Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

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  September 10, 2011

  spielberg00

  Clearly the inspiration for Michael Bay's PEARL HARBOR (which is slightly lesser than this), TORA! TORA! TORA! is a long, amazing history film. Most of it is in Japanese, and even with the consistent subtitles, it's still irritating to not hear much English; but all in all, this... read more is a classic, memorable dramatization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and America's response.

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  January 23, 2011

  TheDudeLebowski65

  Tora! Tora! Tora! is a flawless dramatization of the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7th, 1941. One thing I admire about this film that it shows both sides of the story. The film goes into detail on the planning of the attacks, and we get to see a more in depth reason as to why t... read morehe Japanese carried out the attacks of December 7th 1941. Tora! Tora! Tora! is an incredible film, a well accomplished war film. Critics as usual were wrong in giving this film negative reviews because this film is brilliant. If you know your history,
  you'll realize that Tora! Tora Tora! is a well researched and authentic piece of cinema. The films aerial sequences are obviously the highlight of the film, and they are simply stunning to watch. The acting is superb and the pacing of the story is well established throughout the film. The first hour of the film surrounds the planning of the attack itself, and the second hour is focused on the attack. The film shows how the American weren't ready, and how they ignored multiple warnings of a Japanese imminent threat. Tora! Tora! Tora! is an authentic war film with minor flaws that will appeal to every War or history buff. This is a superb film that shouldn't be passed up by fans of war films. A superior piece of cinema thats very authentic to the actual events, Tora! Tora! Tora! remains the best film on that dramatizes the faithful attacks on December 7th, 1941. If you want the definitive film that dramatizes the attacks on Pearl Harbor, then give Tora! Tora! Tora! a view. The film is far superior to Michael Bay's train wreck, Pearl Harbor.

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  October 13, 2010

  animegirlaya

  In absolutely every respect this movie is far superior to Pearl Harbor of a few years ago. Rather than using the pending Japanese attack as the backdrop for a fictional romance, "Tora Tora Tora" faithfully recounts the events leading up to December 7, 1941, and then offers a chil... read moreling portrayal of the attack itself. In spite of being over 30 years old, the effects used during the attack scenes are excellent, and create the feeling that one is right there as they happen. The performances are solid although unspectacular, which seems appropriate. Clearly the desire of Directors Richard Fleischer and Kinji Fukasaku was to let the events speak for themselves, and in this they succeeded.
  
  The movie is told from both the Japanese and American points of view, and one of the better aspects of it was that the scenes on board the Japanese fleet were shot using the Japanese language, rather than having the Japanese speaking English with Japanese accents. I felt that this added to the authenticity of the movie. The confusion, miscommunication and poor preparedness of the U.S. is truthfully recounted, as is the division between the military and political machinery over various issues: the choice of Pearl Harbor as the base for the Pacific Fleet, and the decision to transfer navy resources from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
  
  I rather thought the special effects were brilliant just think back then there was no CGI every thing had to be done by hand. Even today it still looks 100% convincing. The acting from both sides of the war Japanese and American I thought was very good. But some scenes in the movie do drag on a bit.
  
  We spent an inordinate amount of time watching Japanese Zeros taking off from the deck of a Japanese carrier and it's somewhat difficult to establish the timeline of the movie, particularly in the first hour or so, but overall this must surely be the definitive movie version of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Everyone interested in the "day that will live in infamy" should watch this.
  
  Keikos score 91-100

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  August 31, 2010

  SirPant

  I'm not going to speculate as to how different or how much better this film would have been had Akira Kurosawa directed the Japanese segment, because to be fair, It's a great film anyway! Richard Fleischer is a great director and I'm also a big fan of Kinji Fukasaku, they and Tos... read morehio Masuda made a fantastic war film, factual with very few errors, well paced, with a great cast and with great performances. Watching the story unfold from the points of view from both sides has rarely been matched in balance and fairness. This is a classic war film that I believe is just as good as *Attach favourite Classic War film here*

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  December 7, 2010

  chaleins

  With the memories of the event fading into the sunset, I thought I'd review a docu-drama that you may not have seen recently: Tora! Tora! Tora! It's a straightforward film about the fateful day in 1941 when the US Pacific Fleet was caught at anchor by a brilliantly planned and e... read morexecuted attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The film is still the best at recounting the events leading up to the attack, and is unfettered by the need to create interest around fictional characters: Literally every person shown during the film was alive and breathing at the time. While the film depicts the events mostly from the US point-of-view, it's surprisingly free of slant or bias against the Japanese people. It was a joint film production by both an American and Japanese film company, and this accounts for its fairly neutral outlook. The film depicts facts, and although it's not paced up to modern standards, they get the mood and intensity right when the attack is finally shown. Some will be bored, but someone interested in a time capsule of history, or seeing what a real docu-drama can do will be interested.
  
  Unlike its modern brethren, the film makes use of real locations and there's no green screen fakery here. Only the ships are models and sets, and they are quite sophisticated for the time. The aircraft were not strictly historical for the Japanese, but then there simply weren't any available. However, the aerial combat scenes are well done, too, as is the depiction the attack itself. The special effects aren't 2010 standard, but the fires and explosions are quite good for the time. The destruction of Hickam field was particularly well done.
  
  There's a lot of older film stars in this, and they play their roles well: Some are energetic; some are surprised, and apathetic as appropriate to the time. The 360-degree view of the historic day is about as good as you're going to get now. The film has some really great moments, and surprisingly has some real emotion in it for such a straightforward style. It indulges in some melodramatic moments that belong to history, because Hollywood can't write lines better than people actually spoke them: "It would have been merciful had it killed me," says Admiral Kimmel as a spent bullet strikes his uniform during the attack. The tiny scene where a Japanese-American messenger boy delivers a telegram after the attack has begun speak volumes about what was to come over the next four years.
  
  So, while it's long, and some would call it tedious in its depiction, it's pretty accurate overall. It's amazing how many things went wrong for the US Navy that one day. Like Titanic's story, there are many what ifs?

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  July 9, 2007

  DrLappos

  What a grand film.

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  April 10, 2007

  ileo

  Good film.

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  December 20, 2010

  tmannamt

  Technically impressive, the Pearl Harbor attack scenes are the real highlights of this movie. The concept of this movie is brilliant; to show both the American and Japanese sides of the event. But in between the grand opening title sequence and the attack at the end, the movie be... read morecomes slow and unbearable to sit through.

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  April 19, 2009

  nowhotnnm

  For war history buffs a must see. Pretty accurate film. Probably needed to be at least three hours (instead of 144 minutes) and a bigger budget to get it closer to what was needed to be a really good film.

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  March 28, 2009

  donaldwhite1

  This movie gives a highly accurate account of Battle of Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately the movie making technology in 1970 was not advanced enough to show the visual impact the Battle had on the actual eye witnesses. It's as if they made a movie about the September 11 attack on Ne... read morew York City and never showed the World Trade Towers collapsing. The central event in the actual Battle was the explosion of the USS Arizona. Since the actual footage of the explosion was recorded on black and white film and this movie was in color they couldn't use it. Colorization was still over ten years off. With today's computer graphics technology it could be done but it was not available 35 years ago. They did an excellent job telling the human drama leading up to the battle by showing both the Japanese and American points of view. However they glossed over the Japanese atrocities in Asia that caused the split in U.S.-Japanese relations and they only had one scene showing the signing of the German-Japanese treaty. They did show the many warnings that were ignored by the American government and how the Japanese failed to issue a declaration of war before the attack. The best part of the movie was the attack on Hickam Field and the destruction of all the American airplanes. The aerial photography showing the Japanese planes flying over Hawaii was also good. Some parts of the attacks on the Navy ships was good since they used actual U.S. Navy ships, but you could tell that the explosions were off-camera and that they weren't really blowing anything up. If they could have shown the battleships actually being destroyed this would have been an excellent movie but due to budget and technology they were limited as to what they could do. Overall the story was well told and well acted.

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• Martin Balsam as Adm. Husband E. Kimmel
• Sô Yamamura as Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto
• Joseph Cotten as Henry L. Stimson
• Tatsuya Mihashi as Cmdr. Minoru Genda
• E.G. Marshall as Lt. Col. Rufus S. Bratton
• Takahiro Tamura as Lt. Cmdr. Fuchida
• Eijirô Tono as Admiral Nagumo
• Wesley Addy as Lt. Commander Kramer
• Shogo Shimada as Ambassador Nomura

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