Tora! Tora! Tora! (Japanese: トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. 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.
Plot[]
In 1941, following months of economic embargo, Japan prepares to open its war against the United States with a preventive attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
Why It's Great[]
- It retells the events that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor much more faithfully than the infamous Michael Bay film Pearl Harbor, and isn't complicated by a pointless romance story unlike the latter.
- It's very even-handed, telling the story of the attack from both the American and Japanese perspectives.
- The non-CGI special effects are top notch.
- Thrilling, well-paced, and extremely realistic action sequences.
- The American and Japanese actors put in great preformances.
- Jerry Goldsmith's score is very emotionally gripping.
- "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
Bad Qualities[]
- It may be too graphic for a G rated film.
- Few of the people portrayed in the film get any backstory or character definition. Most of the main protagonists can be described in single words (Admiral Kimmel is worried, Admiral Yamamoto is brooding, and so on). The fact most of them are wearing military uniforms makes it hard to distinguish who's supposed to be who anyway unless you've studied the attack fairly thoroughly.
- Though the film is mostly accurate to the real Pearl Harbor attack, there are some inaccuracies and production mistakes.
- The bridge island on the Agaki is on the starboard as on most carriers. However, the Agaki was the exception, with the bridge on the port. Nevertheless, the filming was mirrored to make it appear on the port side.
- There is a scene where a damaged Japanese Zero fighter deliberately crashes into a hangar. In reality, there were three Zero crashes, but none into a hangar. The first Zero hit the ordnance building at Fort Kamehameha, the second struck a hillside after being shot, and the third crashed into the USS Curtiss.
- All the Japanese aircraft in the film have the markings of a plane launched from the Agaki. However, each carrier had its own set of markings. Further, the markings do not display the planes’ ID numbers. The red roundel on the aircraft is surrounded by white, but the surround was not introduced until 1942.
- In a number of scenes attack squadrons are seen flying across Oahu, and a small cross can be seen on the mountainside, yet this cross was in fact placed after the Japanese attack as a memorial to the victims.
- There are also some inaccuracies in the dialogue. For example, when the Japanese characters mention the date of the attack they are saying ‘December 8’. This is correct, as Japanese time is ahead of American. This was, however, translated ‘December 7’ for the sake of US audiences.
- Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto speaks his famous line about having ‘roused a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.’ Yet this would appear to have been attributed to him after the war, and it is unlikely that he actually said those words.
Reception[]
Tora! Tora! Tora! currently holds a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Box Office[]
At the time of its initial release, Tora! Tora! Tora! was thought to be a box office disappointment in North America, despite its domestic box office of $29,548,291 making it the ninth highest-grossing film of 1970. It was a major hit in Japan, and over the years, home media releases provided a larger overall profit. The film had grossed ¥194.22 million in Japan by 1971, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of 1971 in Japan.