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Summary: Forget Pearl Harbor Watch this "Gem" instead
Review: The new released PEARL HARBOR took pains to be "politically correct." and unoffensive to the Japan's film market. If they really wanted to make a great movie on the subject, they would have studied this film. The performances are great from Martin Balsam's Admiral Kimbel to Toshio Mifune's Admirial Yamamoto the action is believeable and the story told from both the perspective of Japan and the US hits the nail on the head. We see the development of the plan, the mistakes leading to the failures of Kimbel and most importantly we see the film in such a way that we understand this battle on both side was fought by Men, not monsters. The all star cast delivers, the battle scenes deliver and the message delivers. Instead of dropping dough on dinner and a bad movie, Get takeout and see a really good film.
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Summary: "AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR THIS IS NO DRILL"
Review: IF you have not seen this film do so so. Its very good and is not cluttered with a love story or fictional people. GOOD FILM
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Summary: A Must for any film history buff!
Review: I have not seen the new Pearl Harbor film yet. I am sure it is good and I am sure the attack parts are awesome. But let us not forget the great Tora Tora Tora. Historically accurate and showing us both sides Tora Tora Tora is an awesome look at what happened when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.The new DVD is awesome. The film looks great and the extra documentary is very good too. The commentary is great also. Especially the parts focusing on why Akira Kurosarwa was fired from the film. Again, its not 2001 age special effects, but a great movie about an important moment in history. I have always loved this film and am glad to have it on DVD, especially this special edition. This is a must own-DVD!
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Summary: Pearl Harbor will not be as good as Tora,Tora,Tora.
Review: American and Japan film makers both worked on this film, one of the most historically accurate ones ever done, on the Japaneese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Excellient combination of live action film with actors, and the models of the battleships in port look very realistic. Quite a few familar actors in this movie also; Martin Balsam, James Whitmore, Jason Robards, Richard Anderson, to name only a few.
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Summary: If you have this dvd... don't buy the re-release
Review: Excellent and well made film with incredible stunts and special effects.It's amazing no stuntmen were killed on the set (although two died during rehearsal prior to filming). Made in 1970 as a joint Japanese/American production at a cost between 25 and 30 million dollars . Every scene is meticulously re-created from historical records, including most of the dialogue.The attack was filmed before the advent of computer animation, which makes it even more amazing. This dvd was re-released with the director's commentary which is very boring and prodding, with very little insight into the making of the film and ignores commentary scene by scene. You'd think they weren't even watching the film! I bought this re-release (already had the original dvd with no special features) for the commentary and was extremely dissappointed.(I hate it when dvd's are re-released with new special features!) I guess they penalize the diehards by making us buy the dvd over and over again.Regardless, this is the BEST film ever made about Pearl Harbor. No mention of a Roosevelt conspiracy - (as it should be, since the conspiracy theory has major flaws) and no, I'm not a Roosevelt lover or hater. I believe in documentation, not conjecture and speculation. "Just the facts please"... which is what this film is all about.
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Summary: tora tora tora
Review: everytime U.S. talks about cutbacks this flim should be watch
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Summary: Excellent and authentic down to the last detail.....
Review: I'm not a big war-movie buff any more (THE SEARCH FOR PRIVATE RYAN cured me) but this is a worthwhile film if you have an interest in WWII. TORA! TORA! TORA! is a documentary-type film. Think of it as a Stephen Ambrose book recorded live. The film is neither a glorified fifties war-film (IN HARMS WAY, BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA), nor is it a Viet Nam noir-war film (PLATOON, THE DEER HUNTER). (Neither of which are particularly authentic.) TORA! TORA! TORA! recreates war from the perspective of news correspondent-participant-observer. The story is presented from both the Japanese and American viewpoints and it is presented like a History Channel film. It took the film crew several months to film TORA! TORA! TORA! I was living in Navy housing on Pearl Harbor at the time and a number of our friends and acquaintences found part-time jobs acting in the film. "Real" military pilots in-between rounds in Viet Nam flew some of the planes (this was 1969). Much of the architecture in Honolulu was vintage WWII era or earlier and the rest of the island was relatively unchanged from the 1940s. The terrain looked very much as it had when my father-in-law passed through on his way to Guadalcanel and later Iwo Jima. I cannot tell you the names of the aircraft (my husband could) but I was told that they used real aircraft from the period including the P40s the U.S. flew and the captured Zeros the Japanese flew. We drove up to Schoffield Barracks to look at the old airplanes lined up row on row. During the filming, one of these old planes crashed in a sugar cane field and burned up before the pilot could be rescued. The daily flights overhead, the real crashes, the reenactment of the destruction in the harbor, the daily flights in and out of Hickam as men and material destined for Viet Nam left and wounded and dead arrived--was all very weird. Well, this is an excellent film. The new PEARL HARBOR relies on all sorts of technology, but if you want to see how Hawaii really looked in 1941 and how the planes really looked, and how the crews really looked, and obtain some sense of how terrifying it was to be in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 this is the film to see.
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Summary: Great historical movie about Pearl Harbor
Review: I bought this video several years ago and have always been amazed how realistic it is. I can't wait for the new one to come out this year. See this movie if you haven't already. Great acting, story, the battle scene is unrivaled. No wonder they copied scenes for other movies like Midway and the Final Countdown.
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Summary: Fantastic re-creation of attack on Pearl Harbor!
Review: I've seen this film any number of times and my prevailing thought is "utterly unbelieveable"! I refer to, of course, the final attack on Pearl Harbor during the last 30 minutes of the film. The oscar winning special effects are among the finest ever seen in any movie in the history of Hollywood. The Japanese sequences depicting the events leading up to the attack are well directed and acted, while the US seqences depicting an ingnorant American staff of officers "I want confirmation", " ...well...don't worry about it", "sir, may I recommend you telephone Admiral Kimmel in Hawiai"-"no....I'd better phone the President first...now if you all would please exuse me" and other such dialogue provides a stark contrast to the Japanese segments. All in all, this DVD is not to be missed by anyone, American, Japanese or any other nationality who has any interest at all in WWII.
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Summary: The tragic and heroic elements of the Day of Infamy
Review: "Tora! Tora! Tora!" is the story of the attack on Pearl Harbor as told from both the American and Japanese sides in almost a documentary style. The American segments were directed by Richard Fleischer while Kinji Fukasaku ended up replacing Akira Kurosawa for the Japanese segments. Both sides of the story are played out not so much by an all-star cast as a collection of some of these best character actors on both side of the Pacific: Martin Balsam, E.G. Marshall, Jason Robards on the one hand, Soh Yamamura, Tatsuya Mihashi and Takahino Tamura on the other. The counter-point between the two sides of the story is quite effective, with the careful planning, preparation and execution of the attack by the Japanese contrasted with the chain of fatal mistakes made by the Americans. As a historical primer on the attack the film covers all of the excruciatingly painful details, from the radar operators dismissing the large incoming blip on their screens to General Marshall out riding his horse at the absolutely worst time, from a stubborn insistence upon "confirmation" of submarine sightings to the fumbling typist in the Japanese embassy trying frantically to complete his final message that must be delivered before the attack begins. E. G. Marshall as Colonel Rufus G. Bratton gets the Cassandra role in this film, the intelligence officer convinced there is going to be an attack but who cannot get anyone to listen to him until it is too late. However, the film is so balanced in its presentation that you cannot help but feel for Ambassador Nomura, who misses the deadline and must still deliver the fatal letter to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" certainly achieved its goal of being a film that could be played in both countries without complaints from either side. I find it hard to believe that the upcoming theatrical release of "Pearl Harbor" would even come close to this standard. This is the first film to focus primarily on the Pearl Harbor attack, with previous efforts using the battle as the start ("In Harm's Way") or the end ("From Here to Eternity") of a more personal journey. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" somewhat disproves the old adage, because not only does it show the "many fathers of success" on the Japanese side, it quite clearly refutes the idea "failure is an orphan" by laying the blame clearly on their American military counterparts. This is by no means a controversial telling of the tale, so you will not find anything suggesting FDR knew about the attack and allowed it to make Americans angry enough to go to war. This is a film purporting to show "what really happened" and leaves notions of heroism up to the audience. In keeping with this approach, the importance of this particular moment in history is underscored not by angry Americans shouting "Remember Pearl Harbor!' but by Admiral Yamamoto's understatement: "I fear all we have down is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Final note: Several stunt people were killed during the filming of "Tora! Tora! Tora!," and it is difficult to watch some of the stunts involving planes crashing into each other without wondering if what you are seeing is one of the stunts from which someone did not walk away. This is ironically appropriate given the film's subject matter.
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