Tora! Tora! Tora!
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''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' () is a 1970
epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...
war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...
that dramatizes the events leading up to the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
in 1941, from both American and Japanese positions. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by
Richard Fleischer Richard Owen Fleischer (; December 8, 1916 – March 25, 2006) was an American film director. His career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. He was the ...
, Toshio Masuda and
Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking", Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty Yakuza film, yakuza films, typified by the Battles With ...
. It features an
ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...
, including
Martin Balsam Martin Henry Balsam (November 4, 1919 – February 13, 1996) was an American actor. He had a prolific career in character roles in film, in theatre, and on television. An early member of the Actors Studio, he began his career on the New ...
, Joseph Cotten, So Yamamura, E.G. Marshall,
James Whitmore James Allen Whitmore Jr. (October 1, 1921 – February 6, 2009) was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Ac ...
, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takahiro Tamura, Wesley Addy, and
Jason Robards Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he gained a reputation as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robards received numerous accola ...
. 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. The film was released in the United States by
Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
on September 23, 1970, and in Japan by the
Toei Company , simply known as Toei Company or Toei, is a Japanese entertainment company. Headquartered in Ginza, Chūō, Tokyo, it is involved in film and television production, distribution, video game development, publishing, and ownership of 34 movi ...
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 The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence i ...
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 The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...
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 September 1940, following a trade embargo imposed on a belligerent Japan by the United States a year prior, severely limiting raw materials, influential Japanese army figures and politicians push through an alliance with Germany and Italy, despite opposition from the Japanese navy, and prepare for war. The newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
Combined Fleet The was the main sea-going component of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Until 1933, the Combined Fleet was not a permanent organization, but a temporary force formed for the duration of a conflict or major naval maneuvers from various units norm ...
, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, reluctantly plans a pre-emptive strike on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...
, believing that Japan's best hope of controlling the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
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 was a Japanese Naval ranks of the Japanese Empire during World War II, captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber Air observer, observer in the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known fo ...
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. U.S. Army Col. Bratton and U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Kramer monitor the transmissions. 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 Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...
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 forays into the Pacific. On the day of the attack, Bratton and Kramer learn from intercepts that the Japanese planned 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. However, 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 George Catlett Marshall Jr. (31 December 1880 – 16 October 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army under pres ...
's order that Pearl Harbor be alerted of an attack is stymied by poor atmospherics that prevents 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. Two radar operators detect their approach to Hawaii, but the duty officer dismisses their concerns. 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, allowing the Japanese aerial forces to destroy aircraft on the ground easily. In Washington, Secretary of State
Cordell Hull Cordell Hull (October 2, 1871July 23, 1955) was an American politician from Tennessee and the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of State, holding the position for 11 years (1933–1944) in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevel ...
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 in the Pacific. 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


Japanese


Civilians


Production

Veteran
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
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 Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
. Orriss 1984, pp. 194–195. 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 was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...
, who worked on script development and
pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, video game, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the co ...
for two years. However, after two weeks of shooting, he was replaced by Toshio Masuda and
Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking", Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty Yakuza film, yakuza films, typified by the Battles With ...
, who directed the Japanese sections. Galbraith 2002, p. 156.
Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his commandin ...
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 The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
, 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. Parish 1990, p. 411. Four cinematographers were involved in the main photography: Charles F. Wheeler, Shinsaku Himeda, Masamichi Satoh, and Osamu Furuya."DVD Playback: 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'."
''ASC Magazine'', March 2012. Retrieved: January 19, 2013.
They were jointly nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Cinematography The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work on one particular motion picture. History In its first film season, 1927–28, this award (like others such as the acting awards) w ...
. A number of well-known cameramen also worked on the
second unit A second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming s ...
s without credit, including
Thomas Del Ruth Thomas Del Ruth (born May 1, 1942) is a retired American cinematographer. Biography Del Ruth was born in 1942 in Beverly Hills, California, as the son of film director Roy Del Ruth, and actress Winnie Lightner. He was educated at Van Nuys ...
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 Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was consid ...
composed the film score and Robert McCall painted several scenes for various posters of the film. 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 The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...
fighters and the somewhat longer "Kate" torpedo bombers or "Val" dive bombers were heavily modified
Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...
Harvard ( T-6 Texan) and BT-13 Valiant pilot training aircraft. The large fleet of Japanese aircraft was created by
Lynn Garrison Lynn Garrison (born April 1, 1937) is a Canadian pilot and political adviser. He was a Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot in the 403 Helicopter Operational Training Squadron, 403 City of Calgary Squadron, before holding jobs as a Commercial ...
, 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. 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 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 ''Akagi''s 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 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...
during filming, a result of a jammed landing gear, was used in the final cut. 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 The Consolidated Model 28, more commonly known as the PBY Catalina (U.S. Navy designation), is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft designed by Consolidated Aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. In U.S. Army service, it was designated as the OA- ...
and, especially, the
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter-bomber that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry ...
(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. 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. O'Hara 1969, p. 23. 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 The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...
'' where large formations of period-specific aircraft were filmed in staged aerial battles. The 2001 film ''
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...
'' would use some of the same modified aircraft.


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. Several members of the cast had themselves served in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Some crew members also served in the war. Some cast members served before or after World War II.


Historical accuracy

''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' is regarded highly by Pearl Harbor historians and survivors for its 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 The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...
. 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 A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
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. 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, ''Akagi''s bridge island is positioned on the
starboard Port and starboard are Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z), nautical terms for watercraft and spacecraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the Bow (watercraft), bow (front). Vessels with bil ...
side of the ship, which is typical on most aircraft carriers. However, ''Akagi'' was an exception; her bridge island was on the
port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...
side of the ship. Despite this, the bridge section appeared accurately as a mirrored version of ''Akagi''s real port-side bridge. Orriss 1984, p. 196. Secondly, all the Japanese aircraft in the footage bear the markings of ''Akagi''s 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. Robertson 1961, pp. 160–161. was an old "4-piper"
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
commissioned in 1918; the ship used in the movie, , which portrays ''Ward'', looked far different from the original destroyer. In addition, in the movie, she fired two shots from her #1
gun turret A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanis ...
. In reality, ''Ward'' fired the first shot from the #1 un-turreted gunmount and the second shot from the #3 wing mount. 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 The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...
section of a U.S. Navy
Standard-type battleship The Standard-type battleship was a series of thirteen battleships across five classes ordered for the United States Navy between 1911 and 1916 and commissioned between 1916 and 1923. These were considered super-dreadnoughts, with the ships of ...
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 A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
and ''Arizona''s stern section remained essentially intact. The film has a Japanese
Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...
fighter being damaged by U.S. Navy CPO John William Finn at Naval Air Station at Kāneʻohe Bay and then deliberately crashing into a hangar. This is actually a composite of three incidents during the
Pearl Harbor attack The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the ti ...
: 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 Finn shot and damaged the aircraft; also during the second wave, a damaged Japanese aircraft crashed into the seaplane tender . 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. The film also featured Mitsuo Fuchida and Minoru Genda asking Admiral Nagumo for a third strike, but like many of Fuchida's post war claims this has been called into question. Genda denied making such a request and he and Admiral Kusaka both denied that Fuchida did. 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 Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...
''. 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. Director Richard Fleischer stated that while Yamamoto may never have said those words, the film's producer, Elmo Williams, had found the line written in Yamamoto's diary. Williams, in turn, has stated that Larry Forrester, the screenwriter, found a 1943 letter from Yamamoto to the Admiralty in Tokyo containing the quotation. However, Forrester cannot produce the letter, nor can anyone else, American or Japanese, recall it or find it.


Release

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


Reception


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. Parish 1990, p. 412. The film had earned in Japanese distributor rentals by 1971, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1971 in Japan. According to Fox records, the film required in rentals to break even, and had done so by December 11, 1970.


Critical response

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds a 57% rating based on 30 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.""Movie Reviews for 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'."
''
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
.'' Retrieved: January 29, 2012.
On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
it has a score of 46% based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
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.
Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...
, reviewer for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', was similarly unimpressed, noting the film was "nothing less than a $25-million irrelevancy."Canby, Vincent
"Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)"
''The New York Times'', September 24, 1970. Retrieved: August 27, 2011.
'' Variety'' also found the film to be boring; however, the magazine praised the film's action sequences and production values.
Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the ...
in his review for the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' on September 23, 1970, considered the movie's chief virtues as a "spectacular", and the careful recreation of a historical event. Orriss 1984, p. 200. 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. Hardwick and Schnepf 1989, p. 62. 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 All or ALL may refer to: عرص Biology and medicine * Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer * Anterolateral ligament, a ligament in the knee * ''All.'', taxonomic author abbreviation for Carlo Allioni (1728–1804), Italian physician and pro ...
'' (film 1976), ''Pearl'' (TV mini-series 1978), ''
From Here to Eternity ''From Here to Eternity'' is a 1953 American romantic Drama (film and television)#War drama, war drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and written by Daniel Taradash, based on the 1951 From Here to Eternity (novel), novel of the same name by J ...
'' (TV mini-series 1979), '' The Final Countdown'' (1980), and ''
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
'' (2008) as well as the '' Magnum, P. I.'' television series episode titled "Lest We Forget" (first airdate February 12, 1981). 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."Binational Pearl Harbor."
''japanfocus''. Retrieved: February 12, 2012.
Clark Collis of ''
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
'' gave the film three out of five stars, writing that the film "is high on historical veracity but low on drama". 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. Reviewers called the film as being "meticulous" in its approach to dissecting the situation leading up to the attack. A reviewer called ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' a fine documentary-style film about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The usage of both American and Japanese filmmakers provides an unbiased film and unique viewing experience, and is uncommon in the genre. A 2018 article described the film as doing "a most memorable job in portraying the whole Pearl Harbor experience".https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/mori-arinori-and-japanese-education-1847-1889/ .


Awards and nominations


See also

*
List of American films of 1970 This is a list of American films released in 1970. Box office The highest-grossing American films released in 1970, by domestic box office gross revenue as estimated by '' The Numbers'', are as follows: January–March April–June Jul ...
*
Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
* ''Pearl Harbor'' (film) *
List of historical drama films This is an index of lists of historical films. By country of origin * List of Estonian war films * List of Polish war films * List of Romanian historical films * List of Russian historical films * List of Vietnamese historical films By er ...
* List of historical drama films of Asia


References


Sources

* Agawa, Hiroyuki. ''The Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy''. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2000. . * Dolan, Edward F. Jr. ''Hollywood Goes to War''. London: Bison Books, 1985. . * Galbraith, Stuart, IV. ''The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune.'' New York: Faber & Faber, Inc., 2002. . * Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." ''The Making of the Great Aviation Films''. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989. * Hathaway, John. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" ''Flying Review'', Vol. 25, No. 3, July 1969. * O'Hara, Bob. "Tora Tora Tora: A great historical flying film." ''Air Classics,'' Volume 6, No. 1, October 1969. * Carnes, Mark C. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" ''Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies''. New York: Holt, 1996. . * Orriss, Bruce. ''When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II''. Hawthorn, California: Aero Associates Inc., 2014, first edition 1984. . * Parish, James Robert. ''The Great Combat Pictures: Twentieth-Century Warfare on the Screen.'' Metuchen, New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, 1990. . * Prange, Gordon. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" ''Reader's Digest'', November 1963 and December 1963. * Robertson, Bruce. ''Aircraft Camouflage and Markings, 1907–1954''. London: Harleyford Publications, 1961. . * Shinsato, Douglas and Tadanori Urabe. ''For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor.'' Kamuela, Hawaii: eXperience, inc., 2011. . * Thorsten, Marie and Geoffrey White
"Binational Pearl Harbor?: Tora! Tora! Tora! and the Fate of (Trans)national Memory."
''The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus'', December 27, 2010.


External links

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Prange, Gordon W.

''Tora! Tora! Tora!''
a

(James Berardinelli) {{Authority control 1970 films 1970 war films American war films Japanese war films English-language Japanese films 1970s Japanese-language films Epic films based on actual events World War II aviation films Pacific War films Films directed by Kinji Fukasaku Films directed by Richard Fleischer Films set in 1939 Films set in 1940 Films set in 1941 Films set in Tokyo Films set in Washington, D.C. Films shot in Honolulu Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award Pearl Harbor films Seafaring films based on actual events World War II films based on actual events War epic films Films about the United States Navy in World War II 20th Century Fox films Toei Company films Films about the United States Army Air Forces American docudrama films Films scored by Jerry Goldsmith Films with screenplays by Hideo Oguni Films with screenplays by Ryuzo Kikushima Films with screenplays by Akira Kurosawa Seafaring films Films produced by Masayuki Takagi Historical epic films American epic films American multilingual films Japanese multilingual films Cultural depictions of Isoroku Yamamoto Japan in non-Japanese culture American World War II films Japanese World War II films Films set on aircraft carriers 1970s American films 1970s Japanese films Japanese-language war films