“Tora! Tora! Tora!” was planned by Hollywood Legendary Producer of 20th
Century Fox, Zanuck. This movie about the “Pearl Harbor Attack” was filmed
with a huge budget and it was scheduled in such a way that Kurosawa directs
the Japanese parts and the American director directs the US parts. Kurosawa
finished writing the full-length script and he started to shoot several
cuts. However, he suddenly resigned the whole project with one month to
go and a huge full scale model set of battle ship was left behind. “Due
to Health Conditions” was the official announcement for his sudden resignation
from 20th Century Fox. However, the true reason is still an unknown mystery
to this day among movie journalists. It is said that Kurosawa could not
fit into the American way of producing movies or that there was a feud
with Toei Studio staff members with whom Kurosawa had never worked before.
However, as per the above, I want to point out that the few cuts of “Tora!
Tora! Tora!” were in fact Kurosawa’s first color shots. (Unfortunately
these few cuts are missing. If they are found, the data value will most
likely be very high).
Kurosawa finally made his first color movie, “Dodes’ka-Den,” after resigning
as the director of “Tora! Tora! Tora!”. It was said that he painted the
ground surface directly to reflect his favorite color tone on the screen.
However, as for color technique, this movie is still within the experimental
phase. Nevertheless, his color technique has gradually become sophisticated
through “Dersu Uzala”(1975) and “Kagemusha”(1980). His distinct color
style, like using a colored reflex lighting board, was established in “Ran”
(1985). In the late trend in Kurosawa’s productions such as “Dreams”
(1990), “Rhapsody in August” (1991), and “No, Not yet” (1993), the
color tone brilliantly stands out, but is not glaring. They are on the
peak of “color of Kurosawa” and have different charms from the masterpieces
of Kurosawa’s younger days.
In this way, Kurosawa brought up his own color slowly after many years.
On the “Tora! Tora! Tora!” project, he experienced many first time events,
such as his first big budget co-production with Hollywood, his first staffs,
his first studio, and his first color movies. Among this difficult situation,
I can hardly image he easily realized the color which he really desired
in this movies. I strongly believe “Color” was one of the biggest obstacles
in implementing his phantom dream project, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (“Tora!
Tora! Tora!” was finished by substitute directors and you can see it on
DVD. Kurosawa’s name was not credited as script writer due to his strong
claim, but most of his original script was used as it was on this movie.
You can assume his epic intention on it even though there is no sign of
Kurosawa’s distinct powerful expression in this movie).
End
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