The Weekly Planet - Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay's Titanic) - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: November 8, 2019

Michael Bay may be commonly known for producing borderline unwatchable Transformers movies but did you know in 2001 he directed a borderline unwatchable Pearl Harbor film with Ben Affleck? So in preparation for Roland Emmerich's Midway we revisit and review Pearl Harbor in all its glory. The action scenes, the love triangles, the golden skin and the way it's trying very hard to be James Cameron's Titanic. Caravan Of Garbage Thanks for watching.Video Version ► https://youtu.be/oeIWhEBZLP0James' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownTWP Itunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4TWP Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetTWP YouTube Channel ► https://goo.gl/1ZQFGHPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2TLEL6CT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies#PearlHarbor #MichaelBay #Midway Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On May 10th, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is coming to IMAX and theaters everywhere. What a wonderful day! This summer, one movie event will reign. It is our time. Apes hunt humans. That is wrong. Bend for your king.

Never. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Only in theatersres May 10. Tickets on sale now. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. We're coming up on Midway, the movie Midway, Roland Emmerich's Midway. And I thought, look, we're probably going to get around to Pearl Harbor at some point.

So let's just do it now. Let's transition to full dad. Just talk about movies that are about war. Here we go. Very specific moments during World War II, though. That's right. There's only a handful that most dads want to see. It's this.

It's Normandy. It's that bit of the sailor kissing the lady. Oh, absolutely. Oh, my God. Primo war content. You know it is. Anyway, if you give this video a like, that would help out greatly. Because, yeah, we are talking about Michael Bay's Titanic.

Titanic in the sense that he tried to make his version of Titanic. And also... It's titanically long, this movie. And it's a Titanic fuck-up in a lot of ways. Well, I've never actually seen Titanic. But I, going into this going into this i haven't i'm gonna be that guy for a second of course here we go oh my god mason i can't believe you didn't see time if you're typing that you don't have to now because i'm that guy now appreciate that thank you james uh i just never got around to it anyway and also i think when it first came out it was on two d DVDs. Okay, right. You had to switch them.

Yeah, right, okay. I'm not going through that. Too old. Anyway, I've not seen it all the way through. I've seen snippets. It doesn't matter. You get the references. I get the references, but I also get the reference that this is clearly,

this is Michael Bay, I assume, and his producers going, that movie made a lot of money and got a lot of Oscars. We can do this. Use Flash, they can't do this. It feels like it's Oscar bait. Oh, absolutely. This is an attempt at Oscar bait by a man who does not know how that works. It's funny, though, because you mentioned Oscars.

This is the only Michael Bay film to ever win an Oscar. Yes. So he was riding high coming off the back of this. But also... Do you want to know what it was for, though? Yeah, cinematography? Sound editing. So probably something he didn't have a massive hand in, I imagine. Sure, this. But also... Do you want to know what it was for, though? Yeah, cinematography? Sound editing. So probably something he didn't have a massive hand in,

I'd imagine. Sure, right. But he'll take it. But also this movie won a Razzie, I think, or at least one Razzie. All but one Razzie? Several Razzies. I'd imagine so, yeah.

Do you win Razzies, or are you kind of like branded like a cow would be? Sure. How's that work? A little of both, I think. Sure. But I think maybe this might... As I understand it, this is maybe the first movie to win both in the same year. would be sure a little of both i think sure but i think maybe this might this might as i understand

it this is maybe the movie that the first movie to win both in the same year incredible yeah right there must be another example of that though probably crash i was gonna say probably crash the thing about this is what bothers me about this film look also i don't think it's the worst movie ever made there's a lot of things i take issues with but it's so saccharine and earnest it's sickening in points it really is yeah it i feel like maybe even michael bay sent somebody out to watch titanic and then write down all the key elements of titanic and then just like love story uh sinking boat love triangle and went, I can do a love triangle. Poor kid triumphs? Is that what happens in?

Sure. And then falls off a boat? That happens, right? That happens, that's correct, yeah. You have seen Titanic. There's a moment near a boat and then there's a love situation on a boat and then they're on like a little elevator thing and then it falls into the water. It all happens.

Yeah. It's all in both. But the thing is, the cast in this is incredible. It really is. Do you mind if I rattle some of these off? I'll rattle some off also. Ben Affleck. Dan Aykroyd. It's all in both. But the thing is, the cast in this is incredible. It really is. Do you mind if I rattle some of these off? I'll rattle some off also. Ben Affleck. Dan Aykroyd.

That's very good. Jennifer Garner, where they met actually. Dan Aykroyd and Jennifer Garner. That's what I meant. Good for them. Wow. They shared a crystal head vodka. Okay.

They're not, that's interesting because they're not the love interests of one another. No. She kind of plays a minor role. Kate Beckinsale. Oh, that's who that is. Josh Hartnett. They're all looking so young and thin and glossy. Dan Aykroyd especially.

Yeah, that's right. You know it's a Michael Bay film because everybody has that same spray tan. Yeah. Like the ghostly white teeth, just blinding, and the rich golden skin. Oh, my goodness, yes. Cuba Gooding Jr. Michael Shannon. Yeah. Mako. Pre pre-general zod that's right and other movies he's been in better movies uh spud from train spotting alec baldwin yes sean gunn apparently as a traction sailor i couldn't

find him in the movie but he's in it all right that's a he's a tank tread okay very good they cgi'd him in there's so many hot names in this oh my god a list is a plenty if we're talking the story it's pearl harbor basically but there's a bunch of historical inaccuracies what i maybe i wanted to get to first is that i this movie felt incredibly michael bay to me yeah because obviously it's a a true historical event america especially would say, well, it didn't go well. To put it mildly, this did not go well for a lot of people. They were sucker punched, essentially. It was a huge tragedy for a lot of people,

but I feel like at some point he went, how about Pearl Harbor? What if we won, though? And they went, that's a bridge too far in terms of accuracy. He went, all right, what about after that we win one? And they're like, all right. All right, we'll put a bit at the end where we win one. And I think that's what really hurts this film for me because after the Pearl Harbor attack,

which is quite spectacular, like visually pretty good. And for a Michael Bay movie, a lot of this action made sense. You can see what's happening. You can see what's happening. You know where most of the people are at the time. But there's a full hour after it happens. They really bad boys to it, which is another Michael Bay film. where most of the people are at the time. But there's a full hour after it happens. Yeah. They really bad boys to it, which is another Michael Bay film,

but it really drags. And it's one of those things where, like, you don't really need to show any of this because we know they won. Speaking of bad boys, I feel like in the Ben Affleck character, Michael Bay has decided to encapsulate both the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence characters because he is handsome and capable and strong and brave, but also he's getting a needle in his butt and he's falling over, you know?

Just put them together and what do you get? You get a real handsome long head. That's not incorrect. I love how he goes over to England to fight against the Nazis and the leader of that squadron is just the most British, That's not incorrect. I love how he goes over to England to fight against the Nazis. And the leader of that squadron is just the most British, sooty-faced, like tea-sipping, scarf-wearing English guy you've ever seen. He's a leather-bound book in human form. He really is.

And it's got one of those lines in it that just makes me go, oh my God. Where he says something like, if there are many more of you back home with you, God help anyone who goes to war with America. It's like, oh, my God. Like, it's true. Like, they made a massive mistake bringing America into World War II. For sure. It's a little bit on the nose to be like, you're a hero, Ben Affleck, so that must mean everybody is also a hero. This is my favourite line from Pearl Harbour that I wrote down.

This is after Ben Affleck's character is is shot down and everyone thinks he's dead shot in the butt with a needle no no he's shot down by by the enemy oh yes very good plane yeah everyone thinks he's dead and then uh kate beckinsale the love of his life receives some mail from him posthumously and there's a line where another character says you know how long it takes mail to get here. Just to make it clear to us, the viewer, who is an idiot, that these aren't, it's not Ghost Ben Affleck sending these letters. He sent them before he died. Yeah, that's right.

And they're just getting here because you know how long it takes the mail to get here. I know, a long time. Because otherwise I'd be scratching my head like, you see, but he's dead, but so maybe. Ghost mail. Zombies? Yeah, Ghost Post. Zombie movie? It's Ghost Post. Ghost Post, yeah see? Doesn't even make any sense. But he's dead, but so maybe. Ghost mail. Zombies? Yeah, Ghost Post. Zombie movie?

It's Ghost Post. It's Ghost Post, yeah. We talked about the action, though. There's some stuff in here. For 2001, it's incredible. The moment, the first ship that gets hit, you see the bomb drop through it. Yes. And the way it rises and buckles and breaks.

Yeah, uh-huh. It's incredible. Like, it's a mostly CGI shot. Like, a lot of the stuff they use, like real ships, apparently a lot of it is just modern day warships that they just went, good enough. No one's going to notice. They didn't really bother to really,

they just put some flags on them. No one's going to notice if we blow them up, is what you're saying? That's what I'm saying, yeah. I'm going to borrow these from the US military and we're going to blow them up. And we're going to bring them back and be like, it was like this when we got them.

But it does really feel like... That'll buff out. Yeah, definitely. It does really feel like in the destruction moment that this is like Titanic too. There's a moment where an explosion goes off and like four guys hit a propeller. I'm sure you remember the bit from Titanic

where a single guy hits a propeller. It's like I was there. It's like you were there, but it's just like, what if four men hit a propeller at once? Yeah, right. After an explosion. And there's that moment initially where the first torpedo hits the first ship and there's two guys just hanging off the side of the ship

and they just disintegrate. And it's spectacular, but it feels really like we're really reveling in a horrible thing. It looks amazing. It looks beautiful. And it looks glossy. Gloss it looks glossy and tan and fun in the sun. And like visceral and powerful. But it's also real people dying. Real people dying, exactly, yeah.

But I guess the same could be said for Titanic. But it felt like there was more reverence associated with that film than there was this. And I guess also that was further back. So people are like, yeah, we don't really remember that. There was no footage. We don't really know. So one of my favourite lines, if we're talking favourite lines in this,

is there's a soldier who gets taken to Cape Beckinsale. Where he's like, am I going to die? Am I going to die? And she's like, you're going to be fine. And then she draws a big F on his head and goes, this guy's going to die. Just give him some morphine. And he's right there. Like he's still standing in front of him.

And I'm pretty sure he's deaf. Oh, nope. All right then. He's very much not. What did you think of the love story element of this? It's the Josh Hartnett. Oh, it's a triangle, isn't it? Yeah.

Kate Beckinsale. Who do you want her to end up with? Who do you want them to end up with? Each other? Potentially. Oh, maybe. I feel like they're glossy enough to be together. Yeah, maybe this could be some sort of post-World War II

throuple, you know what I mean? I love it. That'd be nice, yeah. Yeah, did you buy any of that situation? I think there is definitely some charm to those characters and I think a lot of that's probably down to the acting. Yeah, for sure. When I see them on screen, I'm not like,

yuck, these people. Right. They seem nice and fun and they're just having a go at it. But that's just beautiful people doing beautiful people stuff. What you want is you want at least one massive I'll go in there. There's a few. FX's The Veil

explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.

Main three. Oh, in the main three. In the main three, and then you'd be like, well, one of them has to have a really good personality. Yeah, that's probably a very, very good good point but apparently people didn't like the love story at the time is this meant to is this meant to mirror the titanic love story where i know there's dicaprio yes and there's winslet yes and there's billy zane that's right i guess so but again like but he's a villain he's a villain exactly we in a way when you steal your best friend's girl aren't you a villain of the calibre of Billy Zane?

Even if they're presumed dead. But that letter arrived, so he should have known that he was still alive. That's right. Or a ghost. Or a ghost, yeah. At the time, critics were like, this love story sucks. But Michael Bay has framed it as, well, it's like a 1940s love serial story kind of situation.

That's why the champagne cork goes off and hits Ben Affleck in the nose. Yeah, it's a bit slapstick. Yeah, I don't think it's the worst thing in this movie. I'm like, yeah, I've seen worse love stories than this. Do we want to hear some more quotes from Michael Bay about the production of the movie? This is actually from Michael Bay.

This is from Casey Hodenfield, who was a, he's like, he's assistant director. He's been a producer on a sort of Transformers movies and things like that. Love it. So speaking of Michael Bay saying that this is meant to be, you know, it's like a 40s serial kind of movie. According to KC, this was going to be like a classic movie,

according to Michael Bay. The first day we started shooting, so day one, he wasn't using his fast-moving, fast cuts, low shots, his bag of tricks, and it was like watching an Italian speak without his hands. By lunchtime, we're making a Michael Bay movie in a Michael Bay style. So he didn't even last a day. He's like, this is going to be a classic movie,

bloody 1930s black and white. But after lunch, he's like, no, no, we're just going to do... Let's get everybody to get out of the car and we'll film the film. Do a helicopter shot around it, yeah, exactly. I didn't get that sense that it was ever that kind of movie. Well, maybe in another lifetime. So that's according to his assistant director.

According to Michael Bay himself, post the release of this movie, he actually said, I don't change my style for anybody. Pussies do that. So who's to believe? Who is to be believed? Who shall we believe shall we believe oh look the kc guy probably yeah i mean i don't know that's the first i've heard of him but probably that girl i'd imagine

yep now this movie though it's not without its troubles for one everybody hates this movie in general there's some that regard it as a guilty pleasure i would say you could definitely fit it into that category first first of all guilty pleasure is not something i believe in you can just like what you like whatever yeah the other thing is it was made for 149 million dollars which was the highest amount given to a film up front for it to be made it's actually a disney production as well believe it or not but it only made 449 million which is good but they were like we'll do 2 billion out of this like oh they were like we'll do titanic money yeah and the total amount of money spent on this production and promotion roughly equalled the amount of damage caused

in the actual Pearl Harbour attack. No! I mean, adjusted for inflation, obviously not. But yeah, those things are quite similar. Now imagine going back in time and telling all the brave soldiers that lost their lives there. That fun fact. Yeah, that's it.

Michael Bay also became frustrated with Josh Hartnett's serious approach to acting, if you can believe such a thing. So much so that when he caught him smiling on film, he said, send that to ILM and tell them to copy and paste it. Brilliant. And you were talking about before shooting before. There was actually a Hawaiian priest who blessed the crew, a practice that is recommended by the locals to be like,

you know, this is a sign of good luck and fortune and it's a sign of respect. Okay, this was going to happen, you're saying. Well, it did happen. The ceremony took place on the first day of principal photography and lasted over four hours, much to the chagrin of Michael Bay, who'd been told it was only going to take 15 to 20 minutes.

So can you imagine? That probably no doubt led to his like, okay, we're going to take this slow. I'm not going to use any of my bag of tricks that he's like four hour ceremony. Nah, we're just, I'm just doing what I want to do. This movie is so long. Yeah.

I went into this going, well, Michael Bay movies, they're long. Yeah. Three hours is too long. I think though, because it's broken up into parts, it doesn't feel so much like a, like one of the bad Transformers movies, which is, I guess, I guess that's probably true. Yeah. Cause when it's just jagged metal rolling on top of each other

and someone going, Octimus! You know, it's a lot. It gets a lot, you know what I mean? But the battle sequence is very much like, this is like the 40-minute section of this movie. Well, that's true. But also, who's out there going like, today I'm just going to watch the 40-minute battle sequence

from Pearl Harbor? What kind of creeps that? I bet some people do. I mean, again, it's visually. Sure. It's pretty good. This has got one of those things that really, it really bothers me about World War II.

And that's that. They blow up all those Nazis. Yeah, I thought so. No, no, I'm okay with that. It's not what you said off air. Where Josh Hartnett says the line, I think World War II just started. Even though this movie set in 1941 and World War II had been going for two years

up to that point. You're saying that's way too America-centric. It's not World War II until the Americans get involved. I mean, again, they were a vital component of winning the war. Probably the most vital component in the end. But just to be like, none of that shit counts. That happened prior to this. This is where it happens. Alright, I've got some historical

inaccuracies here. Let me just say up top, I didn't get them all. So don't fucking at me with the specifics about Pearl Harbor. I just picked some interesting ones, all right? That includes you too, Mason. All the interesting ones. That's right. Which are all the facts.

That's right, here we go. The scene that shows the Japanese planes attacking the hospital caused a great uproar both in Japan and among Pearl Harbor veterans, because that never happened. Yeah, I believe that's true. I think the Japanese didn't target any civilians. They only killed a couple of people by accident, I think. That's right. And Michael Bay kind of put it down to, well, this kind of raises the stakes of this situation by adding this horrible...

By making Japanese people more evil. Yes, that this event already was. Japanese journalists were also extremely offended by the fact that the army is shown having meetings outside. Meeting outsides are considered to be uncivilised and barbaric in Japan. I say kick your shoes off, roll in the grass, have a meeting out there, though.

That's right. That inaccuracy I will let slide. Absolutely plan your tactics for the destruction of the United States over a game of hacky sack. You know what I mean? Absolutely, yeah. Now there's a lot of stuff in this that's like, hey, that plane wasn't around then.

Like the crop duster, for example, you couldn't get it for home use until like much later than it appears in the film and things like that. So things like some characters were smoking Marlboro Lights in the film, Dan Aykroyd wearing rimless glasses. These things weren't available in the 1940s. You can believe that. That rocket pack the Rocketeer was wearing. Yeah, that's right, yeah.

Not even a real thing, it turns out. Did I fall asleep? I must have fallen asleep through that bit. Oh, my God, he Rocketeers so many people. He fights so many blimps. It was illegal for American citizens to fight for another country while the US remained neutral on penalty of losing their citizenship. Oh, but he just goes right over the United Kingdom.

He just wants to get in the action, yeah. All the radio stuff is wrong, like the types of radios. I'm not going to get into the specifics. I read it and I went, I'm not even going to touch that. How do you feel about the news announcer's voice in this movie? I don't even remember. He's like, hello. He's one of those guys.

That's accurate, I guess. That's absolutely accurate, isn't it? A 1950s speedboat and a nuclear-powered submarine, which shows up in the Japanese fleet. that happened before nuclear power was a reality and the 1940s i'm pretty sure happened before the 1950s so that's so true a historian nicholas evan sarantek said there was a u.s naval base in hawaii it was called pearl harbor the japanese did attack with planes on december 7th check checks out so far. Other than that, the movie is bad history. But I think this is a good place to kind of wrap things up because according to Michael Bay, after the film came out,

he got a letter from Daniel Martinez, the world's foremost expert on Pearl Harbour and the director of the Pearl Harbour Museum. And in the letter... Oh, I wonder what he's got to say. In the letter, Bay says that Martinez wrote, you got the essence of what happened right. there's a lot of like reading through the trivia there's a lot of like well i got a letter and they said that actually i did a really good job you know what i spoke to some fans and they were there and they also said yeah they said i did a

really good job can we see the letters michael bay they're at my girlfriend's house in canada my canadian girlfriend you haven't met her, but we've been going steady since high school. What's she do for a job? She's a model international. That's really great. So I could probably like find her on the internet or something. Well, this was obviously pre kind of internet and she does a lot of her work in Dubai and things like that.

A lot of jet setting back and forth. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Busy, busy. She takes the letters with her, which is- Something to read. Something to read on the plane Yeah, no, I understand, sure

All in all, they made this, didn't they? Absolutely, matey No one can deny that they made this movie As much as we'd like to Yeah, there are better World War II films I mean, you could go like You're Saving Private Ryan, obviously You could go Windtalkers

Sure Nicholas Cage, don't go that one It's a bad one You could go Overlord. Yeah, I would say so. At least it just goes whatever. Overlord knows exactly what it is. No, no, that's a historical epic.

It says so at the start. Something that I've definitely come around on that I saw when I was young and then watched more recently is The Thin Red Line, which is like an excellent depiction of World War II and like the mental struggle of being in this conflict. So I'd say if you want to watch an action-packed, non-stop entertainment rollercoaster. Great Escape.

Oh, Great Escape. But if you want to watch the clip of the battle of Pearl Harbor, you can do it on YouTube as well. You just watch that clip. Probably on movie clips trailers. You know it is. Anyways, this has been Caravan of Garbage. Believe it or not, we do do this every week, don't we?

Yes, that's right. And there's also videos here every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. And in addition to that, we have a podcast called The Weekly Planet where we talk movies and comics and TV shows. Do you want to hear about what's in Caravan of Garbage next week? Yes. Here it is. I don't know what it is yet.

For the audio version, I don't know what goes in here. Are you going to tell me? I don't know. Again, I don't know. Would you tell me now? I have to look at my list. I don't have it in front of me. Your girlfriend in Canada has the list? Yes, that's right. So you going to tell me? I'll tell, I don't know. Again, I don't, I don't know. Would you tell me now? I have to look at my list. I don't have it in front of me. Does your girlfriend in Canada

have the list? Yeah, that's right. So what's going on there? Anyways, I'm at MrSundayMovies on Twitter. I'm at WikipediaBrown on Twitter. We appreciate you

during this with us. We love you. Wow. Yeah, that's right. As a friend or real? Romantically. No,

all of them. And it's a triangle. Only if you put it, only if you give a like. Yeah, well, that's fair. We hate your guts. Get guts get out of here goodbye this podcast is part of the planet broadcasting network visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates

i mean if you want it's up to you fx is the veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. Fx's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.