| Hell in the Pacific | |
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original film poster |
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| Directed by | John Boorman |
| Produced by | Reuben Bercovitch Henry G. Saperstein Selig J. Seligman |
| Written by | Reuben Bercovitch Alexander Jacobs Eric Bercovici |
| Starring | Lee Marvin, Toshirō Mifune |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
| Studio | Selmur Pictures |
| Distributed by | Cinerama |
| Release date(s) | 18 December 1968 |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Unknown |
Hell in the Pacific is a 1968 World War II film starring Lee Marvin and Toshirō Mifune, the only two actors in the entire film. It was directed by John Boorman.
A two-man version of 1965's None But the Brave, the film is a story of two soldiers, one American and the other Japanese, marooned on an uninhabited Pacific island, who, in order to survive, must accept their differences and work together, despite their two countries being at war.
The film contains little dialogue, and much like its predecessor, is not dubbed or sub-titled, thus authentically portraying the frustration of restricted communication between the Japanese- and English-speaking. The film was entirely shot in the Rock Islands of Palau in the north Pacific Ocean, near the Philippines in the Philippine Sea.
The film was originally released with a rather abrupt ending, one that left many dissatisfied with the outcome of the struggle these men endured. The subsequent DVD release has an alternative ending, which while leaving the eventual destiny of the two ambiguous, was much more in line with the overall direction of the movie.
Both actors had real-life World War II combat experience: Marvin served with the US Marines in the Pacific, where he was wounded and received the Purple Heart; meanwhile Mifune served in the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force.
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One of the writers, Eric Bercovici, would go on to write the screenplay for, and produce, the Emmy Award winning television mini-series Shōgun (based on the James Clavell novel) for NBC, with Toshirō Mifune cast as "Toranaga" the man who would eventually become the Shogun.
The concept was re-worked in 1979 for the Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning novella Enemy Mine, later adapted to film in 1985 and directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
In 1980, Hell in the Pacific was the basis for "The Return of Starbuck," an episode of Galactica 1980, the short-lived spin-off of the original Battlestar Galactica TV series.[1]
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