History, they say, is written by the victors. This one dared to tell the story from both sides. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said at the time, history will not remember who fired the first shot but who fired the last. The Japanese attack was at least (for him) a convenient means of how to get America into a war that was rapidly spiralling out of control in Europe and Asia, and for whom he had been at pains to try and supply his allies whilst keeping the pretence of neutrality. The one person who was most 'pleased' by the attack ultimately was Winston Churchill, who knew that America's entering WWII would help to turn the tide.
In an era when history is often sidelined when it comes to historical films, here is one from the time that scrupulously kept to the record, wherever possible. The truth as they also say, is often stranger than fiction.
To put Tora! Tora! Tora! into its proper context, one also has to mention (and sneakily add as an extra favourite film to this blog) its similarly epic predecessor The Longest Day, conceived by producer Daryl Zanuck as a tribute to those men and the whole operation of D-Day. As an operation very much involving several countries (on both sides), he chose to stage it from different perspectives from the American, French, British and German perspectives. For all of its idiosyncrasies (such as Rod Steiger and Richard Burton - right - doing walk-on parts), it remains the definitive telling of D-Day, from many of the original locations.
I may be in the minority here, but TTT improves on The Longest Day by having more of a dramatic focus by telling the story from two specific perspectives, and also having the greater dramatic and historic power, particularly for Americans.
In order to re-create the story of the attack authentically, Zanuck likewise felt the need to use two simultaneous crews from Japan and America to tell the tale. From the American perspective, the reliable craftsman Richard Fleischer was hired to direct in rather pedestrian fashion, although the bulk of the major action that headlines the film is in his section, in addition to which he captures the escalating tension and unwitting incompetence of the American intelligence service that fails to act on fateful information that the Japanese attack was coming.
Time has been kinder to TTT however, and its screening on television was where I was first introduced to it. The film also tries to redress the balance over who in American eyes were to blame for the failure of the US to react effectively to the attack - in effect, the scapegoats: Admiral Kimmel (Martin Balsam) of the navy and General Short (Jason Robards) of the army, both stationed in Hawaii at the time.
One of many poignant images: the Japanese America farmers in Hawaii before the war itself is about to change the course of their lives forever.
The more skilful and more powerful piece of filmmaking however comes - as in the battle attack itself - from the Japanese angle. The two Japanese directors, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, capture the mood, the emotions and, in particular, the dignity of the Japanese Navy, pressured into going to war by the overzealous army and an ambitious Japanese Government, more influenced by the likes of General Tojo (Asao Uchida, left) than the Emperor Hirohito, accompanied also by a fine score for these scenes, by the American Jerry Goldsmith.
The most intriguing aspect of the Japanese half of the film is that it was originally to be directed (and shot - for just one week) by Akira Kurosawa - a legend in Japan for his autonomy, and unused to the foreign environment of working for an American film studio who called the shots more than he did. Twentieth Century Fox took the bold move of firing the great director. We can only speculate on how his style would have impacted had he been allowed the free artistic reign he was more accustomed to in his own country. In spite of Kurosawa's absence, the replacement directors do more than a creditable job - a reminder to largely ignorant English-speaking audiences of the depth of talent on offer in Japan.
The Zeroes take off - footage allegedly directed by the great Kurosawa
The showpiece of the film is the of course the raid itself, and the spectacular effects, both on and above ground - so much so that the footage was used for several subsequent WWII films (and even some documentaries which mistook it for the real archive.) The film also captures in semi-documentary fashion some of the ironies and authentic small true incidents, such as the hapless flying school instructor who suddenly found herself surrounded one morning by squadrons of Japanese planes, or the impact of the USS Arizona's explosion glancing even the Japanese planes that had destroyed her - in a similar semi-observational manner to A Night to Remember, with subtlety and no great fanfare, but quiet effect and power.
Like A Night to Remember, TTT itself also suffered the peculiar fate of a rather romanticised and trashy modern remake, directed by Michael Bay in 2001, about which the less said of Pearl Harbor, the better. It did at least serve to remind just what a quality product TTT was.
Over a quarter of a century after the first major attack on United States shores (if an island 2,000 miles away from the mainland can be considered on America's "doorstep"), its impact is still felt - a reaction of shock and revulsion among most Americans, that was reflected, once more, 70 years later, when the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington were attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists.
