Hell in the Pacific

D-Day turns sixty next month, bringing a barrage of notable World War Two movies on the DVD release front. We’re especially fond of this one, a very different proposition from what you’ll usually find in the genre. Directed in 1968 by John Boorman (at his creative peak, after Point Blank and before Deliverance), Hell avoids cliché with a story set on the sidelines of the Pacific Front, as two enemy soldiers stranded on a remote island must decide whether to kill each other or cooperate to survive. Beautifully shot and intriguingly scripted—realistically, the language barrier never is resolved—the film is most interesting as an actor’s duel between tough-guy greats Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, a sort of cinematic Ali/Frazier matchup. Though its ending’s antiwar message is painful in its “shocking” obviousness (it was 1968, remember), this film’s a clear victory.