Pearl Harbor Day: The Nitpickiest IMDb Nitpicks for Tora! Tora! Tora! and Pearl Harbor
Today is the 70the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Greatest Generation's 9/11.
That sub is OBVIOUSLY an October sun.
Since then the Day of Infamy has shown up in many movies, most notably 1970's Tora! Tora! Tora! and 2001's Pearl Harbor. Any such movie subjects itself to the eagle eyes of "rivet-heads," the experts who are always ready to leap up in outrage at any tiny deviation the military equipment in a movie might have from what was used in real life. This also extends to any error of any type.
The Web site IMDb is a leading chronicler of reader-submitted "goofs"; here are five of the nit-pickiest for the two films.
Tora! Tora! Tora!
5. Critiquing the German guns in a Japanese-attack movie
The German guns seen for approximately 2.4 seconds of screen time, if we recall correctly.
When the movie moves to Nazi Germany for the Japanese signing of the Tripartite Pact, the SS guard outside the Reichschancellery is shouldering a Mauser with a late war barrel band. As materials and time became scarce in Germany, they had a cheap stamped barrel band instead of the early pressed (H-type) one
4. A state-park historian weighs in
Count the rivets, dudes.
Check out the BBQ grill in one of the scenes. They were not in Hawaii's parks until the 1950s.
3. Thank you for pointing this out
The B-17's used in the movie are F and G models. The B-17s arriving from Hamilton Field, California during the attack were a mix of D and E-models.
2. Can you believe they were six months off?
When the submarine is strafed at the beginning of the attack, a destroyer in the background carries the number 446. This number was assigned to the USS Radford, commissioned in May 1942.
1. The watch industry weighs in, because that's what you're concentrating on when the attack finally begins in Tora! Tora! Tora!
Early in the attack, one deck officer is shown wearing a "Caravelle" wristwatch with the imprint "Waterproof" on the dial face. Bulova's web site indicates that the Caravelle line of watches was introduced in 1962, some 21 years after the attack.
Pearl Harbor
5. The most important thing about hero Doris Miller
Doris Miller is shown as a petty officer second class. Miller was in fact a petty officer third class at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack.
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