(viewed on 7/6/11)

Netflix, with its ever-changing Instantly Viewable selection and dvd shipping times, has shaped my movie project in strange ways.  Sometimes a dvd hasn’t arrived in time, and I’m forced to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas instead of Schindler’s List.  Both are big movies to cross off the list, and hey, sometimes I need a break from the more intense series.

Thus, it wasn’t my intent to start my WWII series with Tora! Tora! Tora! but that’s how it happened.  I’m glad it did, because I might have put this one at the bottom of the list, if not for chronological reasons, then for Roger Ebert’s amazingly brutal review.  (A review that I respect, and that also made me want to see the film.)  I can totally understand how Roger feels about this film, but for some reason it held my attention.  Maybe because I knew it was almost completely historically accurate, I excused how tedious some scenes were.  If it were fiction, without the dramatic irony, it would be unwatchable.

Maybe I’m a terrible person, because I found this film, at times, to be funny in a horribly embarrassing way. Unfortunately it’s the Germans who have the perfect word for it: schadenfreude. Watching the Americans disregard, pass along, outright deny the threat of the attack, and basically do their best to allow it… sigh. (also: FDLMT, once again.)

What I really enjoyed about Tora! Tora! Tora! is the lack of known actors in any of the roles.  This is usually my preference, but it worked perfectly here.  It would be very hard to stomach, say, John Wayne in one of the main roles.  ahem.