Tora! Tora! Tora!

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Tora! Tora! Tora!

G

1970

2h 23m

War

History

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

57%

Tomatometer

30 Reviews

81%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

This dramatic retelling of the Pearl Harbor attack details everything in the days that led up to that tragic moment in American history. As the United States and Japanese relations strain over the U.S. embargo of raw materials, Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda plans the preemptive strike against the United States. Although American intelligence agencies intercept Japanese communications hinting at the attack, they are unwilling to believe such a strike could ever occur on U.S. soil.

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Critics Consensus

Tora! Tora! Tora! is scrupulously accurate and lays out of the tragedy of Pearl Harbor with intricate detail, but the film's clinical approach to the sound and fury signifies little feeling.

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Variety Staff

Variety

07/08/2008

Both overall director Richard Fleischer and his Japanese counterparts do a dull job, and the monotonously low-key tone of scene after scene almost suggests that each was filmed without a sense of ultimate slotting in the finished form.

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Clark Collis

Empire Magazine

12/30/2006

3/5

This big-budget, noble-but-dull account of the run up to Pearl Harbour is high on historical veracity but low on drama.

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Time Out

06/24/2006

The climax, in particular, manages to be more than just a shoot-out, with Fleischer's intelligent direction generating a real feeling of chaos and apocalypse.

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Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

08/31/2024

3/5

…what Fleischer’s film excels at is spectacle; the last hour of the film, from the interval onwards, is an absolute destruct-athon… the big explosions feel somehow like a Godzilla movie without Godzilla, a sanitised fantasy based on a real-world atrocity.

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Penelope Houston

The Spectator

07/09/2018

Even the air-raid, one of those all- out bits of Hollywood destruction staging which offer plenty of time for sour speculation on the sheer cost of so much bang-bang cinema, should leave human casualties taking second place to the material smash-up.

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David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

07/28/2015

2/4

Directors Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, and Toshio Masuda have infused Tora! Tora! Tora! with an excessively dry and deliberate pace that results in an almost interminable first hour...

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SurvivorAlways 7

@MyLife4Me79 14h

The movie suffers lack of atmosphere. Much of that due to the absence of score. Some scenes are BEGGING for music to set the emotional tone for what is happening on screen. I’m really stunned that music was employed so little. Some moments really needed music to punctuate the gravity of the moment. The lack of sufficient score was a huge disservice to a film with such heavy subject matter and such a long run time. It added to the dragging monotone feeling of the first two thirds of the movie. The last third of the film where the attack is underway was pretty good. It obviously faster paced and the action sequences were good. I just wish that the previous two thirds of the movie had paired down the unnecessary scenes and conversations and focused more on the important plot points and on a character or two (to some degree at least) so the audience could be more emotionally invested in the story and the real people involved and not just feel like we’re watching a dramatized documentary.

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Chris B

@Papa13070 Jun 2

This is one of the most realistic war movies ever made. Taking a neutral stance and showing both sides of the conflict is a masterstroke. Weaving both viewpoints seamlessly is also another great aspect of this film. The acting on both sides, Japanese and American is top rate. They just don't make them like Martin Balsam and Jason Robards any more - both give top performances. The non-CGI effects are amazing once the action gets underway - some of the stunt men look in genuine danger as they escape the flames and explosions. One of my favorite movies of all time.

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jason C

@RT93441580 May 24

The disparate difference between the 'official' reviewers and the rest of us tells the story. For history people, it's a good flick.

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Jack G

@Gump.jack Feb 4

It isn’t about vengeance. It’s a war of Japan’s gamble, America drawn in

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Andrew W.

@awheaton Sep 7

History made into reality

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Stephen C

@bob25009 06/07/2025

2 hours and 23 minutes based on a true story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In English and Japanese with English subtitles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Richard Fleischer

Director

Toshio Masuda

Director

Kinji Fukasaku

Director

Martin Balsam

Adm. Husband E. Kimmel

Sô Yamamura

Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto

Joseph Cotten

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson

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Synopsis

This dramatic retelling of the Pearl Harbor attack details everything in the days that led up to that tragic moment in American history. As the United States and Japanese relations strain over the U.S. embargo of raw materials, Air Staff Officer Minoru Genda plans the preemptive strike against the United States. Although American intelligence agencies intercept Japanese communications hinting at the attack, they are unwilling to believe such a strike could ever occur on U.S. soil.

Director: Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku
Producer: Elmo Williams
Screenwriter: Larry Forrester, Hideo Oguni, Ryûzô Kikushima
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Toei Co. Ltd., Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: G
Genre: War, History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 23, 1970, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 8, 2013
Runtime: 2h 23m