Tora! Tora! Tora! Special Edition
 

I've seen this movie so many times it became boring. However I saw this special edition THX certified for cheap resale at movie rental store, so I bought it.
Wow! The picture & sound quality are excellant. A breath of life to an old movie. I think I'll watch it again for Remembrance Day.
Anyone else have this edition?

I have it on VHS. We lose everytime. I prefer Midway.

I can still remember seeing that flick at the thater when it first came out...in "Sensurround", or whatever it was. Damn cool, the opening scene when the planes were firing up their engines, rocked the theater.

Actually, I think it was Midway...sorry.

They're both good flicks and probably the only two I can think of where they more or less get it right historically. Midway does drop the ball historically regarding the internees.

When Tora x3 came out, the subtitles were white. It was a pain to read on the many white backgrounds. The new DVDs have yellow titles. Very easy to see. Its a fine film today. When it came out, it did little business.

From "The Hollywood Hall of Shame" Medved, 1984.

Much to the chagrin of Fox president Darryl Zannuck, U.S. audiences resisted the charms of a picture that emphasized the enemy point of view in re-enacting the most disastrous episode in the history of the American military. Tora! grossed only $14.5 million domestically, so despite the fact that it proved to be a major hit in (surprise!) Japan, Fox fell at least $8 million short of breaking even.

I saw it in the theater as a kid. Thought it was brilliant. Of course, American audiences wouldn't like it. Instead, the story of one of the more compelling events in history had to be told as BACKGROUND to a typical romance (yawn). But I can't slam it too hard. I didn't see "Pearl Harbor." Didn't bother with "Titanic" either. No offense to Leo DiCaprio.

Yea but it does not really do that. It shows the lead up to the attack on both sides without justifying or making excuses for the Japanese. Indeed I would say the theme of the movie is stupidity on both sides of the Pacific. The Americans were stupid for not being better prepared and the Japanese were stupid for taking on an enemy that, in retrospect, they had almost no hope of defeating.

Considering the American aircraft carriers were not at Pearl and thus escaped destruction and also that most of the damaged ships were up and running in a few months, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a huge psychological victory, but ultimately a strategic failure.

Agreed. Don't get me wrong, I am all American but if we are discussing pure strategy, the Japanese should have gone for it and invaded Hawaii. They could have controlled the Pacific, kept their supply lines open and stayed in the war much longer than they did. At the very minimum, they should have destroyed the oil depot with a second strike. I still think the inevitable outcome would have been an American victory, judging by the number of carriers and ships we produced during 1943-45.

I don't know. Hawaii is pretty far from Japan and they were already stretched thin by occupying a lot of Asia. I think the purpose of it was, as Yamamoto had advised, to hit us hard to that we would back off and let them do their thing. He knew that it was foolhardy and had only a microscopic chance of succeeding and he was right. Indeed he knew early on which is where you get the infamous 'Sleeping Tiger' remark.

Of course, we have the benefit of hindsight. In 1941, Japan did look invincible to a lot of people.

I dow know. If the American carriers had been at Pearl Harbor the war IMO would have gone very different. It was fortunate that the carriers weren't there and that is because from what I gathered from the movie is that they expected Japan to attack but didn't know where, and definitely not Peart Harbor and they sent them out on more or less a scouting mission.
If the American carriers had been there and sunk it would have taken a few months to replace and Japan would have had free reign in the pacific to do as they wished. And an invasion of the mainland was probable.

I was serving in the Air Force during the filming to Tora Tora. I even sent a day as an extra and was paid $35! Mostly stood around but was in a chow hall shot. They spend more then a year filming that thing, with restored aircraft practicing for over a year, as I recall it was the most expensive move produced up to that time.

Lefty

To a large extent, yes. But only for a time.



In retrospect, I just do not see how they could have pulled that off. Japan was already occupying a lot of territory including Indochina, the Philippines, Honk Kong, Korea, China and lots of islands. They did not even have full control of China as both Mao and Chiang were waging regular and irregular resistance to the Japanese forces. All of that took a lot of manpower. They were stretched very thin.

Even if they took Hawaii, moving the navy close to the mainland would have been a potential slaughter for them. And moving an invasion force onto the mainland would have been a fool's errand as every American and Canadian over 8 years old would have been shooting at them. North America is big and as the found in China, it is not easy to occupy so large a land mass, so far from home.

At best, they would have emulated Hitler's initial success in Barbarossa. Early gains and then slaughter.

I have to agree with you on that, invading the mainland would have taken considerable effort with a precarious supply line. They may have attempted it later in the war if things went favorably for them. Hawaii for sure would have been invaded and they would've had total control over the pacific with an airbase there. And there would have been nothing the US could do to stop it.
I know, I've played Axis & Allies!::D