Tora! Tora! Tora! *** (1970, Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, James Whitmore, Jason Robards, Edward Andrews, Leon Ames, George Macready) – Classic Movie Review 8412

Director Richard Fleischer’s 1970 Tora! Tora! Tora! is a huge-budget wartime disaster movie that re-creates the whole story of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday  7 December 1941, as US code breakers work in Washington, while Japan’s war experts plan their attack strategy.

Experienced acting troopers Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, James Whitmore, Jason Robards, Edward Andrews, Leon Ames, George Macready, Sô Yamamura, Takahiro Tamura, E G Marshall and Wesley Addy head the impressive cast, but they often get lost among the explosive special effects.

Fleischer directs mostly, though scenes from a Japanese viewpoint were handled by Japanese directors Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku.

Tora! Tora! Tora! is long, tense and involving with a destructive climax that still carries a punch. It is written by Larry Forrester, Hideo Oguni and Ryûzô Kikushima, based on Tora! Tora! Tora! by Gordon W Prange and The Broken Seal by Ladislas Farago. The title apparently means: ‘Tiger, Tiger, Tiger – attack launched’.

Tora! Tora! Tora! won one Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects (A D Flowers and L B Abbott), with four other nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Sound and Best Film Editing.

Also in the cast are Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasuki, Tatsuya Mihashi, Eijirô Tôno, Shôgo Shimada, Frank Aletter, Koreya Senda and Jun Usami.

Akira Kurosawa was sacked as the film’s original director.

Tora! Tora! Tora! is directed by Richard Fleischer, Ray Kellogg (second unit director), Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, runs 144 minutes or 148 minutes (Extended Japanese Edition 2009), is made by Twentieth Century Fox, Elmo Williams-Richard Fleischer Production, and Toei Company, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Larry Forrester, Hideo Oguni and Ryûzô Kikushima, based on Tora! Tora! Tora! by Gordon W Prange and The Broken Seal by Ladislas Farago, is shot by Charles F Wheeler, is produced by Darryl F Zanuck (executive producer), Richard Fleischer and Elmo Williams, is scored by Jerry Goldsmith and is designed by Richard Day and Jack Martin Smith, with Special Visual Effects by A D Flowers and L B Abbott.

Despite its age and slightly wobbly, less than seamless Visual Effects, it is a considerably better film than the 2001 Pearl Harbor.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8412

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