Product Details

• Actors: Lee Marvin, Toshirô Mifune
• Directors: John Boorman
• Writers: Reuben Bercovitch, Alexander Jacobs, Eric Bercovici
• Producers: Henry G. Saperstein, Reuben Bercovitch, Selig J. Seligman
• Format: Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• VHS Release Date: January 26, 1999
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0764004581
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,700 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Lone Japanese soldier Toshiro Mifune diligently scans the ocean from his island lookout as he must have thousands of times before, but this time he spies an abandoned life raft resting on a rocky bluff. Within minutes he's face to face with American sea-wreck survivor Lee Marvin and the two begin an elaborate game of cat and mouse. Director John Boorman presents this two-man war as a deadly game between a pair of overgrown children, who finally tire of it (as kids will) and settle into tolerated co-existence and then even something resembling a friendship. With impressionistic strokes, Boorman paints a lush tropical paradise in colors you can drink from the screen, capturing the texture of their experience as refracted through the cinema: the look of the island as seen through the haze of smoke, the sound of a sudden rainstorm as it hushes the island in a calming roar, the timelessness of life outside of civilization. The story seems almost secondary, an allegorical drama that comes alive in the excellent performances by Marvin and Mifune (who soon enough converse despite their complete inability to understand each other's language) and the visceral immediacy of Boorman's gorgeous widescreen images. Hell in the Pacific is not a tale told as much as a film experienced. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of Enemies, July 26, 2003

By 

L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (Huntington Beach,CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hell in the Pacific (DVD)

This review refers to the Anchor Bay DVD "Hell in the Pacific"...

You won't find a big ensemble cast in this World War II film from 1968. Only 2 actors tell the story, and they don't even speak the same langauge. But they don't need to, these two actors are Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune. They portray enemies, one American, one Japanese, marooned on an island in the midst of the war. They are so brillant in their portrayals, that actions really do speak louder than words. You won't even miss the fact that there are no subtitles when Mifune is speaking. His every expression, lets us know exactly what he is thinking.
Add to this the artful direction of John Boorman, who brought us such exquiste films as "Excalibur", the wonderful music of Lalo Schifrin (Mission Impossible), and the expert eye of Cinematographer Conrad Hall(Butch Cassidy, American Beauty) and you're in for a real cinematic treat.

When a disciplined Japanese Naval Officer discovers he is not alone on the small Island in the Pacific, he immediatly goes into high gear to protect and defend his territory. But he has met his match in the very undisciplined American Marine that has been washed ashore. And so it begins...these two do everything they can to capture, torture, and generally make life miserable for each other(and at times is on the comical side). The need for human contact though, becomes apparent and they stop short at killing each other, and actually form an attachment to each other. The ending is a bit of a shocker, but there is also an alternate ending included with this DVD.

Anchor Bay as usual has really made this 35 year old film a pleasure to watch. You have the choice of widescreen(2.35:1) or full format(by the way, my DVD was mismarked as to which side was widescreen, so don't panic if this happens, just flip it over). Excellent picture, vibrant colors and the sound in Dolby Dig Stereo is clear as a bell. And don't forget to check out the alternate ending.

A great buy for fans of war movies, Marvin and Mifune, and anyone who appreciates artful film making.

Enjoy....Laurie

more on war:
Into the DMZ A Battle History of Operation Hickory, May 1967, Vietnam(first hand account and great read)
Windtalkers
A Bridge Too Far
see my reviews for book and film details

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars With little-to-no dialogue, this film is one to watch, July 27, 2004

By 

SharmaG (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hell in the Pacific (DVD)

My fiance got me the DVD as a present to me on his birthday. It sat for a month and then we finally watched it together. I was amazed that there was no dialogue... really. Very little. And when we were watching the DVD, we did not choose the option for subtitles and only realized that option after we'd seen the film. Overall it is a film to watch -- really watch. After you see it once without the subtitles, watch it again with them. Makes it a totally different experience. The acting and directing is incredible and one is left wondering, what the screenplay of this film actually looked like. Not too many special features but there is an alternate ending that is interesting.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Survival Nightmare, December 27, 2004

By 

C. A. Luster "The Rook" (Burke, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hell in the Pacific (DVD)

Similiarities to the Enemy Mine movie could be made here. Perhaps the Enemy Mine writer got the idea from this story. Two men stranded on a Island rather than a planet in this case. As WWII rages a Japanese and American soldier are stranded on the same small island. They try to kill each other at first. As time goes by they realize their very survival depends on a truce. Eventually they work together and build a raft. After days on the Pacific Ocean they find another larger group of islands. The uneasy truce becomes shaky again when they find remnants of Japanese and American occupation of the main island. Up to this point an excellent movie. In fact I was say close to flawless movie since the acting, sets, scenery, music, directing and all the rest are incredible. SPOILER ALERT: Now the reason I didn't give it four or five stars is because they kill them off with a single stray artillery shell in the original ending. You will be enthralled with the wonderful acting and really care for these two characters. Then to suddenly watch their lifes snuffed out just so some writer or director could make their point that war is bad didn't impress me. If someone didn't think we get that point long before the ending of this movie, they don't give much credit to the audience. Why they didn't use the alternate ending with the soldiers walking off their separate ways is beyond me. Be sure to look at the alternate ending and see if you agree this should have been the original ending. Still well worth owning.