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Tora! Tora! Tora! is one of the most boring blockbusters I have ever seen. It’s hard to call it a blockbuster because of the sheer difficulty the creators would have likely faced when making it. The topic is large, but the screenplay mostly addresses itself to the Clarks, the secretaries, and the government employees.
purpose other than to stare blankly at each other while reciting random quotes from military history to one another. Seeing that, I would not be shocked if the three screenwriters were behind those poorly crafted sceneries, flipping through note cards like some washed-out high school students. It makes perfect sense that footnotes and quotes would be the only things that mattered from the get-go.
Tora Tora Tora is a big movie, in fact, it’s super expensive when it comes to filming but the end product is very stale. It is claustrophobic. While trying to make sense of the multi-millions spent on this film I couldn’t help but feel trapped inside of an office cubicle filled with bureaucrats ignoring each other’s messages, only to roam free in a ‘B’ grade action film. Sure, John Wayne’s WWII films were not Oscar winners by any means. There was sand, skies, heroes, and oh let’s not forget about the girls.
This part of the project is primarily credited to Richard Fleischer, and that’s quite plausible. Why not? Fleischer had done Dr. Dolittle and The Boston Strangler and Che! (1969). It is extremely evident that he had the same leaden touch in Tora. Trying to figure out how to achieve drama in the attack on Pearl Harbor is something he seems not to have bothered himself too much with. At least the 1940s Pearl Harbor potboilers had a sense of action and a story, giving you characters that one could almost feel attached to. The only thing you needed to wonder was, will the hero die? The heroine? Or the best buddy?
However, “Tora” does not offer even an ounce of suspense because, of course, we know what is going to happen, and shockingly, it does, and then the movie ends. At the same time, the audience does not even sympathize with the officers in charge (assuming that’s the word). Having been directed to act like wooden puppets reading fictitious security reports or something of the like makes one wonder what the filmmakers were thinking.
As one of the many Americans who have spent years mocking the Japanese special effects in King Kong Escapes, I can’t help but wonder how they would respond to our battleships being blown up in our back-lot tanks. Probably with a sigh and a shot of sake. In the meantime, ‘Tora’ is playing at the Bismarck. Let’s just hope it doesn’t sink in.
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