Tora! Tora! Tora! DVD

Tora! Tora! Tora! is directed by Richard Fleischer and the star cast includes Martin Balsam, So Yamamura and Jason Robards. The movie is inspired by Tora! Tora! Tora! by Gordon W Prange and The Broken Seal by Ladislas Farago. Tora Tora Tora means Tiger Tiger Tiger in Japanese. The film pictures the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the American Naval Base at Hawaii during World War II. It is the code word which the Japanese used to indicate that complete surprise has been achieved.

The narration in the movie is done from the viewpoints of both the Japanese and the Americans. It takes us way back to 1941 where the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the combined fleet, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, orders an attack on the Pearl Harbour, in order to wipe out the harbour before the commencement of hostilities.The Japanese are in talks with the United States on a number of issues which they are attempting to resolve via their Washington embassy. In case this diplomacy fails, the military plans for a surprise early Sunday morning air attack on the U.S. base at Pearl Harbour. The Japanese commence a series of 14 radio messages from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington that will conclude with the declaration of war. Though the messages were intercepted by the American Intelligence, all the attempts to convey this message to American commanders fail because it is Sunday and they have the day off. A Japanese submarine is spotted in the Pearl Harbor before the attack but this notification goes unreported. Two Japanese aircrafts are also spied by the two private officers. However, their reports are dismissed mistaking it to be a group of American B-17 bombers coming from the mainland.

A final attempt to warn Pearl Harbor is ignored by some electrical interference and bungling when the telegram is not marked urgent. It ends up being received by Pearl Harbor after the attack. The incoming Japanese fighter pilots don't even receive any anti-aircraft fire as they approach the base. What commences is unexpected and catastrophic devastation at the U.S. Naval Base.

Tora! Tora! Tora! was released in 1970 by 20th CentuyFox. It is available in DVD Format with a U/A rating. Its running time is 145 minutes.