Hollywood turned out a glut of World War II movies through the 50s and 60s, but studio mogul Darryl F Zanuck proposed something different with Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Not only did it offer a "tense and satisfying" minute-by-minute recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was also an even-handed portrayal lending the Japanese bombers as much screen time as their US counterparts. Tellingly, it didn't fare as well at the American box office as it did overseas.

Reaching For The Sky

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 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 $25m 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 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. Contributions by historians are worthwhile although they do make the documentary feel longwinded.

The Call To Action

Hollywood Backstory is a much more brash but 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.

If there was any doubt about the veracity of the finished product, the extras menu is bolstered by ten vintage newsreels. 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.

Two behind-the-scenes photo galleries and the original theatrical trailer round off this two-disc set. In the canon of Hollywood war films, Tora! Tora! Tora! is often overlooked, but fans of the genre will want to hunker down with this two-disc set.

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