For years Hollywood has made movies that boosted morale rather than portrayed the truth (more or less) of what happened during historical events. Recently TV series have taken to correcting that but perhaps gone overboard. So where, other than through diligent research, can one find out information about these events? Sorry but that is the only way. But on occasion film makers do attempt to give you as much truth as possible. TORA TORA TORA is one of those films.
The movie recreates not just the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked but the events that led up to it days prior. It also presents the events from both sides of the Pacific, what the Japanese were thinking and planning and how the U.S. bumbled things with its bureaucratic red tape. Could things have played out differently? According to this film, yes.
The film shows a peacetime Pacific where preparations were being made on the chance the Japanese might start something. New island commander Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short (Jason Robards) does things his way. His biggest concern at the time was sabotage and spies on the island. This led to numerous errors on his part that involved things like placing the planes close together so they could be watched easier instead of further apart where they could take off if the island was attacked. No one believed that could happen.
Adm. Husband Kimmel (Martin Balsam) does his best to stay on top of things but communications between the island and the mainland were not top priority it seems. Messages he sends along to the mainland are passed from hand to hand without priority. The same is true of information passed along from office to office in Washington. A note of a decrypted message between the Japanese would have given those on the island ample time to prepare for the attack. It sat in a going out tray at a telegraph office because the military communication system was down at the time.
The Japanese were no better off. While the military command was all ready to go to war, they were being blocked by government officials on their end. These same officials bungled their own jobs as well. The biggest example is when the ambassador in Washington is supposed to deliver a declaration of war to the U.S. at a predetermined time. It doesn't happen because the typist is taking too long to type the declaration and then their meeting gets pushed back. Had it happened on schedule the sneak part of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor wouldn't have happened.
The movie focuses on many of these points but to simply have bureaucrats walk down hallways and pass messages along would result in one boring film. It moves back and forth between the planning on the side of the Japanese and the red tape functions of the military on our side. But the film makers spared little expense when it came to depicting the attack. A combination of archive footage, models, miniatures and more were used to recreate the devastation of that day and you feel pure terror along with those onboard the ships that sank. It never lingers on gruesomeness but does make you realize what happened that day.
The movie has just been released in blu-ray format and the picture offered is clean, sharp and well done. Extras include looking back at what it took to make this film behind the scenes and historical pieces as well.
Made during the last days of the Vietnam War and during when anti-war protests were the rage, it was a bold thing for a studio to do in 1970. But the movie doesn't encourage or defend war; it just shows what happened on that day in 1941. Unlike the recent Pearl Harbor film, this one doesn't focus on fictional characters to present what happened but instead focuses on the story of Pearl Harbor itself. And with a generation of children growing up who have no idea what it meant, this is a movie that they should make a point of viewing.
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