The Making of 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'

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1 General Information
2 Cover
3 Information
4 Screenshots
5 Technical Specs
6 Links

[edit] General Information

Arts, War Documentary hosted by Burt Reynolds and Rino Romano, published by Fox Entertainment in 2001 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

This dramatic retelling of the Pearl Harbor attack details everything in the days that led up to that tragic moment in American history. The year is 1941 and diplomatic relations between the United States and Japan are at an all-time low. Diplomatic means are attempted through Washington, but they fail. Isoroku Yamamoto is named commander of the Japanese Navy and is to execute a surprise attack on the United States. The attack is planned for the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Some Intel about the coming attack is decoded by the U.S., but they do not believe it. Plus they have no idea where the Japanese will attack. The days leading up to the attack are depicted along with the actual attack that brought the U.S. into World War II. More than 30 years before Clint Eastwood told the story of Iwo Jima from both the American and Japanese points of view in "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima", Twentieth Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck followed a similar impulse to explore the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" was Zanuck’s attempt to recapture the cinematic alchemy of his earlier hit "The Longest Day", which explored the events of D-Day from multiple perspectives and met with monumental commercial success. Deciding to apply the same approach to Dec. 7, 1941, Zanuck enlisted producer Elmo Williams to assemble two crews, one American and one Japanese, to tell their respective countries' sides of the event. Fox stalwart Richard Fleischer was placed in charge of the American team, and the legendary Akira Kurosawa was assigned to direct the Japanese sequences. Unfortunately, Kurosawa clashed with studio executives and found it impossible to adapt to the American way of making pictures; he was quickly replaced by Kinji Fukasaku, who directed the action scenes, and Toshio Masuda, who helmed the more dialogue-driven character material. The film's journalistic attention to detail, combined with the sheer scope of the project, quickly led to a ballooning budget, and at a final cost of S25 million, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" was one of the most expensive films ever made at the time of its release.

[edit] History Through the Lens: Tora! Tora! Tora! - A Giant Awakes

Richard D Zanuck presided over the day-to-day business at 20th Century Fox for his father Darryl when Tora! Tora! Tora! was conceived. In the 90minute documentary "History Through the Lens: Tora! Tora! Tora! — A Giant Awakes" , he talks about their aspirations to "accuracy" and the unforeseen challenges that saw the budget spiral out of control, eventually hitting the S25m mark. Producer Elmo Williams and co-directors Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda give a ground-level view of the troubled production that was split between both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
Their recollections, and contributions by historians of making the film are almost as dramatic as the events portrayed in it. Chaos ensued on numerous occasions but it began with legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa who was originally hired to direct the Japanese segments. Zanuck received reports of his "very bizarre behaviour" and was mortified to discover that after three weeks of shooting, he had just six minutes of footage in the can. He describes firing him as "the darkest moment" of his career although the diminutive director merely responded with, "I am Kurosawa..." Other dark moments include the tragic deaths of two stunt pilots and the real story of Pearl Harbor told in relation to scenes from the film. Documentary traces the production history of the film and compares the finished product to the real-life events it depicts. Produced by Prometheus Entertainment in Association with Fox Television Studios and A&E Television Network, 2001

[edit] Hollywood Backstory: Tora! Tora! Tora!

A 22-minute episode of AMC's "Backstory" series provides an additional take on the movie's production, an intriguing featurette condensing all the most sensational aspects of the production. These include details of Kurosawa's alleged "nervous breakdown". Apparently crewmembers blew the whistle on him when he decided to beat the clapper boy senseless with a rolled up copy of the script!
On the other side of the Pacific, actor Jason Robards was also having a tough time psychologically since he'd actually been at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day in December 1941. His co-star Richard Anderson reflects on this, but adds that it was "the tone of shock" - the very fact that this film exposed the "debacle" of the Americans' emergency response - that attracted him to the project. Elmo Williams says that he was under unusual stress too, receiving daily death threats after hiring the Japanese officer who orchestrated the attack on Pearl Harbor as a technical advisor on the film. Produced by Prometheus Entertainment in Association with Van Ness Films, Inc. and Fox Television Studios, 2001

[edit] Movietone News

40 minutes of vintage Fox Movietone newsreels about Pearl Harbor and World War II. The most extraordinary of these features nearly ten minutes of footage captured by cameraman Al Brick who was at the US naval base on the day the Japanese dropped their bombs. For a year after it happened, the authorities had kept this dramatic film under wraps because they did not want the world to know the true extent of the devastation.
-- "The First Pictures of the Attack" (2:22) ; "Pearl Harbour, December 7, 1941: Now It Can Be Shown" (8:17) ; "A Year of War Since Pearl Harbour" (6:54) ; "War With Japan" (6:45) ; "U.S. Declares War On Japan" (5:24) ; "First Pictures of Attack on Japan Islands" (2:26) ; "Jap Cities Were Bombed By U.S. Army Planes" (1:12) ; "President Honors Jimmy Doolittle For Raid on Japan" (2:59) ; "War Reports Of The United Nations" (2:02) ; "Doolittle's Raiders, Who Bombed Tokyo, Mark Anniversary" (1:14) -- Original theatrical trailer joined to the end of the file.

[edit] Screenshots

[edit] Technical Specs

Video Codec: x264 CABAC High@L4
Video Bitrate: 2 159 Kbps
Video Resolution: 768x576
Display Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Frames Per Second: 25.000 fps
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192 kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 22 min - 1 h 30 min
Number Of Parts: 3
Part Size: 372 MB - 1.48 GB
Source: DVD (Thanks to Freelance@a.b.dvd)
Encoded by: DocFreak08