116 - Tora! Tora! Tora!
The lads make their annual pilgrimage to Pearl Harbor and watch a lot of people read documents as they plunge into the intense historical accuracy and coma-inducing pace of 1970s docudrama: Tora! Tora! Tora! Topics include the unique Japanese/American co-production, the difficulties in making a narrative about Pearl Harbor, and what it means to have the dubious honor of being the best piece of media ever made about the day that will live in infamy.
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Media Referenced in this Episode:
Tora! Tora! Tora! Dir. Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku. 20th Century Fox. 1970. Available on Amazon // AppleTV
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “A Settling Sound”
Comments (14)
There is a Pearl Harbor episode of the 60s series Time Tunnel that would be interesting for you to comment on.
One thing I would like to say is that I find it interesting how a *lot* of the war movies that take place around battles but try to paint the enemy or the war itself in a more romantic light always seem to take place in aircraft, or in ships. You almost *can't* do it on the ground, and certainly not in the Pacific theater, which say some of the most brutal and horrific close combat and war crimes. There is even a famous Time magazine cover with a woman who has the skull of a Japanese soldier sent to her by her boyfriend on her writing desk.
I've been in the Navy my entire adult life and until you guys mentioned it, it had never occurred to me normal people don't think all that much about Dec 7th every year lol. It like just one of the Decemeber events every year.
I feel like since you've done Pearl Harbour & Tora! Tora! Tora! you need to complete the trilogy and do The Final Countdown.
You guys talking about Pearl Harbor video games at the start really took me back! I have vivid memories of playing the first mission in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, which is set at Pearl Harbor. You learn how to crouch and interact with items while watching your shipmates get blown up or burn to death, shoot at some torpedoes with a rifle, and then get thrown overboard and picked up by a PT boat with a massive AA gun. The rest of the level is smoking 50-100 Japanese planes, with a somber break in the middle to sail around a 20 polygon model of the sinking USS Arizona while sad music plays.
Not appreciating the Pearl fartber hate here “fortday” is one of my favourite plays
Lol, so. The original intention for the game "Fortnite" was to be a zombie survival base builder with a day night cycle where you builder your base during the day and defend it at night with increasingly hard enemies and a horde every 14 days. So, technically, Josh was correct.
I know you're aware of From Here to Eternity, but there is also a 1980s miniseries adaptation of it which is like, 4 hours long (and not as good).
Sounds like a bad time!
The constant song bits has real “me in culinary school” vibes.
Adm. Husbando is just KanColle.
Oh thank god I wasnt the only one thinking it
Battles Without Honor and Humanity is a great movie, if a bit jarring in places (it's a history of the Yakuza, so there are some parts that are narratively unsatisfying because they're true). The opening scenes of the immediate post-war period are really gripping. It would be a lot of fun as a Fancy Movie Time episode!
And because of it's documentary style, I can see why the director was tapped for this movie.