Such A Tragedy

Rating: 3/10 (13 July 2013)

It is impossible to avoid comparisons to any "Pearl Harbor" movie (no matter what the title) to "Tora, Tora, Tora".
I honestly believe that the producers of this movie had good intentions. However, they obviously had one handicap that they could never overcome.
The Hollywood that produced "Tora, Tora, Tora" was a radically different Hollywood than that of today. The main difference was that, in that late sixties and early seventies, may of the people who made up the Hollywood scene were actually veterans. In other words, they understood personal sacrifice and loss.
Despite the best efforts of today's Hollywood, they just don't get it.
The depiction of the Japanese is two-dimensional and stereo-typical. The planner and executors of the attack on Pearl Harbor (Yakimoto, Fuchida, and Genda) were very intelligent men of honor who deserve much more that what this movie portrayed them as.
The defenders of Pearl Harbor (from Admiral Kimmel down to ship's cook Doris Miller) were far more three dimensional and complex than this screenplay would have us believe.
The simple fact is, that as much as the writers and producers ("Hey, we have CG effects. So, what else do we need?") may have attempted a salute to our forebears, the fact is that they have failed us (and more importantly them) in their retelling of history.