There are very important films, it simply takes years to understand their impact and caliber. This is the story of one of these films, of a war colossal that was to replicate the success of The longest daybut who flop. Tora! Tora! Tora! It comes out for the first time in the room September 23, 1970. It will be a total flask at home, but it will also be a film capable, for the first time, to offer the general public a different point of view, less stereotyped and above all less connected to the hatred of everything that will lead to famous Japanese attack a Pearl Harbor il December 7, 1941in fact the moment that decided the second world conflict. That treacherous raid, which entailed the entry into the war of the United States, marked the fate of the Japanese empire, in spite of the initial successes, and then of the rest of the axis. A real victory of Pirror, that the powerful producer Darryl F. Zanuck He wanted to recreate with the Hollywood vehicles of the time, but also involving Japanese cinema and above all him: Akira Kurosawa. The intent was to combine the most total spectacularity, with a historical reinterpretation of the facts, in particular by rewriting the severe judgment given to those who, like the general Walter Short and the admiral Husband E. Kimmelfound himself paying for faults that only to a lesser extent were they proper. But Tora! Tora! Tora! went further, decided to give us the Japanese point of view On the events of that period, without demonizing or dehumanizing the enemy of the time.
A film set made of ambition and chaos
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Zanuck will take more than three years to prepare production, he will conceive An American troupe e Another Japanesetogether with his son Richard D. Zanuck e Elmo Williamsthe other producer, will recruit four different directors of photography, e Jerry Goldsmith for the soundtrack. Kurosawa will not remain for a long time, even with him Toshiro Mifunehis fetish actor. The Americans too rigid, too breath on the neck. They will arrive in their place Toshio Masuda e Kinji Fukasaku. The script, written separately from the two productions, will see the significant contribution of Gordon Prange, university professor and former member of the General Staff of Douglas MacArthur. The writer’s contribution will also be precious Ladislas Farago. All this to get a film as closest to historical, cold and raw facts, capable of giving us the vision of the general picture by both contenders. Vere wars ships will be used, modified to resemble the American ones of 1941, but Japanese production will build “Models” long even at 30 m to imitate the Japanese ones. The set of Tora! Tora! Tora! It will also be filled with real planes (also modified to resemble the famous Japanese zero or P-40 Americans) as well as replicas, with however functioning propellers. For stuntmen, the scenes of the attack in particular will be a concentrate of absurd dangers. Filming will be among the most infernal and also Less safe in the history of cinemaso much so that we still ask ourselves how it was possible that nobody has remained dry.
A film that tried to reconcile two countries
Sensational pilots will recreate the spectacular attack maneuvers of the Japanese a Pearl Harborcomplete with flight coordinators with an operating center on the set. Tora! Tora! Tora! He will have 8 months long shooting, but Zanuck will decide not to recruitand no international -caliber actorno Hollywood star, so as to make this intention, at least this, the film the real protagonist. Yet, an endless number of actors in the cast, as well as members of the crew, had actually fought during the Second World War. Among them Jason Robards, Martin Balsam, James Whitmore. Tora! Tora! Tora! He will therefore favor his gaze from above, literally, completely putting any “common men” aside. All the spotlights go on the garments, admirals, generals, politicians, with a cut that we can define semi-documentary. Also for this reason, probably, unlike the The longest dayand just as it will then happen to That last bridge seven years later, Tora! Tora! Tora! It will not be able to create a great empathic link with the public. However, it will compensate this with visual spectacularity, The power of the re -enactment of the attackwhich remains one of the most impressive war cinema sequences ever. No film for many years will be able to boast so incredible destruction sequences, certainly at the cost often to run extras and stuntmen literally to save the skin, between badly content explosions, fires.
A perfect examination of the geopolitical chessboard
Tora! Tora! Tora! The budget willarrived at $ 25 million, but will be able to show us the first and after the destruction of the American fleet. The final thesis will then be confirmed by historians over the years: Admiral Kimmel and General Short gathered all the planes in the same place and all the ships so close, to avoid any sabotage, the only danger that the intelligence and the General Staff had led to their attention. Tora! Tora! Tora! It therefore also becomes a tribute to the audacity and expertise of the Japanese enemy, of the admiral Yamamoto (Sō Yamamura) and its officers, magnificent pilots and sailors. However, the clear crack between the Navy, the military commanders and politicians, in particular the Prime Minister Konoe (Koreya Senda), the secretary Kido (Hiroshi Akutagawa) and several others. Paradoxically, they are the most to believe in Japan’s victory over the United States, they wade a deception born from the need to break the American oil embargo. But Yamamoto and the others know, even when they start the attack on Pearl Harbor, who It’s like pulling a coin. They know that not Japan cannot win a long war, only a short, but apart from Yamamoto, nobody has a real knowledge of the American industrial and human potential. “I fear that everything we have done is having woke up a giant sleeping And to have filled it with a terrible determination “he will say in the end, despite the victory.
The legacy of a colossal who changed everything
From a technical and visual point of view, Tora! Tora! Tora! still today is An absolute masterpiece. At home, however, the film will flop at the box office, however abroad, in particular in Japan, will have a great success and the Academy will reward the workers. The criticism will liquidate it sufficiently, but after years, Everyone reevaluated him positivelyalso by virtue of far from superficial dialogues, useful to make us understand the drama of that choice, to the difference between political will and military intent. The example of Tora! Tora! Tora!its artistic legacy, However, it will be resumed more and several times over the years, both visual and intentionally. Michael Bay will never hide that he has inspired himself from this film for his Pearl Harbor, For its wonderful sequence of the air bombing, perhaps the only truly brilliant and memorable part of the film. But even more, Clint Eastwood with Letters from Iwo Jima and even more a few years later Roland Emmerich with his Midwaythey will refer to the intention of Zanuck, with certainly bright results. Thanks to this film, the idea of a less Manichean story, in which Japan can have something more from the role of enemy, going beyond the stars and stripes war colossal, will become common. 55 years after its release in the room, Tora! Tora! Tora! remains a milestone of the genrearmed with an intriguing and profound gaze on a day that changed the story.
I was born in Padua in 1985, which has always been a great enthusiast of sports, cinema and art, after twelve years as a professional coach and scoutman in the world of volleyball, I decided to embark on a journalist’s career.
Since 2016 I have started to collaborate with different paper and online magazines, as a critic and sent to festivals such as that of Venice, Rome and the science fiction of Trieste.
I published with Viola Editrice “Cinema at the time of terror”analysis on post-1 11 cinema. To esquire I deal with cinema, television and sports, I am in particular great fans of football, boxing, volleyball and tennis.
By virtue of this passion I also take care of a personal deepening page on Facebook, entitled the winning moment.
I believe in the weight of words, in irony, in always being faithful to one’s opinion when writing and in never thinking of being infallible.
