Review of Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) by Juhani L — 29 Dec 2009

Splendid historical movie about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, leading to the involvement of the Americans in WWII. Once again, the makers of a grand war movie went out of their way to create a highly realistic film full of special effects (compliments to the pyrotechnics department are in order).

I was very intrigued by the multitude of explosions and the ongoing roar of the bombers. The other interesting thing about Tora! Tora! Tora! is the way in which it makes well-known historical facts more insightful.

It even feels as if there is some kind of universal value/lesson to be drawn from the way the armed conflict comes about. Both parties spend a lot of time on the preliminaries of the attack. While the Japanese are dealing with conflicting views on the matter within their own camp (confused even further by the enigmatic contributions of the Emperor), the Americans make painstaking attempts to fathom the plans of their adversaries.

And when it comes to the crunch, an accumulation of miscommunications incites a war that nobody really wanted. One wonders if this isnâ??t true for so many other military conflicts as well. Great acting by both the American and he Japanese actors (and so realistic, with the Japanese speaking their native language all the way through), spiced up by matching musical score.

To conclude, I found it good to see that the Japanese were not portrayed as mere monsters, but as human beings who are just as confused as anyone would be under the circumstances.