What better date to take a fresh look at the ambitious war epic Tora! Tora! Tora! than on the seventieth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor? Meticulously researched and cleverly put together to show actions on both the American and Japanese sides of the incident, Tora! Tora! Tora! succeeds magnificently more often than not. True, some shortcuts in the storytelling have of necessity been taken, and one often wishes to linger in discussions that seem curtailed or not dramatically fleshed out, but on the whole, this 1970 reenactment of one of the pivotal events in U. S. history can still impress, shock, and astound.
Tora! Tora! Tora! (Blu-ray)
Directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 1970
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 145/149 minutes
Rating: G
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish, French; 4.0 English
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish, French
Region: A
MSRP: $34.98
Release Date: December 6, 2011
Review Date: December 7, 2011
The Film
4/5
Irritated by the United States’ disagreements with them over their continuing war with China and their embargoes levied against them after signing an agreement with Germany, Japan’s officials hatch a plan to disable the American naval fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Intelligence sources suggest to certain ranking American Navy and Army officials that Japan plans an attack of some kind, but complacency and a number of mistakes lead the military to disregard warning signs that the fleet is vulnerable leading to a well-planned and letter perfect attack on December 7, 1941, that is a stirring defeat for America even if the damage wrought by the Japanese isn’t quite as extensive as they had planned.
With separate directors helming the American and Japanese viewpoints on their parts in the attack, the movie is a remarkably consistent patchwork quilt of double-sided stories which maintain the viewer’s interest for almost two and a half hours. On the American side, Richard Fleischer does an able job portraying the snippy rivalry between the Army and Navy and documents well the almost ridiculous series of mistakes (some of which involve the acknowledged hubris of various ranking military officers) which allows the Japanese plan to work. He also directs the film’s most astonishing unexpected moment, both funny and chilling, when a female flight instructor giving lessons to her young student on the morning of the fateful attack is casually going about her business as the Japanese bomber squadron approaches from behind. The attack itself is a brilliant set piece, as beautifully staged as any modern film that features warlike attacks, and all of it accomplished using real planes and locations or skillfully wrought miniatures (the film won the Oscar for special effects due mostly to the fantastic work in this almost half hour sequence). The Japanese sequences were originally to be directed by Akira Kurosawa who was replaced after three weeks by Toshio Masuda (dramatic scenes) and Kinji Fukasaku (action sequences). They reveal that the Army-Navy rivalry wasn’t restricted to the U.S. side of the equation (the Navy did not want to align with Germany), and show some of the same doubts and heroic acts on the Japanese side of the story with boldness but with an unsettling sense of dread at the monster they fear they have awakened.
With so many characters at work on the complicated scenario that made the successful attack possible, no one actor stands out. Doing sturdily admirable work, however, are E. G. Marshall as Lt. Col. Rufus S. Bratton, the prescient officer who predicted the attack a week before it actually happened, Wesley Addy as Lt. Cmdr. Alwin D. Kramer who works closely with Bratton on decoding Japanese messages, Soh Yamamura as Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto who heads the operation, and especially two charismatic actors Tatsuya Mihashi as Cmdr. Minoru Genda who came up with the scrupulously worked-out plan of attack and Takahiro Tamura playing Lt. Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida who actually leads the attack.
Video Quality
4.5/5
The film’s Panavision theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Despite an occasional soft or dated looking shot, most of the image quality is really first-rate with excellent sharpness and color that is very pleasingly saturated without overkill. Flesh tones are very realistic. Black levels aren’t the deepest, but they’re more than adequate. The film in both the theatrical and extended versions has been divided into 31 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The transfer’s repurposed DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix might not have quite the sophistication of a modern movie soundtrack, but this aggressive and dynamic sound design is more than satisfactory. There’s extensive use of all available channels (though some pans through the surrounds don’t correspond with what we’re seeing on the screen), and the LFE channel is especially active and robust especially in the film’s last half hour. Dialogue might not always be as discernible as one might like; it’s occasionally drowned out by sound effects and music and sometimes a bit garbled in the recording, but on the whole is well done
Special Features
4.5/5
The audio commentary is hosted by Japanese film scholar Stuart Galbraith who guides elderly director Richard Fleischer through a series of questions and answers which he mostly answers in rather broad, generalized terms (understandably since it was done thirty years after the film premiered). Be prepared for lots of dry patches through the lengthy film. The commentary is available only with the theatrical version of the movie.
The disc offers both the theatrical cut of the movie and the extended Japanese release (which runs about four minutes longer).
All of the video features are presented in 480i.
“Day of Infamy” is a 20 minute documentary detailing the historical information about the results of the attack and also offers a brief history of the U.S. use of Hawaii as a naval base.
“History Vs. Hollywood” is an extensive 90 ¼-minute making of documentary produced for the History Channel in 2001. Narrated by Burt Reynolds, the feature goes into great depth about every aspect of the production and features comments from production personnel as well as film and military historians well versed on the history of the movie and the attack including actual participants in the day’s events.
“AMC Backstory: Tora! Tora! Tora!” is another in the excellent series of brief documentaries produced for AMC about the production of various Fox movies going into the film’s three year production with its various problems being stressed and the film’s rather luckwarm reception on its 1970 release. This runs 22 minutes.
There are two art galleries available: a behind-the-scenes gallery and a production gallery in which images advance on their own or can be stepped through by the user.
A series of ten Fox Movietone News shorts, all dealing with the attack and subsequent military action, can be watched individually or in one 39 ¾-minute grouping.
The film’s original theatrical trailer runs 3 ¾ minutes in 4:3.
The disc is housed in a digibook package which includes a 22-page book detailing the film’s production and biographies of the attack's major participants and the major actors who play them.
In Conclusion
4.5/5 (not an average)
Tora! Tora! Tora! is a film whose reputation has only gained in the years since its initial release. A first-rate docudrama of events surrounding the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the film has been given an excellent Blu-ray release complete with digibook packaging and interesting bonus features ported over from previous DVD releases. Highly recommended!
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC