1 star for the actual attack sequence. I must mention that I highly doubt that while they flew over head, the Japanese pilots were signaling to the American children to take cover. Silliness. If you wish to see a great film on Pearl Harbor, seek out 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' and let this one rot.

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Black Hawk Down (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have to say that they nailed this movie pretty good.
Basically all it does is tell the story of what happened in Mogadishu on October 3, 1993. They didn't focus on character detail that much which to me is a good thing. There are just too many people involved to go into detail with them all. Going into too much detail on certain characters and not others would take away what some did and would lessen their sacrifice. So, they stuck to just the story. Good move.
They compressed the story some, changed a few names, and merged some characters into one character This was done to get the story down to a movie time frame and to protect certain characters identities as they are still serving.
No movie based on a book is as detailed as the book. Don't expect it to be. You should read the book as well.
Some critics have said that it is way too violent of a film. Did they know they were going to see a movie about combat? Hello!!?!! It's about time that film makers have started making movies to show the American public what really happens in combat. Combat is not one guy running around killing people by the hundreds with a head band on. They made it a real as you could get it on the screen. Saving Private Ryan started it off and now Black Hawk Down. To Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott, Bravo! Well Done!
It's very accurate as far as weapons, equipment, uniforms, etc. They used the exact helicopters that were used in the original mission in 1993 with the 160th SOAR.
The whole movie I was searching for inaccuracies. Want to know what I came up with? They had their names written in marker on their Kevlar helmets (this was done so the audience could quickly tell who's who) we wrote our names on the helmet band. The chin straps on the Kevlar helmets were not taped up (As soon as I got to Ranger Battalion we had to taped up and tie down certain pieces of equipment and this was one of them), they wore dog tag silencers (in Ranger Battalion I was told to get them off and tape em up with 100 MPH tape as soon as I got there), and sometimes they said each others names on the radios instead of call signs (once again this was done for the audience). So as you can see I was really reaching there.
Certain shots were just incredible for me. For example, there was a point of view shot from the side of a MH-6 Little Bird (we used to ride out on the sides of those things all the time). The camera was positioned as to be a person sitting on the left side of the chopper looking to the front. In front of the chopper is another Little Bird fully loaded with guys. The sequence is them going in for a landing on the street. Just watching it reminded me of all those times I rode on those [...things].
Maybe someday people will start to understanding what people in combat arms go through.
A Co, 2nd Ranger Battalion
U.S. Army (1991-1995)

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BLACK HAWK DOWN - DVD Movie

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Pearl Harbor (2001) Review

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Pearl Harbor (2001) Review

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Pearl Harbor (2001) Review

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Tora Tora Tora (1970) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm not a big war-movie buff any more (THE SEARCH FOR PRIVATE RYAN cured me) but this is a worthwhile film if you have an interest in WWII. TORA! TORA! TORA! is a documentary-type film. Think of it as a Stephen Ambrose book recorded live. The film is neither a glorified fifties war-film (IN HARMS WAY, BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA), nor is it a Viet Nam noir-war film (PLATOON, THE DEER HUNTER). (Neither of which are particularly authentic.)
TORA! TORA! TORA! recreates war from the perspective of news correspondent-participant-observer. The story is presented from both the Japanese and American viewpoints and it is presented like a History Channel film.
It took the film crew several months to film TORA! TORA! TORA! I was living in Navy housing on Pearl Harbor at the time and a number of our friends and acquaintences found part-time jobs acting in the film. "Real" military pilots in-between rounds in Viet Nam flew some of the planes (this was 1969).
Much of the architecture in Honolulu was vintage WWII era or earlier and the rest of the island was relatively unchanged from the 1940s. The terrain looked very much as it had when my father-in-law passed through on his way to Guadalcanel and later Iwo Jima.
I cannot tell you the names of the aircraft (my husband could) but I was told that they used real aircraft from the period including the P40s the U.S. flew and the captured Zeros the Japanese flew. We drove up to Schoffield Barracks to look at the old airplanes lined up row on row. During the filming, one of these old planes crashed in a sugar cane field and burned up before the pilot could be rescued. The daily flights overhead, the real crashes, the reenactment of the destruction in the harbor, the daily flights in and out of Hickam as men and material destined for Viet Nam left and wounded and dead arrived--was all very weird.
Well, this is an excellent film. The new PEARL HARBOR relies on all sorts of technology, but if you want to see how Hawaii really looked in 1941 and how the planes really looked, and how the crews really looked, and obtain some sense of how terrifying it was to be in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 this is the film to see.

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"Tora! Tora! Tora!" is the Japanese signal to attack - and the movie meticulously recreates the attack on Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to it. Opening scenes contrast the American and Japanese positions. Japanese imperialists decide to stage the attack. Top U.S. brass ignore it's possibility. Intercepted Japanese messages warn of it - but never reach F.D.R.'s desk. Radar warnings are disregarded. Even the entrapment of a Japanese submarine in Pearl Harbor before the attack goes unreported. Ultimately the Day of Infamy arrives - in the most spectacular, gut-wrenching cavalcade of action-packed footage ever. You'll see moments of unsurpassed spectacle and heroism: U.S. fighters trying to take off and being hit as they taxi; men blasted from the decks of torpedoed ships while trying to rescue buddies; savage aerial dogfights pitting lone American fliers against squadrons of Imperial war planes. It's the most dazzling recreation of America's darkest day - and some of her finest hours.

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