By now Pearl Harbor has been assaulted so many times on film that historians have lost count. Images fabricated for the movies have been presented on the news as the real thing. Documentaries cheerfully masquerade reenactments of the attack as original footage, and a score of famous actors have participated in the defense.
"Tora! Tora! Tora!" aims for honesty and verisimilitude at the expense of drama, which is perhaps a noble goal. The producers intentionally left out the big-name stars and fictional characters and subplots of "From Here to Eternity", instead focusing on the real historical figures: Japanese Admirals Yamamoto and Nagumo, and various American generals and so on. Their names pop up on screen in case you're not already familiar with them. Like a lot of epic war films of the time, it's not about the characters.
And that would be tolerable if the movie wasn't so execrably boring for the first half. You find yourself eagerly anticipating the destruction of the American fleet just so that you can see something happen. The interminable build-up to the Day of Infamy divides its time between both sides: in Hawaii and Washington an endless parade of gray-haired officers and politicians discuss plans and strategies, while the Japanese train and prepare for the attack. The Japanese segments are better, the characters more sympathetic, and the script more nuanced, with a gradual build-up of tension abetted by Jerry Goldsmith's understated score.
It's not every movie that gets you rooting for the wrong team through sheer incompetence. While it's not a bad movie, the only reason to watch it is for the airplanes and the spectacularly staged climax. Pearl Harbor might have been an infamous defeat for the USA, but it was a rousing success for the Empire of Japan -- unfortunately, it's the latter feeling that comes across the clearest.
"Tora! Tora! Tora!" aims for honesty and verisimilitude at the expense of drama, which is perhaps a noble goal. The producers intentionally left out the big-name stars and fictional characters and subplots of "From Here to Eternity", instead focusing on the real historical figures: Japanese Admirals Yamamoto and Nagumo, and various American generals and so on. Their names pop up on screen in case you're not already familiar with them. Like a lot of epic war films of the time, it's not about the characters.
And that would be tolerable if the movie wasn't so execrably boring for the first half. You find yourself eagerly anticipating the destruction of the American fleet just so that you can see something happen. The interminable build-up to the Day of Infamy divides its time between both sides: in Hawaii and Washington an endless parade of gray-haired officers and politicians discuss plans and strategies, while the Japanese train and prepare for the attack. The Japanese segments are better, the characters more sympathetic, and the script more nuanced, with a gradual build-up of tension abetted by Jerry Goldsmith's understated score.
It's not every movie that gets you rooting for the wrong team through sheer incompetence. While it's not a bad movie, the only reason to watch it is for the airplanes and the spectacularly staged climax. Pearl Harbor might have been an infamous defeat for the USA, but it was a rousing success for the Empire of Japan -- unfortunately, it's the latter feeling that comes across the clearest.