John Landis on TORA! TORA! TORA! 

The "one black man" that Landis refers to was Doris ("Dorie") Miller from Waco, Texas. He was serving as main cook on the West Virginia at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He manned a machine gun and then helped injured sailors escape the ship. Miller was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions, but denied the Medal of Honor. He became famous and went on a war bond tour across the nation. He later disappeared during the Battle of Makin Island in November 1943. Various buildings, streets and schools are named for him across the nation. The USS Miller bore his name from June 1973 until it was decommissioned in October 1991.

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago, this guy was in Honolulu during the filming of TTT. One day he said the sky was filled with Japanese Zeroes. He went on to say a lot of people were unaware of the movie being made and thought there was an actual attack taking place and for awhile, people were panicking. That's what makes TTT such a great war movie, it looked so authentic whereas in the Pearl Harbor movie, the attack scenes looked like it was a video game.

The other Japanese guy they hired was Kinji Fukasaku. Another legendary Japanese director. He did some of the original realistic yakuza films and would go on to direct Battle Royale. If you're gonna fire Kurosawa....you replace him with Fukasaku.

Michael Bay Pearl Harbor makes this film look like Battleship Potemkin. Class assessment John!

Correction. The miniatures were filmed out at the Fox Ranch in Malibu Canyon in a huge tank named after Fred Serson, once the head of visual effects at 20th Century Fox. By the time this film was shot, the big tank on the Fox lot was gone, the acreage sold off to create Century City. The tank at the Fox Ranch was actually bigger than the previous one on the studio lot. Both used painted sky backings. The only tanks of its kind left in Hollywood are at Universal and Paramount.

I saw this when it was originally released. Didn't much care for it at the time because of the pacing. However, like a fine carefully cellared wine, TTT has aged rather well.

The historically funny one was that the Japanese pulled the same stunt with the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in 1904 where on a Sunday morning they sent their war declaration to Moscow while their fleet lined-up outside the harbor and told the surprised Russian commander to come out and fight or they would go in. They then moved in and sank the Russian fleet at anchor. The U.S., via underdogma, thought that the attack was simply marvelous - the little Japanese nation had produced the classic western showdown.

Brilliant score by composer Jerry Goldsmith! He also did a phenomenal score for the 1983 anthology "Twilight Zone-The Movie". Segment one was directed by Landis. Oh....right. Um....awkward.

@2:36 Landis slams Bay!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Do it!

John Landis, a facetious but hilarious spieler of film history, lol!

Landis is kind of insane I think.

Loved this movie, also interesting that is showed both sides equally from their perspectives. Another war movie I liked that was like this from this era was Longest Day.

I also hated the movie "Pearl harbor" A terrible movie, but Tora, Tora Tora was outstanding!

The miniatures using a huge tank with a sky backing were filmed at the Fox ranch in Malibu Canyon, not on the Fox lot in West LA. By the time this movie was being made, Fox had sold off its vast backlot including the Sersen Lake, named after Fox visual effects head Fred Sersen. A new tank was built at the ranch to film miniatures for Cleopatra. That tank was removed sometime in the early 1980s.

Will need to watch this back2back with Micheal Bay’s PEARL HARBOUR (2007) but I gauge this epic WW2 film the better and far superior dramatic depiction of the events that led up to December 7th 1941.

Such a good movie

Pearl Harbor was the dramatic saga of a dastardly sneak attack by the armed might of the Empire of Japan upon a love triangle.

Some of the scenes in the movie had a very realistic re enactment of Pearl Harbour. Like when the Japanese fleet takes off from the aircraft carriers. That felt very realistic and felt like you were watching documentary footage from the real Pearl Harbour Japanese strike. Scenes like those elevate the moive. Also great score from Jerry Goldsmith and some good acting from a host of good actors from that era.

Bona Fide classic war film.

Jesus christ, John. You of all people should not be gleefully showing clips of on set accidents of someone running away from an out of control propeller.

It didn't impress at the time because US audiences had issues with seeing their countrymen being portrayed as fallible. Most American war movies of the time portrayed Americans in a far more heroic manner than was necessarily realistic, this one was more a doccu drama along the lines of the excellent Battle of Britain.

I have no idea of this is true but the old Hawaii 5-0 did an episode which referenced the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and it claimed that when the Japanese planes attacked, the pilots exclaimed, "To Hell with Babe Ruth!" An odd idea to be sure.

The thing majorly wrong with Pearl Harbor is that ygr same pilots didn't defend Hawaii then ho on Doolittle's raid to Japan. They were separate groups of pilots.

Kurosawa was their Kubrick.

Tora Tora Tora was a pseudo documentary, you'll see a lot of familiar faces but no A-list actors, which was intentional.

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I thought the Japanese scenes were much better than the American ones. The American stuff looked flat and dull, and the acting was stiff. My one criticism of the Japanese side of the movie is the stuff with the grunts, which was acted in the over-the-top Japanese style and didn't work.

If it looks so good in Panavision then show it in Panavision.

Landis couldnt' be Michele Obama! His balls are not big enough to match the ones in "her" pantyhose.