Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

Directed by

Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku, Richard Fleischer

Genre

war film

Country

United States, Japan

Runtime

2h 25m

Rated

G

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 605 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film shows the events before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor from both American and Japanese points of view. It follows military and political leaders on each side as tensions build toward the surprise strike.

methodicalrestrainedhistorically groundedtenselarge-scaledetailedsoberunflinching

What happens

Tora! Tora! Tora! (Japanese: トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, from both American and Japanese positions. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku. It features an ensemble cast, including Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, So Yamamura, E.G. Marshall, James Whitmore, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takahiro Tamura, Wesley Addy, and Jason Robards. It was both Masuda's and Fukasaku's first English-language film and first international co-production. The tora of the title, although literally meaning "tiger", is actually a two-syllable codeword that abbreviated the longer phrase totsugeki raigeki 突撃雷撃 ("lightning attack"), used by the invaders to indicate that complete surprise had been achieved. The film was released in the United States by 20th Century-Fox on September 23, 1970, and in Japan by the Toei Company 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 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 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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