Tora Tora Tora (1970) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm not a big war-movie buff any more (THE SEARCH FOR PRIVATE RYAN cured me) but this is a worthwhile film if you have an interest in WWII. TORA! TORA! TORA! is a documentary-type film. Think of it as a Stephen Ambrose book recorded live. The film is neither a glorified fifties war-film (IN HARMS WAY, BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA), nor is it a Viet Nam noir-war film (PLATOON, THE DEER HUNTER). (Neither of which are particularly authentic.)
TORA! TORA! TORA! recreates war from the perspective of news correspondent-participant-observer. The story is presented from both the Japanese and American viewpoints and it is presented like a History Channel film.
It took the film crew several months to film TORA! TORA! TORA! I was living in Navy housing on Pearl Harbor at the time and a number of our friends and acquaintences found part-time jobs acting in the film. "Real" military pilots in-between rounds in Viet Nam flew some of the planes (this was 1969).
Much of the architecture in Honolulu was vintage WWII era or earlier and the rest of the island was relatively unchanged from the 1940s. The terrain looked very much as it had when my father-in-law passed through on his way to Guadalcanel and later Iwo Jima.
I cannot tell you the names of the aircraft (my husband could) but I was told that they used real aircraft from the period including the P40s the U.S. flew and the captured Zeros the Japanese flew. We drove up to Schoffield Barracks to look at the old airplanes lined up row on row. During the filming, one of these old planes crashed in a sugar cane field and burned up before the pilot could be rescued. The daily flights overhead, the real crashes, the reenactment of the destruction in the harbor, the daily flights in and out of Hickam as men and material destined for Viet Nam left and wounded and dead arrived--was all very weird.
Well, this is an excellent film. The new PEARL HARBOR relies on all sorts of technology, but if you want to see how Hawaii really looked in 1941 and how the planes really looked, and how the crews really looked, and obtain some sense of how terrifying it was to be in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 this is the film to see.

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"Tora! Tora! Tora!" is the Japanese signal to attack - and the movie meticulously recreates the attack on Pearl Harbor and the events leading up to it. Opening scenes contrast the American and Japanese positions. Japanese imperialists decide to stage the attack. Top U.S. brass ignore it's possibility. Intercepted Japanese messages warn of it - but never reach F.D.R.'s desk. Radar warnings are disregarded. Even the entrapment of a Japanese submarine in Pearl Harbor before the attack goes unreported. Ultimately the Day of Infamy arrives - in the most spectacular, gut-wrenching cavalcade of action-packed footage ever. You'll see moments of unsurpassed spectacle and heroism: U.S. fighters trying to take off and being hit as they taxi; men blasted from the decks of torpedoed ships while trying to rescue buddies; savage aerial dogfights pitting lone American fliers against squadrons of Imperial war planes. It's the most dazzling recreation of America's darkest day - and some of her finest hours.

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The Patriot (Extended Cut) (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)My review for the original version of "The Patriot" can be found under its respective title. This review is merely for those who may already own the movie and are wondering if it's worth buying a second time around for an additional 10 minutes of footage. For those who have never bought this title, then I can say emphatically to choose this version. For those who already own it . . . well . . . I suppose you'll need to read on and decide.
First of all (thank goodness), the extra 10 minutes of footage are not merely tacked on as "Deleted Scenes" at the end of the movie. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to do so since some of the extra footage is not found in separate scenes, but rather additional footage of already established scenes. In these situations, the extra footage may be as long as an additional minute or as little as a few seconds. How do I know? Well, for one, I'm a high school history teacher and show it every year during our unit on the Revolutionary War. Given that I teach five classes a day of the same subject, I'd say I've gotten quite familiar with the movie.
Now, one particular extension of a scene is quite riveting in that Benjamin Martin's youngest children get their first taste of the horrors of war prior to the death of Thomas. This comes just before the evening when Gabriel stumbles home after being wounded in a nearby battle. Something (the viewer is unaware) catches the attention of the Martin children and they stride over to a nearby creek/river to investigate. What they discover are the bodies of several soldiers floating downstream. Martin then comes over and ushers the children back into the house.
Another noteworthy scene extension is found in the "ambush" scene following the death of Thomas--you know, the famous "aim small, miss small" scene. Well, in the original edited version of the film we soon observe the infamous Tavington interviewing a dying witness of the event in a battlefield tent hospital. It is in this scene that the witness compares who we know as Benjamin Martin to a ghost. The problem is, as far as we knew, there were no survivors. We had to accept at face value that perhaps one must have escaped. In this version of the film we now know the facts! You see, after Martin does his bloody hack job on a would-be escapee, the camera pans in on one particular Redcoat as he lays wounded in a nearby swamp. We then get a peek at what he sees through his one dying eye: an eerie glimpse of Martin flitting through the dim light of the heavily-wooded forest. Then the camera focuses again on the bloodied face of this dying witness. It is not long thereafter that we discover that this poor chap actually survives (he's the one in the hospital tent).
One particular scene left off the original is the burial of Thomas. Although the scene is short, it nevertheless reiterates that Benjamin Martin has a tender, loving side (remember, a few scenes before he was hacking and slashing away at every Redcoat in sight).
Of particular note are the additional scenes involving Cornwallis and Tavington. Here, the viewer witnesses Cornwallis scolding Tavington in the presence of other officers --- the viewer should be delighted to see the arrogant and villainous Tavington being humiliated in front of others. In the scene, Cornwallis sarcastically remarks that Tavington has earned himself the nickname "The Butcher." This scene is important in that it helps establish and underscore the motive Tavington has for eliminating "The Ghost," Benjamin Martin. Further dialogue between the two is found later in the movie as well.
In short, the additional footage is not just added fluff. Indeed, the additional footage adds substance to every scene where it was originally found. Now, if the original version is a perennial favorite of yours, then by all means go out and get it. If, on the other hand, you may only watch it once in a blue moon then you could probably live without it.

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In 1776 South Carolina, widower and legendary war hero Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) finds himself thrust into the midst of the American Revolutionary War as he helplessly watches his family torn apart by the savage forces of the British Redcoats. Unable to remain silent, he recruits a band of reluctant volunteers, including his idealistic patriot son, Gabriel (Heath Ledger), to take up arms against the British. Fighting to protect his family's freedom and his country's independence, Martin discovers the pain of betrayal, the redemption of revenge and the passion of love.

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Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) Review

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(More customer reviews)Now that most people know "Pearl Harbor" is a combination of "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," this 1944 film directed by Mergyn LeRoy might get some renewed interest. Dalton Trumbo's screenplay is based on the book by Captain Ted. W. Lawson and Robert Considine, and it is Van Johnson as Lawson who is the main character in this film. Spencer Tracy's role as Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle is basically a supporting part, which, or course, Tracy nails. The film is an exciting and essentially faithful retelling of the famous air raid of Japan that was America's first significant payback for the raid on Pearl Harbor. The film not only has a documentary style, including actual footage of the B-25s taking off from the carrier Hornet, it also uses the real name of the raiders, which is a nice tribute to the members of the Doolittle Raid. Covering both the grueling training as well as the actual raid, "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" has the deserved reputation of being one of the most accurate films produced during World War II about the actual war, winning the 1945 Oscar for Best Special Effects. The cast includes Robert Walker, Don DeFore, and a very young Robert Mitchum. If you prefer history to melodrama, then it might be worth your while to do a double-feature of "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" some weekend.

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Return to Tarawa-the Leon Cooper Story Review

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(More customer reviews)In Steven C. Barber's film "Return to Tarawa," which features Leon Cooper's role in the Battle of Tarawa, Mr. Cooper is portrayed as a heroic character who ferried Marines into Tarawa and wounded guys out throughout the 3-day battle in November of 1943. Cooper has said publicly many times he "closed the eyes of the dead" and buried "scores" of his fellow countrymen in the days following the battle.
Unfortunately, in Cooper's own 2003 book, 90 Day Wonder: Darkness Remembered, which has been widely marketed and reviewed as "true to life" (i.e., a nonfiction memoir), he tells a different tale. In the book version Cooper's Higgins boat was hit and he was returned to a ship and cleared for duty by a Navy doctor. Cooper then ordered a coxswain to bring him to a strip of land far away from the battle for about a week, by which time the fighting and follow-up actions had ended. He'd missed the battle almost entirely and never set foot on Betio, the islet where the fighting took place.
Both accounts cannot be true. If audiences accept the film version then Cooper's own autobiography is a fabrication. That means Cooper knowingly duped readers and allowed them to think it was true. The book conveniently lacks a label as "fiction," "nonfiction," "history," etc, yet reviews on the author's own website clearly indicate that readers view the book as truly an account of the author's life. Mr. Cooper proudly features these reviews to market the book, further promoting the book as a true account. But on the other hand, if audiences accept the book version as fact, then this film cannot possibly be accurate or considered a true documentary. The film then becomes the fabrication.
As we know from recent controversies in the publishing world (e.g., James Frey and the falsehoods of his memoir "A Million Little Pieces"), fiction sold as truth is unacceptable and destroys an author's credibility. If Mr. Cooper's memoir is one such fiction, then his claims in this film, and the many interviews available online with the likes of Katie Couric, Larry King, and others, are impossible to believe.

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A WWII veteran returns to the site of his first battle because he had learned that many of his countrymen, who died in the battle, still lie where they fell sixty-six years later.
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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World War II: Payoff in the Pacific Review

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(More customer reviews)The war in the Pacific has always been overshadowed by the war against Hitler in Europe, and it really should not be. I would have gladly chosen to take on the elite of the German Wehrmacht and S.S. before I would have signed on to take the war to Japanese soldiers. The Japanese were tough as nails; they gave no quarter and fought on long after most soldiers would have surrendered. They also enjoyed a home field advantage of sorts, as the American military had never fought a campaign against island chains full of jungles and the tropical diseases that thrive there. The story of America's war against Japan is really quite amazing and should be heralded as such. Much intense fighting took place between the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as this video makes clear.
Indeed, Payoff in the Pacific begins with the sneak attack on the Pacific fleet and takes the viewer all the way through the Japanese surrender. Long before the D-Day invasion of Normandy, American soldiers were storming beaches all across the Pacific. In the days and months following December 7,1941, Japan all but established its supremacy in the region. It would take time for the U.S. to rebuild the Pacific fleet and get new recruits ready to fight, but even in 1942 U.S. soldiers were fighting the Japanese in places such as Papua and the Solomon Islands. This video basically takes you through the American advance toward Japan, island by island, featuring impressive and telling footage of the battles - you don't get a lot of detail about each battle, but the big picture comes through loud and clear. At first, the Americans basically tried to hold back the Japanese advance, losing many islands in the process. As the new army took shape, however, the tide slowly began to turn. Long and deadly fights such as the battle for Guadalcanal (which took six months) evolved into shorter and less deadly battles as the U.S. forces began to go on the offensive. By summer 1944, the Americans were ready to take back the Philippines, and it is here that Japanese defeat became all but inevitable. A vicious two-day naval battle in the Gulf of Leyte essentially broke the Japanese navy's back, and by early 1945 the army had taken Okinawa (albeit with heavy losses) to land itself on the proverbial doorstep of Japan. It was at that time that the Enola Gay made her way into the history books with the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. After Nagasaki fell prey to a second atomic bomb, the Japanese were compelled to surrender.
The video doesn't stop at the signing of surrender papers, however. It offers a significant glimpse at how quickly American troops went to work rebuilding the infrastructure of the nation they had just defeated. Not only did this pave the way for a new friendship between these two formerly antagonistic nations, it highlights the character of the men and women who made up the Greatest Generation of Americans. This video was released officially by the U.S. Army, but I don't consider it propagandistic - it may be one-sided in its approach, but this is an American film about an American victory.

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Japan Under American Occupation (History Channel) Review

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(More customer reviews)this is a very interseting tape on topic that is not discussed. It was an eye opener for me. If you like to study facts about the war this is a good tape. It goes into things that have been really covered before.

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The Final Countdown (1980) Review

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(More customer reviews)This film is well written, has an all star cast and has wonderful photography. Filmed well before Top Gun, The Final Countdown has great areial combat/flight scenes and shows the awesome capabilites of the navy's modern nuclear aircraft carriers and the stressful environment that all aboard have to live with every day.
Kirk Douglass and Marten Sheen show why they were "A" list actors when this film was made. Both gave excellent performances.
The script was well written with the exploration of the ships crew trying to deal with a potential paradox that would effect every person on the planet.
Great acting a good story and super photography of aircraft carrier and flight operations. If you like these features, you will love this movie.

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The History Channel Conspiracy Theory 12 Episode Collection : TWA Flight 800 , Majestic Twelve UFO Cover-up , FDR and Pearl Harbor , Area 51 , Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr. , Princess Diana , Lincoln Assassination , Oklahoma City Bombing, CIA and the Nazis , Jack Ruby , RFK Assassination , Kecksburg UFO : 3 DVD SET Over 9 Hours Review

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(More customer reviews)We all know things are often not what they seem. But how many times have shadowy schemes, twisted plots, and secret conspirators been behind some of history's most newsworthy events? Was Princess Diana the victim of a tragic traffic accident, or a murder scheme? Was TWA Flight 800 brought down by a missile rather than a faulty fuel tank, as the official report says? Was that a flying saucer that crashed in the desert scrubland near Roswell, New Mexico? And what about strip club-owner Jack Ruby? Did his murder of Lee Harvey Oswald signal a far wider conspiracy in the death of John Kennedy?
These 12 top-rated episodes from HISTORY(tm) looks at all sides of these and other tantalizing questions. Using original documents and interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, it enables viewers to reach their own conclusions. CONSPIRACY? will have you thinking again and again about the history you thought you knew.(Approximately 188 minutes per volume)
VOLUME 1: TWA Flight 800 / Majestic Twelve: UFO Cover-Up / FDR and Pearl Harbor / Area 51
VOLUME 2: Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.? / Princess Diana / Lincoln Assassination / Oklahoma City Bombing
VOLUME 3: CIA and the Nazis / Jack Ruby / RFK Assassination / Kecksburg UFOVolume 1:
*TWA FLIGHT 800--The official reports maintain that a malfunction in the fuel tank brought down TWA Flight 800, but eyewitnesses insist lights streaking toward the plane just before the crash point to the real reason.*MAJESTIC TWELVE: UFO COVER-UP--If a flying saucer did not land in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, why did President Harry Truman bring together, as some say, an elite group of scientists, military and intelligence officials to deal with the incident?*FDR AND PEARL HARBOR--Did President Roosevelt know the attack was about to take place but withhold evidence in order to convince a reluctant nation enter WWII?*AREA 51--Most people have never heard about Nevada's Area 51, a base that doesn't officially exist, but nevertheless is linked to top-secret planes, mysterious "black projects," unexplained deaths, and hush-hush missions.
Volume 2:
*WHO KILLED MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.?--James Earl Ray received a 99-year prison sentence for killing Reverend King, but even the King family believes him to be innocent. Many believe conspiracy to be involved, perhaps reaching to the CIA, FBI, and beyond.*PRINCESS DIANA--Was Princess Diana's death simply a tragic accident, as official investigations assert, or could it have been a political assassination?*LINCOLN ASSASSINATION--Even today some believe there were many more people involved in the assassination of the President than John Wilkes Booth and his eight co-conspirators. The most famous of the suspects: Confederate President Jefferson Davis.*OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING--Has the federal government covered up evidence that Neo-Nazi and Middle Eastern terrorist groups helped Timothy McVeigh bomb the Federal Building in Oklahoma City?
Volume 3:
*CIA AND THE NAZIS--The CIA in league with the Nazis? Unthinkable. But without the public's knowledge, the US hired more than 4,000 former Nazi's, including war criminals, to work in the intelligence, science, and engineering communities.*JACK RUBY--Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald, but did he act alone or were the Mafia, anti-Castro Cubans, or even the CIA involved?*RFK ASSASSINATION--Sirhan Sirhan is serving a life sentence for the 1968 killing of Robert Kennedy, but do extra bullets, bullet holes, and destroyed evidence point to a cover-up?*KECKSBURG UFO--What came down in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania in December 1965, was there a government cover-up, and does the cover-up continue today?

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Pearl Harbor (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)Why does Hollywood have to make a three hour movie about a terrible day in US history and turn it into 'As The World Turns'? I could not believe that I sat through this piece of junk. It was 2 1/2 hours of 'General Hospital' and 1/2 hour of reality. It's a shame that Hollywood feels that 99% of the films that come out today must contain some kind of soap opera setting to satisfy what they think the lady folks wish to see. I find that to be rather insulting to women and I am not a female. There is nothing romantic about December 7,1941. It gets 1 star for the actual attack sequence. I must mention that I highly doubt that while they flew over head, the Japanese pilots were signaling to the American children to take cover. Silliness. If you wish to see a great film on Pearl Harbor, seek out 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' and let this one rot.

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Pearl Harbor/ Armageddon - 2 Pack (1998) Review

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(More customer reviews)Well.....all I've got to say is that these two movies are a perfect choice if you're planning to buy new DVDs anytime soon. although "Armageddom" is not exactly "New", I think it will do good to your DVD collection, especially since it's one of the best movies that combines love and tragedy. "Pearl Harbor" is a combination of those two too, and Ben Affleck also takes part in the movie as he did in "Armageddom". I would definetely buy this "movie combo" if I had my parent's credit card, so I definetely recommend this to anyone who loves to see good movies about love and war (Pearl Harbor) and love and sacrifice (Armageddom). And also....if you love movies with nice visual effects and a nice soundtrack, these two are for you!

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The History Channel Naval Warfare 39 Episodes Collection : Design for War / The Pacific Boils Over / Sealing the Breach / Midway is East / Mediterranean Mosaic / Guadalcanal / Rings Around Rabaul / Mare Nostrum / Sea and Sand / Beneath the Southern Cross / Magnetic North / The Conquest of Micronesia / Melanesian Nightmare /Roman Renaissance / D-Day / Killers and the Killed / The Turkey Shoot / Two if by Sea / Battle for Leyte Gulf / Return of the Allies /Full Fathom Five / The Fate of Europe / Target Suribachi / The Road to Mandalay / Suicide for Glory / Design for Peace / LST-325 / USS Jeremiah O'Brien / USS Samuel B. Roberts /USS Arizona / USS Constitution / USS Enterprise / USS Hornet /USS Laffey / USS Nautilus / USS New Jersey / USS New York /USS Texas / USS Yorktown : Box Set almost 22 Hours Review

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(More customer reviews)The product itself is very good but I was quite disappointed when I received it and found out that the first four DVDs are Victory at Sea DVDs. We already have that four-DVD set. Which means that I paid for 8 DVDs but can only use the 4 that cover the different ships. But they were good and we learned some new stuff, even though my husband is a WWII in the Pacific fanatic.

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Click here for more information about The History Channel Naval Warfare 39 Episodes Collection : Design for War / The Pacific Boils Over / Sealing the Breach / Midway is East / Mediterranean Mosaic / Guadalcanal / Rings Around Rabaul / Mare Nostrum / Sea and Sand / Beneath the Southern Cross / Magnetic North / The Conquest of Micronesia / Melanesian Nightmare /Roman Renaissance / D-Day / Killers and the Killed / The Turkey Shoot / Two if by Sea / Battle for Leyte Gulf / Return of the Allies /Full Fathom Five / The Fate of Europe / Target Suribachi / The Road to Mandalay / Suicide for Glory / Design for Peace / LST-325 / USS Jeremiah O'Brien / USS Samuel B. Roberts /USS Arizona / USS Constitution / USS Enterprise / USS Hornet /USS Laffey / USS Nautilus / USS New Jersey / USS New York /USS Texas / USS Yorktown : Box Set almost 22 Hours

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The Bloody Aleutians Review

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(More customer reviews)'The Bloody Aleutians' - Documentary. This is one of the four critical video documentaries that covers down on the Aleutian Campaign of World War II in Alaska - sometimes referred to as the forgotten war. It is in the good company and traditions of such documentaries as 'Red White Black & Blue', 'Report From The Aleutians', and 'Alaska At War'. For any student of the second world war, this is an important treatment of this extraordinary (and generally under-reported) campaign. It also closely compliments the written works of Stan Cohen's series on the Aleutian Campaign. I strongly recommend it! - Prof Mike Haller

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V for Victory: Pearl Harbor to Midway (1989) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the intial volume of a multi-volume set of videos depicting the course of the Second World War. This is an older effort, narrated by two former heavy-weight jornalists in the persons of Eric Sevareid and Edwin Newman, and utilizing the original black and white newsreel shown in theaters. This first volume explores the way in which the United States was ineluctably sucked into the conflict by virtue of the cowardly Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This volume opens with, and then concentrates on, the way in which the Japanese armed forces advanced across the South Pacific, and spends some time detailing the fall of the Philippines.
This episode concludes by exploring the details of the daring American gamble at the naval engagement at Midway, which was the pivotal moment marking the apex and sudden end of end of Japan's expanionsit surge, as well as the beginnings of the fateful American moves to reestablish itself and become the dominating force in the region, which is the subject of Volume II). I was pleased by the realistic nature of the the newsreel footage, which gives one a vintage view of the events as they unraveled, and I believe this authenticity is the chief drawing point that this series has to offer, and is indeed the chief strength it brings to the understanding of the broad sweep of WWII it covers. This 45-minute documentary provides the viewer with an opportunity to use such an approach to view this mechanism much as the people back home saw them over half a century ago!

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Cnn: Pearl Harbor 50 Years After (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)No event has affected the American public more than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, although the destruction of the twin towers in 9/11 comes close. There are many parallels, in both cases it was an attack that cost thousands of lives and massive destruction. Each can be considered a sneak attack although in both cases there was a lot of warning. In 1941, everyone in the high levels of government knew that the Japanese would attempt a major military action in the Pacific and there was message traffic that indicated the target was Pearl Harbor. In the case of 9/11 there was wide knowledge that the terrorist organizations were going to attempt a major assault. The identities of some of the attackers were known and the intelligence communities failed to reach the appropriate conclusions.
In the case of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the key point of failure was the belief that the Japanese simply weren't capable of mounting such an attack. As always, conspiracy theories abound, including those that believe that Franklin Roosevelt knew of the attack but wanted it to succeed so that America would be thrust into the war. As is made clear on this tape, all can be explained by a combination of American complacency and Japanese military efficiency. The Japanese navy was a first class military unit, capable of achieving great things, but lacking the reserves necessary to carry out a long war in the Pacific.
There were profound changes in the American public mood as a consequence of the attack on Pearl Harbor, some of which were still part of policy making fifty years later. To understand American involvement in World War II, it is necessary to understand the attack on Pearl Harbor and this tape will give you the fundamentals of what went right on the Japanese side and so wrong on the American side.


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Mysteries & Myths: Pearl Harbor & Atomic Bomb (1998) Review

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(More customer reviews)Of the ten videos included in the Mysteries & Myths of the Twentieth Century collection, I consider this to be the best. Each feature provides a very good background of events relating to the subject in question, there is some pretty good footage of major events and people, and questions are posed in a constructive, non-sensationalized manner. The emotions the day of infamy still flames in the hearts of Americans make this a rather touchy subject, especially when you are asking hard questions as to who knew what and when. For such a small allotment of time, this video did an outstanding job of providing a timeline of intelligence information in the days and hours before the Japanese attack. It points out the fact that the US and Britain were decoding Japanese diplomatic messages long before Pearl Harbor, while the British were intercepting and decoding Japanese naval messages as early as 1939 (without bothering to share this information with the US). Hours before the attack, FDR had in his hands a decoded diplomatic message detailing Japan's upcoming ultimatum to the US; he knew war was imminent but did not know where the enemy would attack. The full extent of FDR's knowledge is still suspect in my mind but it seems proper that this video would not resort to unfounded speculation. What is not a matter of speculation, and the video argues the case for this quite well, is that Winston Churchill knew about the upcoming attack and purposely kept the information secret from the Americans he so desperately wanted to bring in to the Allied war effort. Turning that information over to the Americans, the video suggests, would have hurt the flagging British war effort in the Far East by revealing the fact that Japanese naval codes had long been decoded and would quite likely have delayed American entrance into the war. The video does not state for a fact that Churchill let the attack on Pearl Harbor catch America completely by surprise, but it does present compelling arguments for making such a case. The one thing the presentation does not delve into are the clues overlooked or inanely dismissed by the military commanders at Pearl Harbor in the pre-dawn hours of that fateful morning. While Short and Kimmel were clearly made scapegoats for the embarrassing disaster, several factors betraying the local military leadership's deficiencies and limited culpability do not make it into the video. Just the fact that all of the US planes and naval vessels were bunched up together guaranteed that Pearl Harbor was a sitting duck.
The feature on the race to build an atomic bomb is naturally less controversial, but I definitely found it interesting. Evidence and speculation about the German efforts to build the first atomic bomb are rarely presented in documentaries of World War II, so I was intrigued to learn more about the limited results of the German nuclear program and speculation as to the V2 possibly being designed for delivering radioactive warheads to Britain and eventually the eastern coast of the US from special locations in northern France. All of the facts as to magnitude of force, cost, and horrifying damage are covered here, and you get some good documentary footage of both American and Japanese activities in 1945. It is incredible to realize that at least 125,000 people worked on the Manhattan Project to some capacity, yet only the Soviets learned anything about it whatsoever (which they learned from a mole inside the Project itself).
The history alone that is covered in this video makes it worthwhile, but the fair and balanced way in which it handles the sensitive Pearl Harbor blame game debate makes it stand out among all of its companion volumes in this valuable collection devoted to twentieth century myths and mysteries.

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Pearl Harbor: Uss Utah & Uss Arizona (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a Pearl Harbor historian and I bought a copy of this great documentary on DVD. It is 100% accurate and has footage never before seen. The "Survivors" that were interviewed gave excellent recounts of what it was like to be there. Never before have I seen extra footage of the bombing of the Arizona from a Japanese plane. Scott Freund and Tim Csabyani have done an excellent job. The quality and quantity of this DVD is something I would have expected from A & E or the History Channel.

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Remember Pearl Harbor: America Taken By Surprise Review

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(More customer reviews)Remember Pearl Harber is very good.
I heard about Pearl Harber on the
radio on Dec. 7, 1941. I was 11 years
old at that time.

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