Pearl Harbor Payback/Appointment in Tokyo Review

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(More customer reviews)This GOODTIMES Pacific war documentary quadruple play has some technical flaws.
PEARL HARBOR PAYBACK (1945) is poorest of all: an overly dark picture and sound that includes external static and a constant 60 cycle hum (it's most noticeable over even the cheapest headphones). This is accompanied by two faint rollbars that move constantly from screen bottom to top. Original audio is mid-range only. According to IMDB, this documentary runs nearly an hour, yet here it's only 23 minutes.
The Ronald Reagan narrated two-reeler TARGET TOKYO (1945) has a nearly imperceptible hum and no visual distortion. A short labelled AIR WAR AGAINST JAPAN is visually clean but has bad audio, too heavily filtered (it's not listed at IMDB). APPOINTMENT IN TOKYO (1945) starts with clean full range audio and a decent picture. Sound deteriorates part way through and hiss increases, as if played through an audio tape head fouled with debris.
The most curious flaw is fairly brief. During an announcement of the Doolittle raid's success in "Pearl Harbor Attack," faint modern HiFi music can be heard about the movie. Its inclusion here seems accidental, perhaps a crossed circuit during mastering that caused bleed-in from another source.Content of main features--
PEARL HARBOR PAYBACK features dogfight footage of Gen. Chennault's Flying Tiger squadron. Flight crew trainees are seen, as is coverage of Jimmy Doolittle's mission to Tokyo that was launched from the deck of the USS Hornet. Because of an enemy air attack that sunk some support vessels, the Doolittle crews took off nearly twice as far from Japan as planned.
APPOINTMENT IN TOKYO tells in rapid fashion the entire Pacific air war story from homeland military production to the official Japanese surrender to Gen. MacArthur. Distributed by Warner Bros., combat footage from the Army Pictorial Service and Signal Corps is used. The Army Air Forces and the United States Navy also contributed to this project

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Hiroshima / Pearl Harbor (2010) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The version of John Ford's docudrama DECEMBER 7TH offered on this ECHO BRIDGE (aka "Platinum Disc") WWII double feature is a heavily edited one (the original film runs about 80 minutes). Missing sections aren't vital to the early morning sneak attack central to the story.
Both that vintage picture and the main attraction are nicely dubbed. Unlike previous EBHE products, there's no on-screen watermarks to ignore or fret over.HIROSHIMA is a remarkable three hour TV movie that seamlessly combines vintage footage with artfully aged, color-reduced modern film to tell both the story of Harry Truman's first few months in office and that of Japanese General Anami and Emperor Hirohito.
Although the Japanese will surely be defeated, they fight on even in the face of an imminent full scale invasion and when warned of a new, deadly American weapon. Because of their intransigence on ending the war, in early August of '45 an atomic bomb immolates Hiroshima and causes widespread casualties. It takes the similar destruction of Nagasaki to finally motivate Hirohito to accept unconditional surrender. Truly one of the finest war biopics ever made. Highest possible recommendation.Parenthetical numbers preceding titles are 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll ratings.
(6.9) December 7th (1943) - Walter Huston/Harry Davenport/Dana Andrews/George O'Brien (narrator)
(7.9) Hiroshima (TV-Canada/Japan-1995) - Kenneth Welsh/Jeffrey DeMunn/Richard Masur/Koji Takahashi/Naohiko Umewaka

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