Line #15 YMMV/ToraToraTora


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The score by Music/JerryGoldsmith. The parts with Japanese instruments and pentatonic motifs especially add a lot to that side of the film.
2	* {{Narm}}:
3	** One of the officers gets angry at a plane for flying either too low or into a restricted area and wants him identified so he can chew him out. The plane identifies itself to him by bombing a structure.
4	--->Get that guy's number, Dick! I'll have him reported for safety violations! [=D3A=] drops bomb
5	** The conductor speeds up the anthem upon realizing that the base is under attack.[[note]]This is TruthInTelevision, as when a military band plays the national anthem, they do not stop playing under any circumstances until it is finished. The poor band was trying to get it over with so they could duck for cover.[[/note]]
6	** A server in the mess hall exclaims to everyone that the radio is broadcasting an emergency report that Pearl Harbor is under attack. Everyone drops what they're doing, rushes to the windows, and manage to get a glimpse of a [=D3A=] dropping a bomb right in front of them... hitting them with a blast wave and a spray of shrapnel and broken glass.
7	* NightmareFuel: The American pilots trying desperately to get up in the air while their base is under attack. Most of the planes are blown to pieces before they can begin their takeoff roll. One plane is sent skidding sideways along the pavement, making a nightmarish screeching noise as the fighter bursts into flames.
8	* StoicWoobie: Admiral Kimmell. Once the attack is in full swing, a machine gun bullet breaks the window he is standing in front of and strikes him in the chest. The round is spent, not having enough energy to even penetrate his uniform. He feels it would have been a mercy if he had been struck dead on the spot. Both the incident and Kimmell's dialogue musing on this are TruthInTelevision.
9	* VindicatedByHistory: It was a box-office flop in the U.S. and for the most part, critics didn't like it (Creator/RogerEbert awarded it only ''one star''). But it did pretty well in Japan (eventually breaking even), the expensive special effects shots were convincing enough to be re-used for over a decade (Toshio Masuda even reused most of the Pearl Harbor attack in his 1982 war epic ''The Imperial Japanese Empire'') , and if you need historical accuracy more than you need character-driven drama in a film, this is a good go-to. After the 2001 film, ''Film/PearlHarbor'', proved a boring and badly researched flop, the reputation of this film as the best dramatization of the attack grew still more.
10	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: So... now that we've listed this trope, guess which UsefulNotes/AcademyAward it ''did'' get?
11	** When you watch the movie today, modern viewers should take a moment to realize that this was long before CGI. All of the effects shots were done with physical models or real planes and ships.
12	** The film involved the construction of some thirty-odd replica Japanese aircraft from WWII era US T-6 and BT-13 trainers. All of them are present in some formation flying scenes. There were also five B-17s, two P-40s, and one PBY Catalina. Some of the footage shot was later reused for ''Film/PearlHarbor.''
13	* TheWoobie: Plenty to go around in Oahu once the battle starts.
14	** One scene features a young Japanese or Japanese-American (a substantial portion of Hawaii's population included immigrants from Japan) messenger delivering General Marshall's telegram to Fort Shafter. The Sergeant signing for the message shares [[FacialDialogue a long look]] with the obviously terrified boy, who is part of a population who are in for a very ugly time by US authorities considering them all a security threat because of their race/nationality.[[note]]Albeit that that messenger would've actually been relatively ''lucky'' to live in Hawaii rather than the mainland United States, as Japanese-Americans on the mainland were rounded up and sent to internment camps, whereas those in Hawaii mostly weren't, as they made up such a large proportion of the territory's population that interning them all would've made its economy grind to a halt.[[/note]]
15	** Cordell Hull, who is deeply upset over the attack and the fact that he didn't get the Japanese government's attack (a letter full of fabrications) until ''after'' the Japanese threw the first punch.

Context YMMV / ToraToraTora