Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7924 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-06-04
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 138 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Here is just one of the many mishaps chronicled in Tora! Tora! Tora!: "Sir, there's a large formation of planes coming in from the north, 140 miles, 3 degrees east." "Yeah? Don't worry about it." The epic film shows the bombing of Pearl Harbour from both sides in the historic first American-Japanese coproduction: American director Richard Fleischer oversaw the complicated production (the Japanese sequences were directed by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, after Akira Kurosawa withdrew from the film), wrestling a sprawling story with dozens of characters into a manageable, fairly easy-to-follow film. The first half maps out the collapse of diplomacy between the nations and the military blunders that left naval and air forces sitting ducks for the impending attack, while the second half is an amazing re-creation of the devastating battle. While Tora! Tora! Tora! lacks the strong central characters that anchor the best war films, the real star of the film is the climactic 30-minute battle, a massive feat of cinematic engineering that expertly conveys the surprise, the chaos and the immense destruction of the only attack by a foreign power on American soil since the Revolutionary war. The special effects won a well-deserved Oscar, but the film was shut out of every other category by, ironically, the other epic war picture of the year, Patton. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

Video Description
Extra Features:
Director/Japanese Film Historian Audio Commentary
Original Theatrical Trailer - "The Longest Day"
Theatrical Trailer - "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
Theatrical Trailer - "Patton"
Language: English 4.1
Subtitles: Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and English
for the hearing impaired.

Synopsis
A Japanese-American co-production, director Richard Fleischer (SOYLENT GREEN) and two Japanese directors put together this ultrarealistic account of the bombing of Pearl Harbor as presented from the perspectives of both nations, as diplomatic tensions rise between the two countries. While the Japanese military plans its attack on American military installations, the American forces nearly stumble into a much greater calamity due to a series of errors and mistakes. As the two sides plunge closer to war, the tension escalates until the final, spectacular air raid, arguably the most realistic ever filmed. This ITA award winner has a fabulous cast, including Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, Jason Robards, James Whitmore, and E.G. Marshall.

Customer Reviews

Worth watching several times
Now that all the hoopla is over as to which is the best Pearl Harbor film we can concentrate on "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970) this recreation of the Day of Infamy.
Naturally there will always be those people that are not satisfied with the accuracy of this recreation. And there is the compromise of having both sides of the story in one film.
Other than a will paced film that keeps your attention, the real surprise is all the DVD goodies. The most important is the running narrative. It does some of the explaining of the differences between this film and reality without making excuses. After watching first with out the narrative, then with the narrative, it is time to watch it again and notice the points made on how the scenes were shot, the people picked and how they attempted to make the bulk of the film comply with history as we remember.
It does not make sense to repeat the narrative or the story in this review. Let's just say you will not be disappointed with the movie

Pearl Habour-No comparison
Want to watch a proper film about Pearl Harbour, then this is it. No horrendous love story or made-up facts, and unusually a fair portrail of both sides. You'll never have to even think of watching Affleck and Beckinsale again.

Brilliant
This is a great film based on the facts about pearl harbour, unlike other war films which make it up. If you like this you would like 'The Longest Day' which is probaly the best war film ever!