University of Virginia Library

CINEMA

Tora!: More, More, More Of The Same

By Paul Chaplin
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Remember the old war films,
the ones you see occasionally on
the late show? Simple weren't they,
with just men against men in the
trenches. After Darryl Zanuck's
"The Longest Day," all those films
started to change and "Tora!Tora!
Tora!" represents the epitome of
epic war films. What the fairly
recent films have done is show us
that World War 11 was a pretty
complex affair, with more than one
side fighting. While this has made
war films more objective, it hasn't
made them easier to understand.

Degree Of Confusion

The plot of "Tora!Tora!Tora!"
is quite good for there is a limited
degree of confusion when the story
shifts from Japanese planes to
American planes. More important
than that is the fact that there is
also a minimal amount of
bewilderment when the story shifts
from Washington to Pearl Harbor to
the Pentagon and then to some ship
at sea. There are countless times
when a war film makes fantastic
leaps in time and location, leaving
the audience spellbound and lost. It
is a credit to the script-writers,
stunt coordinators and editors that
everything comes off smoothly.

'You Are There'

The film however has a "You
Are There" approach, which often
slips into looking like
"Mission: Impossible." We see title
cards, such as "Pearl Harbor,
December 6, 1941," or
"Washington, D.C., early Sunday
morning. December 7." Those I can
tolerate, but during scenes with
new characters, there'll be
something like "Cordell Hull, Sec.
of State," or "Frank Knox, Sec. of
Navy," flashed on the screen over
the action. Of course the Japanese
high command gets the same
treatment, and in their case it's
necessary, but I wonder if this
device gets out of hand towards the
end of the film.

Unfortunately, there is a further
problem with title cards and this
relates to the subtitles. It seems
that to be authentic, war films now
use genuine German or Japanese
actors. This is far better than using
character actors, or trying to dub
the voices, but the white subtitles
don't show up on white naval
uniforms. For the amount of
money spent on the film, you'd
think someone would have thought
of using yellow subtitles.

Huge Cast Needed

Like most expensive and
complex war films, this one needs a
huge cast to tell the story and it is
occasionally a game of guessing
who's who. We're treated to
performances by Joseph Cotten,
Jason Robards, James Whitmore,
E.G. Marshall, and Martin Balsalm.
It is fairer to avoid comment on
their acting, for they don't really
do anything in the film except
show their age. Actually the
Japanese characters are far more
impressive, especially Admiral
Yamamoto, Commander-In-Chief
of the imperial Navy. His is the
only character in the film with a
large, actable part, excellently
portrayed by Soh Yamamura.

The real star though is Pearl

Harbor under attack. After waiting
an hour and forty minutes, the
special effects don't disappoint us.
We get a walloping forty minutes of
bombing and chaos. The whole
thing looks pretty authentic, with
only two glaringly obvious process
shots. Such high quality could be
expected from a nation that can
create Mothra and Godzilla and
other demons. In fact, the
Japanese segments of the film are
technically superior to the
American sequences, with the
exception of the attack.

What puzzles me is why the film
was made at this particular time,
which leads into several ironies. The
obvious irony of history is present.
We constantly wonder how the
United States could have so many
dunderheads and have been caught
by surprise. A cinematic irony is
that "Tora!Tora!Tora!" was
released by Twentieth Century
Fox, whose other money makers in
1970, were "M*A*S*H" and
"Patton". The film is a
co-production between Japan and
America, and was released in the
year of the twenty-fifth anniversary
of Hiroshima, and one year before
the thirtieth anniversary of Pearl
Harbor. It makes me wonder what
Fox is up to.

The film can be read objectively
until the conclusion. Admiral
Yamamoto, in a beautifully
composed series of shots, voices his
fears that the attack may have been
a mistake. He walks out of his
conference room and onto the
deck, where he stares at the choppy
Pacific. The Japanese have, he
repeats to himself, "awakened a
sleeping giant and filled him with a
terrible resolve." That final
statement, delivered with painful
dignity, makes sitting through the
film worth-while.