Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)

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1. 

   Public Enemy

   Sounds like Ebert was one of the reviewers that didn't get that it was a docudrama and not meant to be a shoot em up action film. 8 years 10 months ago
2. 

   DisneyStitch

   It's probably a long wait for the average moviegoer before the action begins but I think it is worth it. They certainly managed to get their hands on enough vehicles, ships, and aircraft from the WWII era to make it look authentic. The entire attack sequence is well filmed and the Arizona's artillery battery blowing sky high is probably the highlight. Though there is one part of the movie that is pretty spectacular, at 2:02:36 a stunt actor trips and hits the ground hard and is nearly run over by an exploding airplane. I re-watched it a half dozen times, incredible. 6 years 8 months ago
3. 

   Siskoid

   Tora! Tora! Tora! was a bold project. Recreating the attack on Pearl Harbor with an American directing the American parts, and Japanese directors on the Japanese side of things. The resulting procedural docu-drama isn't particularly stylish (though I do wonder what, if anything, survived of the apparently frustrating 3 weeks of shooting by Kurosawa), but it does offer a balanced take on the events. The film is very much in the shadow of the Vietnam war, with Japanese elements quite against starting this war, and the U.S. failure preventable if not for a mix of complacency, incompetence, obstinate arrogance, and Roosevelt essentially wanting something to happen to get into the war. Tracking the mistakes and seeing military leaders struggle with the spectre of war is what kept me invested. And then we have the recreation of the attack itself, shot mostly for real, looks like, and in cinematic history, on par with Ben-Hur's charriot race, i.e. THE reason for watching the movie even if you don't care about the preceding matter. Except I did care about the preceding matter. A riveting historical document. 4 years 2 months ago

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