Tora, Tora, Tora kicks Pearl Harbor's ass

[MrScorpio]

Poll question: Tora, Tora, Tora kicks Pearl Harbor's ass

I'm watching Tora, Tora, Tora and it is by far a much better telling of the attack on Pearl Harbor than that sappy piece of crap Pearl Harbor.

P.H. only had one scene that thought was decent and that was the one where the USS Arizona was sinking with all hands aboard. Other than that Tora, Tora, Tora wins out.

Improved special effects does not make for better story telling.

Which one did you like the most?

[LeftinOH]

1. I caught T.T.T. on television around the time P.H. came out....

and, of course, the same material had been covered earlier -and better. 'Tora' is a better picture, by far.

[MrScorpio]

3. I have to say that the P.H. experience was an embarrassment

The movie was just plain bad

[IndianaJones]

2. PH...Affleck rules. nt.

[MrScorpio]

4. Shakes head nt

[Ava]

22. yes he does

*sigh* :loveya:

[harmonicon]

5. The movies aren't even about the same topic

TTT is about Pearl Harbor, where as 'Pearl Harbor' is about some country's airforce launching a surprise attack on a love triangle.

[MrScorpio]

6. Sniff, Sniff

I smell a DUzy

[edbermac]

7. TTT by a mile.

Great stuntwork during the attack scenes.

[underpants]

8. Pearl Harbor was an embarassment and disrespectfully bad

I have never gotten up and walked out of a movie but that one was real close

It got to the point where I was about to start rooting for the Japanese!

and that was BEFORE Ayroyd showed up

[supernova]

10. PH really was awful

My mother's first cousin was a PH survivor. He only lived because that side of the family is Catholic and he had gotten up early to attend Mass. His barracks was completely demolished. Had he slept in that day....

It seems almost impossible to get these big traumatic events right in the dramatic sense.

But TTT is a really good film from a war/tactics point of view.

[taterguy]

9. I like the Aegis Class ships clearly visible in Pearl Harbor

$100,000,000 Special Effects budget and no one notices those big radar domes that didn't exist until long after World War II

BTW, Tora Tora Tora rebuilt that Japanese air force just for the movie. It still makes appearances at air shows.

[supernova]

11. That's astounding

Now that's a prop. :wow:

Tora Tora Tora rebuilt that Japanese air force just for the movie. It still makes appearances at air shows.

[guitar man]

14. yes, astounding

here's a little info on how some of it was done

http://www.toratoratora.com/we_are/articles/history_rebuilt/default.htm

[guitar man]

12. I noticed that too

The wife and I were sitting on the couch watching the dvd when I jumped up and hollered "bullshit, that ship shouldn't be there!!" She hates it when I do that :hide:

And yes, the crew for TTT did a marvelous job of making the AT6's and BT-13 american trainers look like Japanese aircraft. Brilliant film making especially considering when it was made.

[Parche]

17. Pearl Harbor

Have you ever been to Pearl Harbor, I was there last October, it is amazing,
a lot of history!!!

:hi:

[CatholicEdHead]

13. So true, Tora, Tora, Tora is the pinnicale

I refuse to watch Pear Harbor.

[Ava]

15. perhaps i'm wrong here

but pearl harbor wasn't about the actual attack on pearl harbor, but rather a sappy romance movie.

that being said, i thought pearl harbor was a decent movie for what it was.. a sappy romance. needless to say i didn't go into the theater expecting a history lesson or a grim telling of the attack and the war.

i've never seen tora, tora, tora, but i'll have to check it out now.

[laconicsax]

16. You're not wrong

"Pearl Harbor is the story of how the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle" - Roger Ebert

[DinahMoeHum]

25. You think that's savaging "Pearl Harbor"? try this review. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/25/arts/25PEAR.html?ex=1206590400&en=f5b4834e9caf6098&ei=5070

(snip)
The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II has inspired a splendid movie, full of vivid performances and unforgettable scenes, a movie that uses the coming of war as a backdrop for individual stories of love, ambition, heroism and betrayal. The name of that movie is From Here to Eternity.
(snip)

:P

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. 'Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo' was wrapped around a sappy romance

between Van Johnson and Phyllis Thaxter (nauseatingly sappy at times; their billing and cooing included Johnson saying "How come you're so cute?" and Thaxter replying "I had to be to get such a good-looking fella"), but director Mervyn LeRoy still managed to get the history pretty accurate.

Johnson, btw, played Lt. Ted Lawson, the real-life pilot of the real-life B-25 "Ruptured Duck," and he really did forget to drop the flaps before taking off from the U.S.S. Hornet, and he really did lose part of a leg as a result of the crash-landing following the attack. Conversely, we may assume that Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay christened their protagonists Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker because they knew "Pearl Harbor" would be such a historical demolition derby that the families of Lts. Ken Taylor and George Welch might sue.

Roger Ebert also said, "The filmmakers seem to have aimed the film at an audience that may not have heard of Pearl Harbor, or perhaps even of World War Two." Part of Michael Bay's response was, "He commented on TV that bombs don't fall like that. Does he actually think we didn't research every nook and cranny of how armor-piercing bombs fell?" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_%28film%29#Production.2C_release.2C_and_critical_response)

I certainly have to doff my cap to Bay for such painstaking research, which was obviously for CGI purposes. Pity that he apparently didn't pay a damned bit of attention to any of the history of Dec. 7, 1941 — not as much for the sake of the film itself as for the many people who undoubtedly left theaters thinking that was the way it actually happened.

[KamaAina]

18. You all are just getting your jollies watching O'ahu get bombed

I mean, really, some of my copycats may be less than sparkling, but cut us a little slack!

edit: spelling

[SeattleGirl]

20. I haven't seen either one.

But I would probably vote for Tora! Tora! Tora! just because I never had any desire to see Pearl Harbor. Just from the commercials I saw for that one, I could tell it was a sappy piece of crap.

[Westegg]

21. What, pray tell, doesn't?

[LSdemocrat]

23. I've never seen Tora, Tora, Tora, but I've seen Pearl Harbor, so Tora, Tora, Tora by default

Pearl Harbor was one of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen in a theater.

[Aristus]

24. Shoot. "The Winds Of War" toys-in-a-bathtub depiction of the attack

was better than "Pearl Harbor". I was so bitterly disappointed in that movie. And another thing they screwed up big-time was the depiction of Dorie Miller and his service in the Navy. Like all African-Americans, Miller dealt with some extremely vicious racism in a strictly segregated Navy, where black men could only serve as mess attendants, common laborers, or barbers. "Pearl Harbor" showed Cuba Gooding Jr. as Miller putting up with what amounts to people calling you mean nicknames in study hall. And the ship captain's "we're all really proud of ya, son" approach is light years from the reality of the time, when the Navy had almost no black officers.