cult film freak: DECEMBER 7TH POST OF RICHARD FLEISCHER'S 'TORA! TORA! TORA!'

Written by James M. Tate / 12/07/2020 / No comments / e.g. marshall , espionage , history , japanese , jason robards , martin balsam , richard fleischer , seventies , war , wesley addy , world war II

DECEMBER 7TH POST OF RICHARD FLEISCHER'S 'TORA! TORA! TORA!'

12/07/2020 | No comment

Title: Tora! Tora! Tora! Year: 1970 Rating: ****

American director/producer Richard Fleischer mans only half of TORA! TORA! TORA! centering before and during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, leaving the rest to the equal perspective of Japanese military leaders by Japanese filmmakers Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda, a device you wouldn't get about the German Leaders' side of World War II...

But what aspects really work made the movie fail at the box office: No big stars to outshine the subject matter along with rapid-fire subtitles, a non-dramatic, documentary realism and the true main characters are E.G. Marshall and Wesley Addy playing two Washington D.C. insiders using an early "fax machine" that provides enigmatic yet foreboding information, inserting a little espionage into the war genre...

While on the other side of the Pacific, Sô Yamamura plays Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto with far more empathy and prowess than Navy flakes Jason Robards and Martin Balsam as Generals Short and Kimmel: One demanding/commanding an extremely unwise location for all "parked" aircraft, the other ready for a cozy round of golf (exactly 79-years from today) on the fateful early morning of December 7th, 1941...

Taking up the action-packed third act with explosive widescreen glory mixed with cold and calculating reality like actually being there, though mostly as an impartial observer since there aren't any cliché movie-soldiers (like some naïve freckle-faced kid with a "girl back home" or the cynical cigar-chomping maverick he'd look up to): Unlike most other films on this subject, TORA! TORA! TORA! is about historical accuracy, not fictional history... take that Michael Bay!

Wesley Addy and E.G. Marshall decoding TORA! TORA! TORA

Share This Post :

Tags : e.g. marshall , espionage , history , japanese , jason robards , martin balsam , richard fleischer , seventies , war , wesley addy , world war II

James M. Tate

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)CALCULATED RISK 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)THE BREAK 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)THE SERGEANT 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)RIOT 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6) CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)JOHN CARPENTER 10)MICHAEL WINNER