Editing Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (section)

==Reception==
The film received favorable reviews. ''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' magazine praised it as one of the five best films of the year, and the [[National Board of Review]] ranked it as eighth-best film of the year. ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'' reviewer called it "one of the greatest war pictures ever made".<ref name=":0" /> Film critic and author [[James Agee]] wrote in 1944, "''30 Seconds Over Tokyo'' is in some respects the pleasantest of current surprises: a big-studio film, free of artistic pretension, it is transformed by its not very imaginative but very dogged sincerity into something forceful, simple, and thoroughly sympathetic in spite of all its big-studio, big-scale habits{{nbsp}}... The Chinese, nearly all of them amateur, are the best thing in the picture and the best Chinese in any American picture: I can only hope they make a great many people in Hollywood aware of the tremendous advantages of using non-actors in films{{nbsp}}..."<ref>Agee, James - ''Agee on Film Vol. 1'' © 1958 by The James Agee Trust.</ref>

''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' was recognized as an inspirational, patriotic film with great value as a morale builder for wartime audiences. ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1944 summed the production, "our first sensational raid on Japan in April 1942 is told with magnificent integrity and dramatic eloquence."<ref>Orriss 1984, p. 100.</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' focused on the human elements, "inspired casting ... the war becomes a highly personalized thing through the actions of these crew members...this pleasant little family."<ref>Staff (December 31, 1943) [https://archive.today/20120714140545/http://stage.variety.com/review/VE1117795645.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"] ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]''. Retrieved: November 22, 2011.</ref>

Later reviewers have considered ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' the finest aviation film of the period.<ref>Orriss 1984, pp. 93–94.</ref> The film is now considered a "classic aviation and war film."<ref>Harwick and Schnepf 1989, pp. 13–14, 61–62.</ref> The actual Raiders considered it a worthy tribute.<ref>Aylworth, Roger H. [http://www.njipms.org/Articles/doolittle-lawson.htm "No secrets: Chicago Pilot's Wife Knew About 1942 Doolittle Raid."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020621225632/http://njipms.org/Articles/doolittle-lawson.htm |date=2002-06-21 }} ''Chicago Enterprise-Record.'' Retrieved: November 22, 2011.</ref>

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|100|7.3|5|ref=yes|access-date=March 11, 2025}} {{Metacritic film prose|77|8|access-date=March 11, 2025}}<ref>{{Cite Metacritic |title=Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo  |id=thirty-seconds-over-tokyo |type=movie |access-date=March 11, 2025}}</ref>

===Box-office===
According to MGM records, the film made $4,297,000 in the US and Canada and $1,950,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,382,000.<ref name="Mannix"/>

===Awards and honors===
In the 1945 [[Academy Awards]], the ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' team of [[A. Arnold Gillespie]], [[Donald Jahraus]] and [[Warren Newcombe]] (photography) and [[Douglas Shearer]] (sound) won the Oscar for [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Best Special Effects]]. Robert Surtees, A.S.C. and Harold Rosson, A.S.C. were  nominated in the category of Black and White Cinematography.<ref name="Oscars1945">[http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1945 "The 17th Academy Awards (1945) Nominees and Winners.'] ''oscars.org''. Retrieved: June 23, 2013.</ref><ref>[http://www.filmsite.org/aa45.html "1945 Academy Awards: Awards and Winners."] ''filmsite.org.'' Retrieved: November 22, 2011.</ref>