Tora! Tora! Tora!: Difference between revisions

''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' is a 1970 film telling the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor from both the American and Japanese perspectives. Unusually, the film was made by two almost independent units -- an American unit directed by Richard Fleischer, and a Japanese unit directed by Kinji Fukasaku. This technique would be repeated with its [[Spiritual Successor|pseudo-sequel]] ''[[Midway]]''. The original idea was to blend the two stories seamlessly, until Fleischer realized it would be better to let the two halves retain contrasting styles.

 

 

It was filmed before CGI was invented. The scenes of the bombing of Pearl Harbor were among the most complex ever successfully attempted before CGI; specially modified American planes "played" Japanese aircraft, and real explosions were choreographed.

''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' is a member of the [[Battle Epic|"historical" school of war movies]], alongside ''[[The Longest Day]]'', ''[[A Bridge Too Far]]'' and ''[[Battle of Britain|The Battle Of Britain]]''. The filmmakers didn't use the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a backdrop to a fictional story; the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the events leading to it, in their full sweep, ''is'' the story.

 

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* [[Armchair Military]] - The US top brass seem very reluctant to act on intelligence.

** [[Truth in Television]]. The US military of the time didn't believe the Japanese could actually mount a successful attack on the Pacific Fleet. They even ignored Claire Chennault's good intelligence on the now-infamous [[A 6 M]] Zero fighter, saying that an aircraft with such capabilities was impossible. Even directly after the attack, the top brass, soldiers, and even many civilians thought the Japanese only managed to carry out the attack with German help.

* [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant]]: [[Trope Namer]], and Admiral Yamamoto's memorable closing lines when he hears that America learned of the attack before they could deliver their official declaration of war.

* [[Battle Epic]]

* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]: It makes for a great movie line but there is no evidence that Admiral Yamamoto ever said the "sleeping giant" quote commonly attributed to him.

* [[Enforced Method Acting]] - A radio-controlled aircraft was supposed to roll down the runway past a bunch of extras, and then blow up. It went out of control and swerved toward the extras, who then really did start running for their lives.

* [[Every Bullet Is a Tracer]] - Inverted, oddly enough. There was tracer fire at Pearl Harbor, but not in this movie.

* [[Flat Character]] - One of the problems pointed out in reviews is that 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.

* [[Foregone Conclusion]] - Textbook example.

* [[Hollywood History]] - Largely averted, as the film attempts to portray real events realistically.

* [[Imperial Japan]] - arguably their finest hour, for a given value of "finest",

[[Category:Film]]

[[Category:Tora! Tora! Tora!]]