Movies recommended or seen lately... les films a voir #112: Tora! Tora! Tora!

Genre: War/Guerre

Annee/Year: 1970

Format: DVD

Tora! Tora! Tora! Most people are familiar with the war movie "Pearl Harbour" some love it for it's great special effects and others hate it for using this important storyline to get too personnal and become a love story. My opnion is that the most recent movie is quite entertaining and fun to watch. But that is not the topic today; we are here talking about the original movie on the same incident. Tora! X3 is a more serious movie from another era. The cinematography is great with lots of efforts of production for 1970. Yes the effects are more limited but there is no mistaking this as a great deployment movie. The soundtrack is excellent for the 70's and reminds me a lot of the Planet of the Apes first movie theme.

The story is following the historical facts and there is no main actor such as in "Pear Harbour". The heroes of the story are all the commanders and admirals who took part of this event. The movie is a bit harsh as it feels like a jury deliberation. It does give you a good felling about the events around this historical day while remaining highly entertaining. The movie is 40 years old this year but has aged relatively well and is still pleasant to watch. The cast is solid and the script as well. Gotta see for war movie buffs.

Ce film de guerre est la référence originale sur l'attaque de Pear Harbour. La nouvelle version des années 2000 est plus facile à voir et contient plus d'action et de meilleurs effets spéciaux, mais elle n'est pas aussi historiquement correcte. À voir pour les amateurs de films de guerre.

Great quotes:

[Halsey has been ordered to take his Task Force to Wake Island to deliver a squadron of fighters] Admiral Halsey: Kim, level with me. I want a clear directive... If I run into a Jap ship, what action do I take?
Admiral Kimmel: Use your common sense.
Admiral Halsey: That's the best damn order I ever had. [Halsey walks away, then turns around]
Admiral Halsey: If I see so much as a sampan near it, I'll blow it out of the water.
...
Telephone conversation from the radar station to the Information Center] Private George E. Elliott: Sir, this is Private Elliott at Opana Point. There's a large formation of planes coming in from the north - 140 miles, 3 degrees east.
Lieutnenant Kermit A. Tyler: Yeah? Well... Don't worry about it.
[Click!]
...
Lieutenant Kaminsky: [to Captain John Earle, who demanded confirmation of the attack before doing anything] You wanted confirmation, Captain? Take a look! There's your confirmation!
[Earle, horrified, looks out and sees several ships in flames]
...
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto: I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066473/fullcredits#cast

Rating perso: 7.0/10