Tora! Tora! Tora!

For other uses, see Tora Tora Tora (disambiguation).
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAmerican sequences
Richard Fleischer
Japanese sequences
Toshio Masuda
Kinji Fukasaku
Akira Kurosawa (uncredited)
Screenplay byAmerican sequences
Larry Forrester
Japanese sequences
Hideo Oguni
Ryūzō Kikushima
Akira Kurosawa (uncredited)
Based on
Produced byElmo Williams
Starring
CinematographyAmerican sequences
Charles F. Wheeler
Japanese sequences
Shinsaku Himeda
Masamichi Satoh
Osamu Furuya
Edited byJames E. Newcom
Pembroke J. Herring
Inoue Chikaya
Music byJerry Goldsmith
Production
companies
Williams-Fleischer Productions
Toei Company
Distributed by20th Century Fox (U.S.)
Toei Company (Japan)
Release dates
  • 23 September 1970 (1970-09-23) (U.S.)
  • 25 September 1970 (1970-09-25) (Japan)
Running time
144 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Japan
LanguagesEnglish
Japanese
Budget$25 million[1][2]
Box office$37 million (rentals)[3]

Tora! Tora! Tora! (Japanese: トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, from the American and Japanese positions. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, and stars an ensemble cast including Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotten, So Yamamura, E.G. Marshall, James Whitmore, Tatsuya Mihashi, Takahiro Tamura, Wesley Addy, and Jason Robards. It was Masuda and Fukasaku's first English-language film, and first international co-production. The tora of the title, although literally meaning "tiger", is actually an abbreviation of a two-syllable codeword (i.e., totsugeki raigeki 突撃雷撃, "lightning attack"), used to indicate that complete surprise had been achieved.[4]

The film was released in the United States by Twentieth Century Fox on September 23, 1970, and in Japan by the Toei Company on September 25. It received mixed reviews from American critics, but was praised for its historical accuracy and attention to detail, its visual effects, and its action sequences.[5][6] Tora! Tora! Tora! was nominated for five Oscars at the 43rd Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, winning Best Visual Effects (L.B. Abbott and A.D. Flowers).[7] The National Board of Review ranked it in its Top Ten Films of 1971. A 1994 survey at the USS Arizona Memorial determined that for Americans the film was the most common source of popular knowledge about the Pearl Harbor attack.[8]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Parish p. 411 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p256
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fox was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "15 Things You Might Not Know about Pearl Harbor - AOP Homeschooling". www.aop.com. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Aviation Great films was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Orriss p. 200 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).