Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

Great WW II action with notable period stars
This focus of this film is on the morning of Sunday, December 7th, 1941, the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor.

This movie is outstanding... just superb. You won't find better action footage in any WW II film and there's plenty of it too! We (Americans) clearly got our behinds tromped during the Pearl Harbor invasion but, because this is an American film, that facet of actuality is slightly played down, (micro victories by individuals are featured to counter our overall demise), as is Roosevelt's alleged desire to enter the war minimized, (my 90 year-old aunt asserts that FDR was Satan himself, I think mostly due to how our family members, during the conflict, were fruitlessly lost and suffered as POWs).

In any event, the scenes herein shift between Washington D.C. political activities and those of the Pearl Harbor principals. Of course, the Japanese planning and action sequences are similarly featured.

The film is shot in letterbox and runs 144 minutes in length. Excellent color saturation, with great casting (bulging with big period stars), top scenery, believeable script, 70 mm cinematography, and awesome sets all contribute to the aggregate success of this exceptional film. It's all very realistic and not hokey in any sense. A lot of the footage, where the Japanese are speaking, is subtitled in English but it's well-done and not at all distracting. Compare it to the German subtitles in "The Longest Day".

I can't convey enough good comments about this movie. If you are even just a casual movie viewer of common genres, you'll probably much enjoy this well-made historical film, albeit some dramatic artistic license was tastefully invoked by the directors, Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda .

I do recommend that you have the movie "Midway," (a sort of historic Act II), ready at hand to watch following "Tora! Tora! Tora!" the former of which is a similarly fine film.

A slow moving film but still interesting.
This film was a collaboration between Japanese and American filmmakers so its very accurate, the film shows us both sides of the story from their point of view which was very interesting and it was way better than that dreadful flick Pearl Harbor done by Michael Bay. The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 was one of the most significant events of the 20th century, the characters were played by Martin Balsam, Soh Yamamura, Joseph Cotton ect. The film starts of slow as we get to know all the details from the diplomatic maneuvering to the U.S. blunder that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor then the second half starts with the final battle sequence which was beautifully filmed. Tora! Tora! Tora! was the Japanese signal for the attack and the devastating events that follow afterwards, I thought it was a brilliant film and it was based on the real facts unlike that other film. If you liked this film then I highly recommend these other war films The Longest Day, Patton, Full Metal Jacket and Flag Of Our Fathers/Letters From Iow Jima.

Another great war move
Bought this for my husband. Tora! Tora! Tora! has to be one of the war movie classics of all time. He was thrilled to add this movie to his collection of war flicks.