Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) on Netflix
Under an American trade embargo, Japan prepares for war, and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto plans a strike on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. In Washington, codebreakers monitor intercepted messages.
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Trailer
Plot summary
After the United States imposes a severe trade embargo, Japanese army leaders and politicians secure an alliance with Germany and Italy and prepare for war, over the navy's objections. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, appointed to command the Combined Fleet, concludes that Japan must strike first at the American Pacific fleet in Hawaii; Minoru Genda designs the operation and Mitsuo Fuchida is chosen to lead it. In Washington, intelligence officers Rufus S. Bratton and Alwin Kramer read intercepted Japanese radio traffic that reveals rising naval activity, but nothing in it says where Japan will attack. At Pearl Harbor, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel expands patrols, General Walter Short keeps his planes bunched on the runways to guard against sabotage, and Japan's ambassador continues negotiations to buy time.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Japanese side was initially to be directed by Akira Kurosawa, who worked on script development and pre-production for two years, but after two weeks of shooting he was replaced by Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku.
- One of the film's crash sequences is not a special effect: a real Boeing B-17 suffered a jammed landing gear during filming, and the crew filmed its actual one-wheel emergency landing and used the real footage in the finished movie.
- There is no printed evidence that Yamamoto made the statement quoted in the film: producer Elmo Williams said he had found the line written in Yamamoto's diary, while screenwriter Larry Forrester said it came from a 1943 letter to the Admiralty in Tokyo that he cannot produce.
- Fleischer said a scene in which a P-40 model crashes into the middle of a line of P-40s was unintended, as it was supposed to crash at the end of the line, and the stuntmen involved were actually running for their lives.
- Richard Fleischer thought Kurosawa, a genius at film-making, was miscast on this film: it was not his style, he was uncomfortable directing that kind of movie, and he was not used to anyone questioning his budget or shooting schedule.
- During shots of the attack squadrons crossing Oahu a white cross can be seen standing on one of the mountainsides; the cross was actually erected after the attack, as a memorial to the victims.
- A 1994 survey conducted at the USS Arizona Memorial found that Tora! Tora! Tora! was the single most common source of what Americans knew about the Pearl Harbor attack.
- Toshiro Mifune had reportedly been scheduled to play Isoroku Yamamoto in the film, but he withdrew from the production when Kurosawa left the project.
