Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

Directors:

Richard Fleischer
Kinji Fukasaku

Writers:

Larry Forrester (screenplay) &
Hideo Oguni (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

23 September 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

The incredible attack on Pearl Harbor.

Plot:

A dramatization of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the series of American blunders that allowed it to happen.

Plot Keywords:

Attack | Pearl Harbor | Japan | Hawaii | Navy

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 7 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Martin Balsam	...	Admiral Kimmel
Sô Yamamura	...	Admiral Yamamoto (as Soh Yamamura)
Joseph Cotten	...	Henry Stimson
Tatsuya Mihashi	...	Commander Genda
E.G. Marshall	...	Lt. Colonel Bratton
James Whitmore	...	Admiral Halsey
Takahiro Tamura	...	Lt. Commander Fuchida
Eijirô Tôno	...	Admiral Nagumo (as Eijiro Tono)
Jason Robards	...	General Short
Wesley Addy	...	Lt. Commander Kramer
Shogo Shimada	...	Ambassador Nomura
Frank Aletter	...	Lt. Commander Thomas
Koreya Senda	...	Prince Konoye
Leon Ames	...	Frank Knox
Junya Usami	...	Admiral Yoshida

Also Known As:

Tora! Tora! Tora!: The Attack on Pearl Harbor (Australia)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (Finland) [fi]
Tora! Tora! Tora! (France) [fr]
Tora! Tora! Tora! (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Tora! Tora! Tora! (Denmark) [da]
Tora, Tora, Tora (Spain) [es]

Runtime:

144 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | New Zealand:PG | Brazil:Livre | Australia:G (DVD rating) | Australia:PG (cable rating) | Finland:K-12 | Norway:16 (1972) | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | Taiwan:GP | UK:U | USA:G | West Germany:16 (f)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

In the movie's opening scenes, Admiral Yamamoto meets his officers aboard a battleship. The ship was a full scale replica, complete from bow to stern, and had even a mock-up floatplane on a catapult. It was built on a beach in Japan, next to the replica of the aircraft-carrier "Akagi." The Akagi set consisted of about two-thirds of the deck and the island area.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the Japanese planes are launching from their carrier on the morning of the attack, as the 3rd or 4th plane launches against the morning twilight, the head and camera of a cameraman can be seen silhouetted at the bottom of the screen.

Quotes:

Lt. Cmdr. Fuchida: Exceptional people get exceptional treatment!
Japanese Pilot: You outrank me, so it must be true.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Pranks and Greens (#21.6)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

The Star-Spangled Banner

If you really want to know what happened...

...see this film.

Whether you want to waste time seeing Brucheimer and Bay's self-indulgently long PEARL HARBOR with its totally extraneous fictional romance -- that's up to you. But whether you see it or not, the real history of the human stupidity on both sides of the Pacific that created the attack is clearly portrayed in TORA! TORA! TORA!

The new DVD edition has insightful commentary by the director plus a documentary about the attack. This film is tensely paced and displays and excellent cast. The Jerry Goldsmith score is kept to a minimum but is very effective. The special FX for the attack are all the more impressive considering they were done before the advent of computer generated FX such as those in PEARL HARBOR -- and they equal those of PEARL HARBOR.

If you want to know the real story, see this film and then also check out the companion stories in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, DESTINATION TOKYO, and THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO.