The toughest shot of Michael Bay’s career
His filmography might consist almost entirely of explosive action movies that can more often than not be relied upon to hit big at the box office while suffering from an almost inevitable critical bashing, but by the strictest definition of the word, Michael Bay is an auteur.
The term is typically applied to esteemed filmmakers who create powerful, moving, and thought-provoking prestige dramas – as opposed to the guy who helmed five Transformers movies and Armageddon – but Bay nonetheless fits the bill.
An auteur – as noted by no less an authority than the dictionary – is “a film director who influences their films so much that they rank as their author”. Many of his features may not be certifiably great, and several of them are outright awful, but Bay ticks those boxes. He has an instantly-recognisable style, several signature shot compositions, an (admittedly nauseating) preference for rapid editing that he lovingly calls “fucking the frame”, and shoots practical action on a scale that no other director can match.
Love it or hate it, you definitely know a Bay film when you see one, and his often-overlooked dedication to craftsmanship manifested itself in the most fitting fashion possible. War epic Pearl Harbor was heralded before its release in 2001 as the movie that would see him grow up, with the bombastic director foregoing his typical action-packed sandbox in favour of a stirring romantic war epic.
The project was a big hit after earning $450million at the box office – and won an Academy Award for ‘Best Sound Editing’ – but the 183-minute blockbuster was also lambasted for being too long, too tedious, and wildly inaccurate before going on to notch six Golden Raspberry Award nominations including ‘Worst Director’ and ‘Worst Picture’.
However, in typical Bay fashion, the film also boasts the single biggest explosion ever committed to celluloid at the time. Not only that but one moment in Pearl Harbor was named as “the toughest shot” of his life. Speaking to Collider, the Bad Boys creator set the stage: “It has 350 effects, bombs that are going off, dynamite in the water, and seven gigantic old battleships. At Pearl Harbor.”
He revealed he had “20 planes in the air that are antique planes flying in circles”. Bay rattled off several other nightmarish logistical elements, adding: “We have the puffy clouds where you have to shoot in between the sun. You have a couple lifeboats with real stunt people in there. You have to shut a freeway that is three and a half miles away. And you have 12 cameras,” he continued. “If the lifeboats go by the dynamite, they can get killed. It took three and a half months to have them rig this explosion.”
Noting that he went “ballistic” at the crew, Bay explained that was because people were crossing what he ominously referred to as “the line of death”. On the plus side, he modestly dubbed the shot itself as “very successful”, even if the response to Pearl Harbor as a whole was more muted.
