by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 11, 2008   Last Updated: February 12, 2008

"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" tells the true story of a daring America air raid on Japan just four months after Pearl Harbor. It faithfully recreates the memoir of pilot Ted Lawson, showing the lives and training of soldiers who discovered they'd volunteered for a very dangerous secret mission.

Lawson is a newlywed as the movie first opens, and his wife surprises him with a visit near their training base. In some mildly melodramatic scenes, his wife worries about him "being away," and they talk about the married life they want to lead together. Spencer Tracy plays the mission's commander, General James Doolittle, and provides the necessary speeches about the need to respond to the Pearl Harbor attacks in an effort to boost American morale. Doolittle advises the men that they'll learn how to take off from short landing strips, and the pilots are seen curiously questioning their destination and leading their life on base. (27-year-old actor Robert Mitchum was "discovered" after a small part in this film - delivering a few poignant lines as a soldier who dreams of retiring to a ranch.)

The movie is two hours and twenty minutes long, and its first hour drags while showing the characters' normal lives before the mission begins. ("How come you're so cute?" Lawson teases his wife. "I had to be if I was going to get such a good-looking fella," she replies.) There's a remarkable aerial shot of the airplanes approaching their naval base near San Francisco, giving a fun glimpse of the city skyline in 1944. The Air Force pilots eventually find themselves aboard a Navy aircraft carrier - the only such mission in U.S. military history. There's some light moments as the two crews come together, and the pilots realize they're hopelessly lost in the maze of stairways below the main deck.

But this buildup ultimately makes the movie more effective, since it's these ordinary people who eventually find themselves in the airplanes, being given their signal to take off for their dangerous mission. Actual footage of the departing airplanes is included in the film, along with an important historical point. Doolittle wouldn't send his men on the raid without also flying in the first plane himself. The men hold nervous conversations - they'll run out of fuel before reaching their landing point in China. And the movie even includes real in-flight footage of their bombing run over Tokyo.

The movie's real impact comes in the aftermath of the raid. While most of Doolittle's raiders successfully reached mainland China, Lawson's crew does not. Suffering from a badly wounded leg, he's carried China, his crew on the run from occupying Japanese troops. They meet allies, and eventually a doctor, but he brings bad news for Lawson. His heavily infected leg will have to be amputated.

The movie's dramatic conclusion includes a visit from Doolittle himself to pilot Lawson. He's rejected the visits from his wife, afraid to show his new bride that he's returned an amputee. Doolittle reminds him that the Air Force always has a place for good men, but the movie saves its most moving moment for the end. Lawson is reunited with his wife, who cries that she's so grateful he's come home alive.

"How come you're so cute?" Lawson ask his wife.

"I had to be if I was going to get such a good-looking fella."

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