Hell in the Pacific **** (1968, Lee Marvin, Toshiro Mifune) – Classic Movie Review 3459

Those great tough guys of different cultures Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune star as an American pilot and a Japanese naval officer called Captain Tsuruhiko Kuroda, brought together by fate on a small uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean during the conflict in World War Two.

The two wartime enemies are marooned there with just one chance for survival – each other of course – if only they can cease their hostility and co-operate. We shall see.

Though occasionally slow moving and arguably a bit pretentious, John Boorman’s offbeat, arty 1968 cult movie is mostly a quite captivating film, thanks in no small part to the two magnetic performances.

Conrad L Hall’s marvellous widescreen cinematography, the iconic stars and Boorman’s sheer intelligence and vision carry it through. And overall it is undoubtedly oddly impressive and quite memorable.

The screenplay is by Alexander Jacobs and Eric Bercovici, score by Lalo Schifrin, production designs by Anthony D G Pratt and Masao Yamazaki, and the producer is Reuben Bercovitch, who also wrote the story.

The previous year Marvin also starred in Boorman’s Point Blank (1967).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3459

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