(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.”
For the uninformed, it isn’t as if this daring World War II aerial raid conducted by Lt. Col. James Doolittle hasn’t had a fair amount of exposure in the modern era.
Michael Bay’s bid budget spectacle Pearl Harbor (2001) focused chiefly on the event that forced the United States of America into the war; and because the storyteller didn’t want to end on a sour note he kept going well after the Japanese destruction of the Pacific Fleet through the famous raid, essentially underscoring that the fight was really only beginning. Similarly, 2019’s Midway from director Roland Emmerich saw the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle offensive as the opening catalyst to spin his web about the pivotal battle that would take place in the Pacific theater six months later. But as both films use the efforts of Doolittle and his men to kinda/sorta prop up thematically what they were saying about war, audiences might be best served to actually pick up a copy of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo to get a more detailed and melodramatic accounting.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy from a story by Dalton Trumbo, Ted W. Lawson, and Bob Considine, Thirty Seconds tells the story mostly through the eyes of the young captain Lawson (played by Van Johnson) who volunteers alongside other officers for the secret mission that evolves into the American first strike against the growing Japanese empire. The film goes to great lengths to capture the level of secrecy surrounding the whole affair – from pilot and aircraft selection, through training and preparation, and all the way through engagement and aftermath – packing in a great deal of drama into its 138-minute run time. While it’s easy to point out some sequences drag on a bit longer than necessary, there’s no denying the fact that Thirty Seconds tries to recapture the ambition of men and women answering the call to patriotic duty as well as the risks they faced – including life and limb – along the way. In the process, it’s sometimes sensational and occasionally grim, but there’s no denying that lives were changed in more ways than one.
Surprisingly, the film actually sets most of its players in motion with scenes that feel perhaps a bit too jovial. Clearly, war has broken out; and Washington D.C. tasks Lt. Col. Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) with assembling a small fleet with which to carry out his attack. When we’re slowly introduced to the cast of young bucks, there isn’t the same sense of dread and consternation over America’s fate that permeates so much of the aforementioned Pearl Harbor and Midway. In fact, these men are jokesters making merry at every turn; and there’s rarely a display of the gung-ho patriotism that seems requisite for so many other wartime pictures. If a viewer simply happened across one of the flick’s earliest sequences, then he or she might not even suspect that these fifty states were every in crisis. The only two who seems to take it all with the requisite seriousness are Doolittle and Lawson; and, tonally, I wasn’t all that enamored with the basic set-up and character introductions.
Thankfully, a lot of that ‘human interest’ stuff falls away once the picture gets down to the brass tacks. The training sequences are quite good – as is the delivery of our brave flyers and their crews into the Pacific – and the final third of Thirty Seconds explores the lengths to which the survivors had to go to protect themselves from capture in friendly Chinese territories. Director LeRoy definitely contrasts the ‘safe at home’ life of the first half with the ‘dangers abroad’ second; but there is a good deal of general romantic mushiness to fill in the gaps that could have been truncated just a bit. It’s a bit too smarmy and conventional – the kind of love movie censors allowed from those days – and I’m never a big fan of that.
Lastly, I think it’s deserving to mention that Thirty Seconds took home top honors at the 1945 Academy Awards in the category of ‘Best Special Effects.’ As one who spends a great deal of time studying films from the realms of the Fantastic, I can still see and appreciate what the technical experts accomplished in telling this dynamic aerial adventure the way they did, and I can’t think of another film from the bygone era of filmmaking whose visuals are as stunning as what director Mervyn LeRoy was blessed to assemble here. In fact, Thirty Seconds might be one of the better films of old to point folks to who argue that effects work just wasn’t all that important in storytelling back then as there’s no way this project could possibly exist without some incredible visual trickery.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) was produced by Loew’s Incorporated. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been handled by the fine folks at the Warner Archive. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can still assure readers that this film both looks and sounds phenomenal: given the fact that it’s all based on a true story is yet one more reason to witness what gets rendered to full theatrical glory here as much of it is awe-inspiring. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Sadly, there’s really not anything film-specific on the disc, but there are some shorts drawn from the same historical era that make for suitable diversions.
Highly Recommended.
Though I mean this with no disrespect, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) is one of those flicks that in my estimation falls just a bit short of theatrical perfection and this is only because its last third invests so much in the aftermath of these pilots and their crews downed in enemy territory … and, well, it just gets really depressing. Yes, it finds a way to wind everything up on an uplifting note – love conquers all, you know – but it’s still the kind of experience I’m personally less inclined to watch over and over and over the way I do a solid handful of classics. None of this dismisses the reality that it’s arguably one of the greatest war stories ever told; on that front, it deserves to be seen by all.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at the Warner Archive (via Allied Vaughn) provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.”
For the uninformed, it isn’t as if this daring World War II aerial raid conducted by Lt. Col. James Doolittle hasn’t had a fair amount of exposure in the modern era.
Michael Bay’s bid budget spectacle Pearl Harbor (2001) focused chiefly on the event that forced the United States of America into the war; and because the storyteller didn’t want to end on a sour note he kept going well after the Japanese destruction of the Pacific Fleet through the famous raid, essentially underscoring that the fight was really only beginning. Similarly, 2019’s Midway from director Roland Emmerich saw the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Doolittle offensive as the opening catalyst to spin his web about the pivotal battle that would take place in the Pacific theater six months later. But as both films use the efforts of Doolittle and his men to kinda/sorta prop up thematically what they were saying about war, audiences might be best served to actually pick up a copy of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo to get a more detailed and melodramatic accounting.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy from a story by Dalton Trumbo, Ted W. Lawson, and Bob Considine, Thirty Seconds tells the story mostly through the eyes of the young captain Lawson (played by Van Johnson) who volunteers alongside other officers for the secret mission that evolves into the American first strike against the growing Japanese empire. The film goes to great lengths to capture the level of secrecy surrounding the whole affair – from pilot and aircraft selection, through training and preparation, and all the way through engagement and aftermath – packing in a great deal of drama into its 138-minute run time. While it’s easy to point out some sequences drag on a bit longer than necessary, there’s no denying the fact that Thirty Seconds tries to recapture the ambition of men and women answering the call to patriotic duty as well as the risks they faced – including life and limb – along the way. In the process, it’s sometimes sensational and occasionally grim, but there’s no denying that lives were changed in more ways than one.
Surprisingly, the film actually sets most of its players in motion with scenes that feel perhaps a bit too jovial. Clearly, war has broken out; and Washington D.C. tasks Lt. Col. Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) with assembling a small fleet with which to carry out his attack. When we’re slowly introduced to the cast of young bucks, there isn’t the same sense of dread and consternation over America’s fate that permeates so much of the aforementioned Pearl Harbor and Midway. In fact, these men are jokesters making merry at every turn; and there’s rarely a display of the gung-ho patriotism that seems requisite for so many other wartime pictures. If a viewer simply happened across one of the flick’s earliest sequences, then he or she might not even suspect that these fifty states were every in crisis. The only two who seems to take it all with the requisite seriousness are Doolittle and Lawson; and, tonally, I wasn’t all that enamored with the basic set-up and character introductions.
Thankfully, a lot of that ‘human interest’ stuff falls away once the picture gets down to the brass tacks. The training sequences are quite good – as is the delivery of our brave flyers and their crews into the Pacific – and the final third of Thirty Seconds explores the lengths to which the survivors had to go to protect themselves from capture in friendly Chinese territories. Director LeRoy definitely contrasts the ‘safe at home’ life of the first half with the ‘dangers abroad’ second; but there is a good deal of general romantic mushiness to fill in the gaps that could have been truncated just a bit. It’s a bit too smarmy and conventional – the kind of love movie censors allowed from those days – and I’m never a big fan of that.
Lastly, I think it’s deserving to mention that Thirty Seconds took home top honors at the 1945 Academy Awards in the category of ‘Best Special Effects.’ As one who spends a great deal of time studying films from the realms of the Fantastic, I can still see and appreciate what the technical experts accomplished in telling this dynamic aerial adventure the way they did, and I can’t think of another film from the bygone era of filmmaking whose visuals are as stunning as what director Mervyn LeRoy was blessed to assemble here. In fact, Thirty Seconds might be one of the better films of old to point folks to who argue that effects work just wasn’t all that important in storytelling back then as there’s no way this project could possibly exist without some incredible visual trickery.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) was produced by Loew’s Incorporated. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been handled by the fine folks at the Warner Archive. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I can still assure readers that this film both looks and sounds phenomenal: given the fact that it’s all based on a true story is yet one more reason to witness what gets rendered to full theatrical glory here as much of it is awe-inspiring. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Sadly, there’s really not anything film-specific on the disc, but there are some shorts drawn from the same historical era that make for suitable diversions.
Highly Recommended.
Though I mean this with no disrespect, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) is one of those flicks that in my estimation falls just a bit short of theatrical perfection and this is only because its last third invests so much in the aftermath of these pilots and their crews downed in enemy territory … and, well, it just gets really depressing. Yes, it finds a way to wind everything up on an uplifting note – love conquers all, you know – but it’s still the kind of experience I’m personally less inclined to watch over and over and over the way I do a solid handful of classics. None of this dismisses the reality that it’s arguably one of the greatest war stories ever told; on that front, it deserves to be seen by all.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at the Warner Archive (via Allied Vaughn) provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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