TORA! TORA! TORA! U.S. • JAPAN (1970)

Directors , , Toshio Masuda Producer Screenplay Larry Forrester, Hideo Oguni, Ryuzo Kikushima Cinematography Charles Wheeler, Sinsaku Himeda, Masamichi Satch, Osami Furuya Music Jerry Goldsmith Cast Martin Balsam, Soh Yamamura, Jason Robards, Tatsuya Mihashi, E. G. Marshall

The title Tora! Tora! Tora! originates from the first syllables of totsugeki (“attack” in Japanese) and raigeki (“torpedo attack”) and the resulting “to-ra” sound has the same pronunciation as the Japanese word for tiger repeated three times: Tora! Tora! Tora! You won’t learn this from the film however, since it doesn’t bother to tell you. It also won’t tell you how and why, exactly, Japan decided to side with Germany and attack “the sleeping giant” of America in World War II. Since many Japanese officers are presented as being opposed to the war, the only reasoning seems to lie with the “hotheads” higher up, which we never see—though this does go some way toward explaining the film’s positive reception in Japan. As for the American side, the It was a big hit Pearl Harbor fiasco (as is depicted here) seems to have been in Japanese made possible by the tiresome bureaucracy and too much self- cinemas but a flop confidence among some of the people in charge. in America. The In theory, the idea of a two-sided account of what led to high regard of Pearl Harbor is an excellent one (and precedes a similar attempt modern critics and subsequent VHS at dealing with the America-Japan conflict in World War II by and DVD releases Clint Eastwood by more than three decades). In practice, the have ensured Japanese episodes do not really add much to the movie, but at its immortality.

The 1970s 229 least are livelier than their American counterparts, with protagonists who seem more human. Luckily, the film eschews the melodramatic excess of the later versions, such as Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor, and sticks to the facts (to the extent that they were known at the time of production). Tora! Tora! Tora! was an official, military-approved version, and as such its main preoccupation was in reconstructing who “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Admiral Yamamoto

did and said what when. It was not interested in individuals and did not aim to provide drama or suspense related to rounded characters; rather, it dealt with grand gestures placed in a large scope. As an almost-documentary reconstruction it is not without value, especially in the climactic scenes of the partial destruction of the American Pacific fleet. A big budget for the time (estimated 25 million) enabled a convincing depiction of the large scale devastation, and its pyrotechnics, models, miniatures and visual effects have stood the test of time. With an overblown budget and a troubled production— The film was departed in the early stage of shooting, deliberately cast replaced by the stalwart of Japanese yakuza action dramas, the with little-known great Kinji Fukasaku—at the time of its release it flopped in actors, on both the American and America. In retrospect, Tora! Tora! Tora! seems pretty close to Japanese sides. being the most accurate version of this story ever made. DO

230 The 1970s