Tora! Tora! Tora! Explained

Tora! Tora! Tora!
Director:American sequences
Richard Fleischer
Japanese sequences
Toshio Masuda
Kinji Fukasaku
Akira Kurosawa (uncredited)
Producer:Elmo Williams
Screenplay:American sequences
Larry Forrester
Japanese sequences
Hideo Oguni
Ryūzō Kikushima
Akira Kurosawa (uncredited)
Music:Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography:American sequences
Charles F. Wheeler
Japanese sequences
Shinsaku Himeda
Masamichi Satoh
Osamu Furuya
Editing:James E. Newcom
Pembroke J. Herring
Inoue Chikaya
Studio:Williams-Fleischer Productions
Toei Company
Distributor:20th Century Fox (U.S.)
Toei Company (Japan)
Runtime:144 minutes
Country:United States
Japan
Language:English
Japanese
Budget:$25 million[1]
Gross:$37 million (rentals)

Tora! Tora! Tora! (Japanese: トラ・トラ・トラ!) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, from the American and Japanese positions. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, and stars an ensemble cast including Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, So Yamamura, E.G. Marshall, James Whitmore, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takahiro Tamura, Wesley Addy, and Jason Robards. It was Masuda and Fukasaku's first English-language film, and first international co-production. The tora of the title, although literally meaning "tiger", is actually an abbreviation of a two-syllable codeword (i.e., totsugeki raigeki 突撃雷撃, "lightning attack"), used to indicate that complete surprise had been achieved.[2]

The film was released in the United States by Twentieth Century Fox on September 23, 1970, and in Japan by the Toei Company on September 25. It received mixed reviews from American critics, but was praised for its historical accuracy and attention to detail, its visual effects, and its action sequences. Tora! Tora! Tora! was nominated for five Oscars at the 43rd Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, winning Best Visual Effects (L.B. Abbott and A.D. Flowers). The National Board of Review ranked it in its Top Ten Films of 1971. A 1994 survey at the USS Arizona Memorial determined that for Americans the film was the most common source of popular knowledge about the Pearl Harbor attack.

Plot

In August 1939, the United States imposes a trade embargo on a belligerent Japan, severely limiting raw materials. Influential Japanese army figures and politicians push through an alliance with Germany and Italy in September 1940, despite opposition from the Japanese navy, and prepare for war. The newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, reluctantly plans a pre-emptive strike on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, believing that Japan's best hope of controlling the Pacific Ocean is to quickly annihilate the American fleet. Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda is chosen to mastermind the operation while his old Naval Academy classmate Mitsuo Fuchida is selected to lead the attack.

Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. military intelligence has broken the Japanese Purple Code, allowing them to intercept secret Japanese radio transmissions indicating increased Japanese naval activity. Monitoring the transmissions are U.S. Army Col. Bratton and U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Kramer. At Pearl Harbor, Admiral Kimmel increases defensive naval and air patrols around Hawaii which could provide early warning of enemy presence. General Short recommends concentrating aircraft at the base on the runways to avoid sabotage by enemy agents in Hawaii, so General Howard Davidson of the 14th Pursuit Wing tries dispersing some planes to other airfields on Oahu to maintain air readiness.

Months pass while diplomatic tensions escalate. As the Japanese ambassador to Washington continues negotiations to stall for time, the Japanese fleet sorties into the Pacific. On the day of the attack, Bratton and Kramer learn from intercepts that the Japanese plan 14 radio messages from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington. They are also directed to destroy their code machines after receiving the final message. Deducing the Japanese will launch a surprise attack after the messages are delivered, Bratton tries warning his superiors of his suspicions but encounters obstacles: Chief of Naval Operations Harold R. Stark is indecisive over notifying Hawaii without first alerting the President while Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall's order that Pearl Harbor be alerted of an attack is stymied by poor atmospherics that prevent radio transmission and by bungling when a warning sent by telegram is not marked urgent. At dawn on December 7, the Japanese fleet launches its aircraft. Their approach to Hawaii is detected by two radar operators but their concerns are dismissed by the duty officer. Similarly the claim by the destroyer to have sunk a Japanese miniature submarine off the entrance to Pearl Harbor is dismissed as unimportant. The Japanese thus achieve total surprise, which Commander Fuchida indicates with the signal "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

The damage to the naval base is catastrophic and casualties are severe. Several battleships are either sunk or heavily damaged. General Short's anti-sabotage precautions prove a mistake that allows the Japanese aerial forces to destroy aircraft on the ground easily. In Washington, Secretary of State Cordell Hull is stunned to learn of the attack and requests confirmation before receiving the Japanese ambassador. The message that was transmitted to the Japanese embassy in 14 parts – including a declaration that peace negotiations were at an end – was meant to be delivered to the Americans at 1:00 pm in Washington, 30 minutes before the attack. However, it was not decoded and transcribed in time, meaning the attack started while the two nations were technically still at peace. The distraught Japanese ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura, helpless to explain the late ultimatum and unaware of the ongoing attack, is rebuffed by Hull.

In the Pacific, the Japanese fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, refuses to launch a scheduled third wave of aircraft for fear of exposing his force to U.S. submarines. In the aftermath of the attack, General Short and Admiral Kimmel receive Marshall's telegram warning of impending danger. Aboard his flagship, Admiral Yamamoto informs his staff that their primary target – the American aircraft carriers – were not at Pearl Harbor, having departed days previously to search for Japanese vessels. Lamenting that the declaration of war arrived after the attack began, Yamamoto notes that nothing would infuriate the U.S. more and concludes: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

Cast

Note: Characters listed by rank in descending order

Americans

ActorRoleNotes
Joseph CottenSecretary Henry StimsonSecretary of War
George MacreadySecretary Cordell HullSecretary of State
Leon AmesSecretary Frank KnoxSecretary of the Navy
Meredith WeatherbyAmbassador Joseph GrewUS Ambassador to Japan
Harold ConwayEugene DoomanUS Embassy counselor, Tokyo
Martin BalsamAdmiral Husband E. KimmelCommander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet
Edward AndrewsAdmiral Harold Rainsford StarkChief of Naval Operations
Bill ZuckertAdmiral James O. RichardsonCommander, United States Fleet
Keith AndesGeneral George C. MarshallChief of Staff of the U.S. Army
James WhitmoreVice Admiral William Halsey Jr.Commander, Aircraft Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
Walter ReedVice Admiral William S. PyeInterim Commander, Aircraft Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
Edmon RyanRear Admiral Patrick BellingerCommander, Patrol Wing Two
Ken LynchRear Admiral John H. NewtonCommander,
Jason RobardsMajor General Walter ShortCommander-in-Chief, U.S. Army Forces Hawaii
Larry ThorMajor General Frederick L. MartinCommander, Hawaiian Air Force
Harlan WardeBrigadier General Leonard T. GerowCommander, 29th Infantry Division
Edward SheehanBrigadier General Howard C. DavidsonCommander, 14th Pursuit Wing
Richard ErdmanColonel Edward F. FrenchChief, War Department Signal Center
Bill EdwardsColonel Kendall J. FielderAssistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Hawaiian Department
Richard AndersonCaptain John EarleChief of Staff, 14th Naval District
Walter BrookeCaptain Theodore WilkinsonDirector of Naval Intelligence
Karl LukasCaptain Harold C. TrainChief of Staff, Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
Francis De SalesCaptain Arthur H. McCollumNaval Intelligence officer
G.D. SpradlinCommander Maurice E. CurtsCommunications Officer, U.S. Pacific Fleet
Robert ShayneCommander William H. BurackerOperations Officer, Aircraft Battle Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
E.G. MarshallLieutenant Colonel Rufus S. BrattonChief, Far Eastern Section, Military Intelligence Division, War Department
Dick FairLieutenant Colonel Carrol A. PowellRadar officer
Wesley AddyLieutenant Commander Alwin KramerCryptographer, OP-20-G
Frank AletterLieutenant Commander Francis ThomasCommand Duty Officer,
Jerry FogelLieutenant Commander William W. OuterbridgeCommanding Officer,
Dick CookLieutenant Commander Logan C. RamseyOperations Officer, Patrol Wing Two
Norman AldenMajor Truman LandonCommanding Officer, 38th Reconnaissance Squadron
Dave DonnellyMajor Gordon BlakeHickam Field Operations Officer
Robert KarnesMajor John H. DillonKnox's aide
Neville BrandLieutenant Harold KaminskiDuty Officer, 14th Naval District
Ron MasakLieutenant Lawrence E. RuffCommunications Officer, USS Nevada
Jerry Cox1st Lieutenant Kermit TylerPilot, 78th Pursuit Squadron
Rick Cooper2nd Lieutenant George WelchPilot, 47th Pursuit Squadron
Carl Reindel2nd Lt. Kenneth TaylorPilot, 47th Pursuit Squadron
David WestbergEnsign Edgar M. FairOfficer,
Elven HavardMessman 3rd Class Doris MillerCrew member,
Bruce WilsonPrivate Joseph LockardRadarman at Opana Point

Japanese

ActorRoleNotes
Koreya SendaPrince Fumimaro KonoyePrime Minister of Japan
Hiroshi AkutagawaMarquis Koichi KidoLord Keeper of the Privy Seal
Kazuo KitamuraShigenori TogoForeign Minister
Sō YamamuraAdmiral Isoroku YamamotoCommander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet
Bontaro MiyakeAdmiral Koshiro OikawaMinister of the Navy
Asao UchidaGeneral Hideki TojoMinister of War
Eijirō TōnoVice Admiral Chuichi NagumoCommander-in-Chief, 1st Air Fleet
Junya UsamiVice Admiral Zengo YoshidaMinister of the Navy
Susumu FujitaRear Admiral Tamon YamaguchiCommander, Second Carrier Division
Ichiro ReuzakiRear Admiral Ryūnosuke KusakaChief of Staff, 1st Air Fleet
Kan NihonyanagiRear Admiral Chuichi HaraCommander, 5th Carrier Division
Tôru AbeRear Admiral Takijirō ŌnishiChief of Staff, 11th Air Fleet
Shunichi NakamuraCaptain Kameto "Gandhi" KuroshimaSenior Staff Officer, Combined Fleet
Tatsuya MihashiCommander Minoru GendaAir Staff, 1st Air Fleet
Takahiro TamuraLieutenant Commander Mitsuo FuchidaCommander, Air Group,
Toshio HosokawaLieutenant Commander Shigeharu MurataCommander, 1st Torpedo Attack Unit, Akagi
Hisashi IgawaLieutenant Mitsuo MatsuzakiFuchida's pilot
Hideo MurotaLieutenant Zenji AbePilot, Air Group, Akagi
Hiroshi Tom Tanaka Ensign Akira Hiroo (credited as "Japanese Midget Submarine Crewman")Commander, Midget Submarine I-20tō
uncreditedPetty Officer 2nd Class Yoshio KatayamaPilot, Midget Submarine I-20tō
Hisao ToakeSaburō KurusuJapanese Ambassador
Shōgo ShimadaAmbassador Kichisaburo NomuraJapanese Ambassador to the United States(voiced by uncredited actor Paul Frees)
Paul FreesAmbassador Kichisaburo Nomura (voice)Japanese Ambassador to the United States

Civilians

ActorRoleNotes
Leora DanaIleana KramerLt. Cdr. Kramer's wife
June DaytonRay CaveSecretary
Akira KumeKatsuzo OkumuraJapanese embassy secretary
Jeff DonnellCornelia FortCivilian flying instructor
Hank JonesDaveyCivilian student pilot
Andrew HughesMinister Joachim von RibbentropGerman Minister for Foreign Affairs
Kiyoshi AtsumiJapanese messman

Production

Veteran 20th Century Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck, who had earlier produced The Longest Day (1962), wanted to create an epic that depicted what "really happened on December 7, 1941", with a "revisionist's approach". He believed that the commanders in Hawaii, General Short and Admiral Kimmel, though scapegoated for decades, provided adequate defensive measures for the apparent threats, including relocation of the fighter aircraft at Pearl Harbor to the middle of the base, in response to fears of sabotage from local Japanese. Despite a breakthrough in intelligence, they had received limited warning of the increasing risk of aerial attack. Recognizing that a balanced and objective recounting was necessary, Zanuck developed an American-Japanese co-production, allowing for "a point of view from both nations". He was helped out by his son, Richard D. Zanuck, who was chief executive at Fox during this time.

Production on Tora! Tora! Tora! took three years to plan and prepare for the eight months of principal photography.[3] The film was created in two separate productions, one based in the United States, directed by Richard Fleischer, and one based in Japan. The Japanese side was initially to be directed by Akira Kurosawa, who worked on script development and pre-production for two years. However, after two weeks of shooting, he was replaced by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, who directed the Japanese sections.[4] [5] Toshiro Mifune reportedly had been scheduled to play Yamamoto but withdrew when Kurosawa left the project.

Richard Fleischer said of Akira Kurosawa's role in the project:

Larry Forrester and frequent Kurosawa collaborators Hideo Oguni and Ryūzō Kikushima wrote the screenplay, based on books written by Ladislas Farago and Gordon Prange of the University of Maryland, who served as a technical consultant. Numerous technical advisors on both sides, some of whom had participated in the battle and/or planning, were crucial in maintaining the accuracy of the film. Minoru Genda, the man who largely planned and led the attack on Pearl Harbor, was an uncredited technical advisor for the film.[6]

Four cinematographers were involved in the main photography: Charles F. Wheeler, Shinsaku Himeda, Masamichi Satoh, and Osamu Furuya.[7] They were jointly nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. A number of well-known cameramen also worked on the second units without credit, including Thomas Del Ruth and Rexford Metz. The second unit doing miniature photography was directed by Ray Kellogg, while the second unit doing aerial sequences was directed by Robert Enrietto.

Noted composer Jerry Goldsmith composed the film score and Robert McCall painted several scenes for various posters of the film.[8]

The carrier entering Pearl Harbor towards the end of the film was in fact the, returning to port. The "Japanese" aircraft carrier was the anti-submarine carrier, fitted with a false bow to disguise the catapults. The Japanese A6M Zero fighters and the somewhat longer "Kate" torpedo bombers or "Val" dive bombers were heavily modified Royal Canadian Air Force Harvard (T-6 Texan) and BT-13 Valiant pilot training aircraft. The large fleet of Japanese aircraft was created by Lynn Garrison, a well-known aerial action coordinator, who produced a number of conversions. Garrison and Jack Canary coordinated the actual engineering work at facilities in the Los Angeles area. These aircraft still make appearances at air shows.[9]

For the parallel filming in Japan, full-scale mock-ups of the Japanese battleship and aircraft carrier were built from the waterline up on shore, with about 90feet of their bows extending out over the ocean on stilts. These were used for much of the Japanese scenes on ship's decks. The one error introduced, however, was that the model Akagis bridge was built on the starboard side instead of the port side. Only two Japanese carriers were built in this fashion, with bridges on the port side: Akagi and . This was done because it was known that for the launching scenes filmed in the US, a US carrier would be used, and the islands of US carriers were always on the starboard side. A few of the modified aircraft were also converted in Japan for the flight scenes filmed there.

In preparation for filming, Yorktown was berthed at NAS North Island in San Diego to load all the aircraft, maintenance, and film crew prior to sailing to Hawaii. The night before filming the "Japanese" take-off scenes, she sailed to a spot a few miles west of San Diego, and at dawn the film crew filmed the launches of all the aircraft. Since these "Japanese" aircraft were not actual carrier-based aircraft, they did not have arresting gear with which to land back on the carrier and so continued on to land at North Island Naval Air Station. Yorktown sailed back to North Island and re-loaded the aircraft. She then sailed to Hawaii, where the aircraft were off-loaded and used to film the attack scenes in and around Pearl Harbor. Aircraft Specialties of Mesa, Arizona, performed maintenance on the aircraft while in Hawaii.

The actual crash landing of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during filming, a result of a jammed landing gear, was used in the final cut.[10] The film crew received word that one of the B-17s could not lower its starboard landing gear, so they quickly set up to film the "single gear" landing. The aircraft stayed aloft to use up as much fuel as possible prior to landing, which gave the film crew some time to prepare. After viewing the "single gear" landing footage, they decided to include it in the movie. In the sequence depicting the crash, only the final crash was actual footage. For the scenes leading up to the crash, they manually retracted the starboard landing gear on a functioning B-17 and filmed the scenes of its final approach. After touching down on one wheel, the pilot simply applied power and took off again. The B-17 that actually landed with one gear up sustained only minor damage to the starboard wing and propellers and was repaired and returned to service. A total of five Boeing B-17s were obtained for filming. Other U.S. aircraft included the Consolidated PBY Catalina and, especially, the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (two flyable examples were used). Predominantly, P-40 fighter aircraft were used to depict the U.S. defenders with a full-scale P-40 used as a template for fiberglass replicas (some with working engines and props) that were strafed and blown up during filming.[11] Fleischer also said a scene involving a P-40 model crashing into the middle of a line of P-40s was unintended, as it was supposed to crash at the end of the line. The stuntmen involved in the scene were actually running for their lives.[12] The B-17 crash along with several other scenes were reused in the 1976 film Midway.

With over 30 aircraft in the air, the flying scenes were complex to shoot, comparable to the 1969 film Battle of Britain where large formations of period-specific aircraft were filmed in staged aerial battles.[13] The 2001 film Pearl Harbor would use some of the same modified aircraft.[14]

Casting

The film was deliberately cast with actors who were not true box-office stars, including many Japanese amateurs, in order to place the emphasis on the story rather than the actors who were in it.[15]

Several members of the cast had themselves served in World War II.

ActorServiceNotes
Martin BalsamArmy Air ForcesB-24 radio operator
James WhitmoreMarine CorpsLieutenant
Jason Robards and
Wesley AddyArmy
Norman AldenArmy
Frank AletterArmy
Richard AndersonArmy
Keith AndesArmy Air Forces
Edward AndrewsArmyCaptain, awarded Bronze Star Medal
Neville BrandArmyEarned a Purple Heart and Silver Star
Walter BrookeArmy
Paul FreesArmyWounded in combat on D-Day
G.D. SpradlinArmy Air Forces
Arthur ToveyArmy
Harlan WardeArmySpecial Forces
Bill ZuckertNavyConstruction Battalion ("Seabees")

Some crew members also served in the war.

Crew memberCredited asServiceNotes
Richard FleischerDirector / ProducerArmy
Darryl F. ZanuckExecutive producerArmyColonel, Army Signal Corps. Also served in World War I.
Charles F. WheelerCinematographerNavyCombat photographer
Gordon W. PrangeAuthor / Technical consultantNavyChief Historian in General Douglas MacArthur's staff

Some cast members served before or after World War II.

ActorServiceEngagementsNotes
Leon AmesArmy / Army Air ServiceWorld War IField artillery and later in the flying corps
Ron MasakArmy
Jamie Farr (uncredited voice acting)ArmyKorean War

Historical accuracy

Parts of the film showing the takeoff of the Japanese aircraft utilize an, Yorktown, which was commissioned in 1943 and modernized after the war to have a very slightly angled flight deck.[16] The ship was leased by the film producers, who needed an aircraft carrier for the film, and as Yorktown was scheduled to be decommissioned in 1970, the Navy made her available. She was used largely in the takeoff sequence of the Japanese attack aircraft. The sequence shows interchanging shots of models of the Japanese aircraft carriers and Yorktown. She does not look like any of the Japanese carriers involved in the attack, due to her large bridge island and her angled landing deck. The Japanese carriers had small bridge islands, and it wasn't until after the war that angled flight decks were developed.[17] In addition, during the scene in which Admiral Halsey is watching bombing practice, an aircraft carrier with the hull number 14 is shown. Admiral Halsey was on, not the Essex-class carrier, which would not be commissioned until 1944. This is understandable, however, as Enterprise and all six of the Japanese carriers from the attack had been scrapped or sunk.

In Tora! Tora! Tora!, an error involves the model of . In the film, Akagis bridge island is positioned on the starboard side of the ship, which is typical on most aircraft carriers. However, Akagi was an exception; her bridge island was on the port side of the ship. Despite this, the bridge section appeared accurately as a mirrored version of Akagis real port-side bridge.[18] Secondly, all the Japanese aircraft in the footage bear the markings of Akagis aircraft (a single vertical red stripe following the red sun symbol of Japan), even though five other aircraft carriers participated, each having its own markings. In addition, the markings do not display the aircraft's identification numbers as was the case in the actual battle. The white surround on the roundel on the Japanese aircraft was only used from 1942 onwards. Prior to this, the roundel was red only.[19]

was an old "4-piper" destroyer commissioned in 1918; the ship used in the movie,, which portrays Ward, looked far different from the original destroyer.[20] In addition, in the movie, she fired two shots from her #1 gun turret. In reality, Ward fired the first shot from the #1 4adj=onNaNadj=on un-turreted gunmount and the second shot from the #3 wing mount.[21] The attack on the midget submarine by USS Ward was previously mentioned in the film In Harm's Way.

A full-scale set was built representing the stern section of a U.S. Navy Standard-type battleship showing two aft gun turrets each with three gun barrels. It was used to portray both and and other battleships. It was correct for USS Arizona but incorrect for USS Nevada, which had lower triple and upper twin gun turrets. The scale model of USS Nevada used to portray the whole ship in wide shots displayed the fore and aft turrets accurately in a 3-2-2-3 arrangement. A lattice mast (or cage mast) section representing a or battleship was built on the ground behind the full-scale stern set to give the appearance that the set was on Battleship Row. The USS Arizona/USS Nevada stern section set was used for the explosion that destroyed USS Arizona, although the explosion took place in the forward #2 magazine and Arizonas stern section remained essentially intact.

The film has a Japanese Zero fighter being damaged over a naval base and then deliberately crashing into a hangar. This is actually a composite of three incidents during the Pearl Harbor attack: in the first wave, a Japanese Zero crashed into Fort Kamehameha's ordnance building; in the second wave, a Japanese Zero deliberately crashed into a hillside after U.S. Navy CPO John William Finn at Naval Air Station at Kāneʻohe Bay shot and damaged the aircraft; also during the second wave, a damaged Japanese aircraft crashed into the seaplane tender .[22]

During a number of shots of the attack squadrons traversing across Oahu, a white cross can be seen standing on one of the mountainsides. The cross was actually erected after the attack as a memorial to the victims.[23]

In the final scene, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto says: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant". An abridged version of this quotation is featured in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor. The 2019 film Midway also features Yamamoto speaking aloud the "sleeping giant" quote. Although the quotation may well have encapsulated many of his real feelings about the attack, there is no printed evidence to prove Yamamoto made this statement or wrote it down.[24]

Release

The film had its world premiere on September 23, 1970, in New York, Tokyo, Honolulu and Los Angeles.[25]

Reception

Box office

At the time of its initial release, Tora! Tora! Tora! was thought to be a box office disappointment in North America,[26] despite its domestic box office of $29,548,291 making it the ninth-highest-grossing film of 1970.[27] It was a major hit in Japan, and over the years, home media releases provided a larger overall profit.[28] [29] The film had earned in Japanese distributor rentals by 1971, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1971 in Japan.[30]

According to Fox records, the film required in rentals to break even, and had done so by December 11, 1970.[31]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 55% rating based on 29 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Tora! Tora! Tora! is scrupulously accurate and lays out of the tragedy of Pearl Harbor with intricate detail, but the film's clinical approach to the sound and fury signifies little feeling."[32] On Metacritic it has a score of 46% based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[33]

Roger Ebert gave the film one star and felt that Tora! Tora! Tora! was "one of the deadest, dullest blockbusters ever made" and suffered from not having "some characters to identify with." In addition, he criticized the film for poor acting and special effects in his 1970 review.[34] Vincent Canby, reviewer for The New York Times, was similarly unimpressed, noting the film was "nothing less than a $25-million irrelevancy."[35] Variety also found the film to be boring; however, the magazine praised the film's action sequences and production values.[36] Charles Champlin in his review for the Los Angeles Times on September 23, 1970, considered the movie's chief virtues as a "spectacular", and the careful recreation of a historical event.[37]

Despite the initial negative reviews, the film was critically acclaimed for its vivid action scenes and found favor with aviation aficionados. However, even the team of Jack Hardwick and Ed Schnepf, who had been involved in research on aviation films, relegated Tora! Tora! Tora! to the "also-ran" status due to its slow-moving plotline.[38]

Several later films and TV series relating to World War II in the Pacific have used footage from Tora! Tora! Tora!. These productions include the films Midway (1976; in the Tora! Tora! Tora! DVD commentary, Fleischer expressed anger that Universal used the footage), All This and World War II (film 1976), Pearl (TV mini-series 1978), From Here to Eternity (TV mini-series 1979), The Final Countdown (1980), and Australia (2008) as well as the Magnum, P. I. television series episode titled "Lest We Forget" (first airdate February 12, 1981).[39]

In 1994, a survey at the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu determined that for Americans the film was the most common source of popular knowledge about the Pearl Harbor attack.[40]

Clark Collis of Empire gave the film three out of five stars, writing that the film "is high on historical veracity but low on drama".[41] In 2016, Cinema Retro released a special issue dedicated to Tora! Tora! Tora! which detailed the Blu-Ray release of the film. Stating that the film "has only grown in stature over the decades", it praises the attack sequences, calling them "quite spectacular", and commends the portrayal of the Japanese as "anything but ethnic stereotypes, which adds immensely to the impact of their side of the story". It also praises the "innovative, pulse-pounding" soundtrack.[42]

Awards and nominations

CeremonyCategoryNominee(s)Result
43rd Academy AwardsBest CinematographyCharles F. Wheeler, Shinsaku Himeda, Osamu Furuya and Masamichi Satoh
Best Film EditingJames E. Newcom, Pembroke J. Herring and Inoue Chikaya
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: Jack Martin Smith, Yoshirō Muraki, Richard Day and Taizô Kawashima
Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Norman Rockett and Carl Biddiscombe
Best Special Visual EffectsL. B. Abbott and A. D. Flowers
Best SoundMurray Spivack and Herman Lewis[43]
1971 American Cinema Editors AwardsBest Edited Feature Film – DramaticJames E. Newcom, Pembroke J. Herring, Inoue Chikaya
1971 Laurel AwardsBest Picture
Best CinematographerCharles F. Wheeler, Shinsaku Himeda, Osamu Furuya, Masamichi Satoh
National Board of Review Awards 1970Top Ten Films

See also

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. . p256
  2. Web site: 15 Things You Might Not Know about Pearl Harbor - AOP Homeschooling . 2023-06-19 . www.aop.com.
  3. [#refOrriss1984|Orriss 1984]
  4. [#refGalbraith2002|Galbraith 2002]
  5. Friis, Christian. "Tora! Tora! Tora!, Twentieth Century Fox, 1970". Pearl Harbor in the Movies, what to see..., November 5, 2002. Retrieved: May 5, 2009.
  6. [#refParish1990|Parish 1990]
  7. http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/March2012/DVDPlayback/page3.php "DVD Playback: 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'."
  8. Hanson, David. "Artwork for 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'". Dave's Warbirds, July 16, 2008. Retrieved: May 5, 2009.
  9. http://www.toratoratora.com/ "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
  10. http://ww2f.com/threads/about-tora-tora-tora.16059/. Retrieved February 6, 2019. B-17G-110-VE, 44-85840, c/n 8749, the B-17 in question, was a converted water bomber that crashed fighting a forest fire in Nevada three years later.
  11. [#refHathaway1969|Hathaway 1969]
  12. [#refO'Hara1969|O'Hara 1969]
  13. Orris 1984, pp. 196–197.
  14. Orriss 2014, p. 234.
  15. Steffen, James. "Tora, Tora, Tora." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: February 12, 2012.
  16. http://www.patriotspoint.org/explore_museum/uss_yorktown/ "USS Yorktown ."
  17. [Thomas C. Hone|Hone, Thomas C.]
  18. [#refOrriss1984|Orriss 1984]
  19. [#refRobertson1961|Robertson 1961]
  20. http://www.usssavagededer386.org/ToraToraTora.html "Tora, Tora, Tora, Chapter 9."
  21. Storch, Paul S. "Conservation Treatment of the USS Ward forward gun: Minnesota State Capital Mall." Minnesota Historical Society, July 2006. Retrieved: February 12, 2012.
  22. [#refCarnes1996|Carnes 1996]
  23. http://www.hawaiiforvisitors.com/oahu/attractions/central-oahu-introduction.htm "Introduction to Central Oahu."
  24. Book: Safire, William . William Safire . Safire's Political Dictionary . Oxford University Press . 2008 . 978-0195343342 . 666.
  25. Tora! Tora! Tora! (advertisement). Variety. September 23, 1970. 19.
  26. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-74440066/flop-flop-flop-box.html "Flop! Flop! Flop! (Box office receipts of war film 'Tora! Tora! Tora!')."
  27. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1970/00260.php "Tora! Tora! Tora! Domestic Box Office."
  28. [#refParish1990|Parish 1990]
  29. http://www.dvdmoviecentral.com/ReviewsText/tora_tora_tora.htm "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
  30. キネマ旬報ベスト・テン85回全史 1924-2011 . . May 2012 . Kinema Junposha . 978-4873767550 . 285.
  31. Book: Silverman, Stephen M. 329. The Fox that got away : the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox. registration. 1988. L. Stuart. 9780818404856.
  32. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tora_tora_tora/ "Movie Reviews for 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'."
  33. Web site: Tora! Tora! Tora! . . 2021-01-01.
  34. [Roger Ebert|Ebert, Roger]
  35. Canby, Vincent. "Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)" The New York Times, September 24, 1970. Retrieved: August 27, 2011.
  36. Variety staff. "Excerpt from the 1970 Variety review." Variety, January 1, 1970. Retrieved: April 1, 2008.
  37. [#refOrriss1984|Orriss 1984]
  38. [#refHardwickSchnepf1989|Hardwick and Schnepf 1989]
  39. [#refDolan1985|Dolan 1985]
  40. http://www.japanfocus.org/-Marie-Thorsten/3462#sthash.AtsvQ531.dpuf "Binational Pearl Harbor."
  41. Web site: Tora! Tora! Tora! Review. 3 March 2006.
  42. Web site: REVIEW: "TORA! TORA! TORA!" (1970) ... Cinema Retro . 7 December 2021 . Cinemaretro.com . 20 May 2024.
  43. Canby, Vincent. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" The New York Times, September 24, 1970. Retrieved: March 11, 2009.