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Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $4.50
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Product Details
- Starring: Van Johnson, Robert Walker, Tim Murdock (II), Scott McKay, Herbert Gunn
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- Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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- Binding: VHS Tape
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- Director: Mervyn LeRoy
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- EAN: 9786301977289
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- Format: Black & White, NTSC
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- ISBN: 6301977289
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- Label: Mgm Entertainment
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- Manufacturer: Mgm Entertainment
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Product Group: Video
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- Publisher: Mgm Entertainment
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- Release Date: 1991-01-23
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- Studio: Mgm Entertainment
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- Theatrical Release Date: 1944-11
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- Title: Thirty Seconds over Tokyo
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- UPC: 027616092830
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: There is no more ringing title among World War II movies than Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, and the mission it celebrates was unquestionably historic: a 400-mile bombing raid to carry the war to Japan itself mere months after that nation's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet the film is less memorable than many WWII pictures with less exalted factual basis. At the time, critic James Agee eloquently defined both its virtues and limitations as "a big-studio, big-scale film, free of artistic pretension ... transformed by its not very imaginative but very dogged sincerity into something forceful, simple, and thoroughly sympathetic in spite of all its big-studio, big-scale habits." That remains true today, but perhaps the movie--and its unimpeachably noble, admirably life-sized characters--wouldn't seem so stuck in the amber of a bygone era if Mervyn LeRoy and company had pumped a little "artistic pretension" into it. Spencer Tracy--as James H. Doolittle, architect of the raid--rates the most towering screen credit, and he's superb. But his role's an extended cameo; the emotional core of the film is B-25 pilot Ted Lawson (Van Johnson) and his wife, Ellen (the glowing Phyllis Thaxter). Lawson's bestselling memoir (with Bob Considine) of his training for the secret mission, his group's launching from the aircraft carrier Hornet, and his crash landing and protracted ordeal in China--where he lost a leg--has been faithfully served. The film is long on homely detail and all-American decency (including a remarkably outspoken regret over the unavoidability of civilian casualties) but achieves its greatest impact in the raid itself. That sequence, in addition to boasting Oscar-winning special effects, is mostly shot in riveting silence. --Richard T. Jameson
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Customer Reviews
Stirring Tale of True-Life Heroes
There's no question the film is framed in a very straightforward, literal way, and that the characters are somewhat hokey All-American stereotypes.
But I think to dismiss the film as simplistic is mistaken. Soon-to-be-Blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo includes some deft concepts of collective responsibility and moral tension, including not just the passage on civilian casualties, but also the exchange where the soldiers agree that that they don't hate the Japanese people.
I would also recommend this disc for the special features -- a great short on bad movie etiquette, a vintage cartoon about a bear air raid warden, and a superb 15 minute documentary on the loss of the SS Normandie.
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Good Wartime Movie
Most war movies actually made during WW2, are a bit too soppy and unrealistic for my liking, but this movie was quite good and it portrayed a major event during WW2 in the Pacific. Spencer Tracy did a good job, as Jimmy Doolittle and Van Johnson wasn't bad either. I don't know how Van Johnson's wife in the movie, got pregant when they where sleeping in seperate bed's?? I liked the fact that the aircraft, ships etc in the movie looked authentic. There is nothing worse in a war movie then seeing a Mustang or Trainer painted up to look like ME-109. Having said that, the Trainers made up to look like Zero's in "Tora Tora Tora" looked the part. Overall a good war movie, well worth the money.
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Sometimes revenge is not a dish best eaten cold.
If you are a WWII buff, you can't miss this classic. Released in 1944 long before the end of the war, Hollywood and the Army cooperated in getting this top-secret out before the public, as a morale booster. Think about it: December 7, 1941 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Just over four months later, on April 18, 1942, the unbelievable mission of launching 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers off of the (short) deck of the U.S.S. Hornet for the purpose of bombing Tokyo. Talk about getting even quickly! The bombs didn't do a strategic amount of damage, but the insult to the Japanese emperor and the Japanese war leadership were, as the ad states, "priceless". The action is realistic; the facts are correct; and real names and locations are utilized.
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thirty seconds over tokyo
wonderful movie arrived very quickly and in good condition will diffently purchase other movies in the future
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A fantastic classic World War II movie
This is a classic World War II movie that continues where the real classic movie Air Force leaves off. This is a must have for real collectors.
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