Tora! Tora! Tora!

A prototype disaster movie, reconstructing the attack on Pearl Harbor, which cost somewhere in the region of 25 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive American films to date. A distinguished cast gets a bit lost in the welter of special effects; and with the sequences giving the Japanese viewpoint directed by Japanese film-makers (Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku), there's something of a soft shoe shuffle to avoid treading on national sensibilities. But the climax, in particular, manages to be more than just a shoot-out, with Fleischer's intelligent direction generating a real feeling of chaos and apocalypse.