Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

Memorable, crazy movie

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" is one of the best movies made during the war years. While the typical war film made during WWII avoided realism in favor of jingoism and propaganda, this one excels because it tried to get the facts right and plays almost like a documentary merged with a typical Hollywood drama. When you read about the efforts that MGM went to make the film, you realize it was a real labor of love and the movie holds up remarkably well today. This film is about the famous Doolittle Raid on Japan which occurred in 1942. While the actual physical impact of the bombing raid was not especially great, it was a bit public relations victory-- bolstering American morale and reducing the Japanese sense of invulnerability which had been prevalent. The movie begins shortly before the men were recruited for the raid and follows them through training, the actual raid and the fate of a bomber crew. Incidentally, all the planes were lost in the raid...it was intended as a one-way mission.What makes the film strong is not just the emphasis on realism but the acting and direction. Van Johnson was sort of an 'everyman' for the audience to love and root for...and MGM did a great job ladling on the sentimentality but not laying it on too thick. Having supporting actors like Spencer Tracy, Robert Walker and Robert Mitchum sure didn't hurt, either! All in all, a great film and an excellent tribute to these crazy but very brave men who did what their country asked. As for the best scene in the movie, it's a little one with no dialog...as you see a Chinese woman crying silently as some of the injured Americans are being taken to safety. Stunning.By the way, an excellent but over-the-top film about crew captured by the Japanese following the Doolittle Raid is also portrayed in Twentieth Century Fox's "The Purple Heart". It's an excellent film but occasionally lapses into propaganda mode a few times too often to be taken as seriously as "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo".

I was somewhat disappointed with this film and can only give it a charitable 5. Maybe patriotism is adding a rosy glow for other reviewers? The story is a good one and tension does build effectively towards the launch of the mission. Is the plane going to start? Is the takeoff going to be successful? After that, the actual raid is somewhat bland and lacking in tension, and the aftermath of injury and rescue is just corny and unconvincing. It was no doubt made on a limited budget, and it shows just about everywhere. Van Johnson carries the film, such as it is, with his boyish charm, hard to fault. Spencer Tracy acts with power and charisma, only wish we saw more of him. Robert Walker is effective in his part, and something of the emerging screen personality of Robert Mitchum comes through in his part. Otherwise, I found the script shallow and the acting painful. Phyllis Thaxter is unrelentingly saccharine in her part. The other actors seem under-rehearsed, or under-directed. They deliver their lines with verve but seem to just want to get them out and get off. There is rarely any impression that they are listening to other characters and considering their replies. The whole cast is two-dimensional and this really prevents the viewer engaging with them to any extent. It's an adventure story, sure, but it would be good if you felt more empathy for their personalities and concern for their survival! No doubt it fitted the bill at the time, but its value for present-day viewers is limited.

Out of the five widely panned comments on this movie, the one quoted in my summary posted by Ariellion 8-27-05 does not deserve the 100% disapproval it has gotten since, especially if any of the naysayers were familiar with 1940s pop music.The theme to the Rodgers-Hammerstein musical OKLAHOMA! is used as a motif at least four times in this film, and it is not so much disguised as slightly adapted to be a self-contained musical expression of Americana, joining songs sung by airmen in the movie ("The Yellow Rose of Texas" and "The Eyes of Texas Are upon You"), the Star-Spangled Banner sung in Chinese by the Chinese children's chorus, and instrumental versions of "Anchors Aweigh!" and the Air Force Hymn.Seeing as how Richard Rodgers was commissioned to write the soundtrack for the so-called propaganda documentary VICTORY AT SEA (a score which still sells separately as a tone poem in the tradition of Richard Strauss' work or Gustav Holst's "The Planets"), it is more likely that the composer suggested the OKLAHOMA! motif be included in this score a year later, than that TOKYO composer Herbert Stothart tried to pull off one of the clumsiest musical plagiarisms in history.

I was in college and my instructor was giving a lecture on WWII.We dabbled in classroom discussion about the famous Doolttle Raid. I was aware of the raid but I wanted to know more. He suggested the book Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. The book was so compelling, I believe I read it in two days. As you can see I first read the book before I even knew the movie existed.I actually caught the movie on TV accidentally.I was just browsing the Scedule then I noticed the title. This was pretty cool because I read the book only a few weeks before; I had actually thought "too bad they never made a movie". You can never compare a book to a movie, but this movie left you with the same riveting feeling as the book. This is an excellent WWII history.The movie is a classic and is still one of my favorite WWII movies. I absolutely loved this movie.