Hell in the Pacific

Movie history is littered with films that were especially difficult to shoot, almost all of which were ambitious epics that eventually got out of hand- too many people, too many sets, and too many locations can do that to even the most prepared director. John Boorman's Hell in the Pacific (1968) is unique, however, in that it features only two actors, a minimal amount of locations, and still managed to be a nightmarish production. What, on the surface, appeared to be a relatively simple concept quickly turned into a cross-cultural standoff between Boorman and one of his testosterone-fueled stars. From Boorman's standpoint, anyway, the picture was aptly named. Hell in the Pacific is a fascinating allegory starring Lee Marvin as an American pilot who's shot down over the Pacific during World War II, and Toshiro Mifune as a Japanese Naval Officer who's already occupying the island where Marvin's pilot washes up. Initially, the two men play a game of cat-and-mouse, in which they continue fighting World War II on a much smaller scale. But their relationship takes several unexpected turns before reaching a conclusion that can either be viewed as existential poetry or a total cop-out. (More on the ending – or, rather, the multiple endings - later so stop at the spoiler alert if you'd rather see the film before reading further.) Boorman should have taken it as foreshadowing when, before filming began, he and Marvin nearly died in a Cessna that suddenly sputtered and took a nose-dive toward the mouth of an active volcano (the pilot pulled out of the dive at the last second). But Boorman stuck with the picture, only to endure the wrath of a volcano named Toshiro Mifune once the cameras started to roll. Marvin, whose idea it was to cast Mifune in Hell in the Pacific, so admired the Japanese superstar, he would break into histrionic Samurai impersonations when he'd had too much to drink...which was far too often for comfort. Boorman, however, had already worked with Marvin on Point Blank (1967), so he was aware of the actor's idiosyncrasies. But he was hardly prepared for Mifune, who, it turned out, was utterly determined to do things his way or not do them at all, regardless of what Boorman had to say about it. Mifune spoke little English (and, it should be noted, speaks no English in the finished picture, which has no subtitles.) So Boorman was forced to direct the hot-headed actor through a cowering interpreter named Aki. While filming the first confrontation between Marvin and Mifune, Boorman quickly realized that he was in for a long ride. "Mifune was ready," he wrote in his autobiography, Adventures of a Suburban Boy. "We rehearsed. He played the scene like his character in The Seven Samurai [1954], a boastful clown. I was horrified. I took him to one side and told him how I wanted it: serious, fearful, dignified. He nodded. We did the take. He played it exactly the same. I told him again. He listened imperviously. Aki was getting nervous. In the next take (Mifune) made no adjustment, no concession to my directions. I asked Aki, 'Are you telling him what I said?' Aki said he couldn't translate exactly because Mifune would lose face in front of the Japanese crew if he was corrected by me. 'Tell him precisely what I said.' He did so with many apologies and much bowing of his head. Mifune's response was to shout abuse at Aki, who fell abjectly to his knees. I called for another take. Mifune did not alter his performance one iota." Later that evening, an enraged, stinking drunk Mifune burst into the dining room where Marvin and Boorman were eating, and tried to load a .22 rifle with a large packet of Wrigley's chewing gum! This didn't help Boorman's digestion. Several difficult days later, Mifune finally ordered Boorman to use his stunt double during rehearsals, then the specifics would be relayed to Mifune just before filming. This experiment was halted, however, when, according to Boorman, Mifune began having trouble delivering the scenes as skillfully as his stunt double. Later during the shoot, Boorman bashed his knee against some coral and had to have surgery to relieve a terrible infection that could have caused him to lose his leg. At that point, the producers tried to dump Boorman from the floundering project. At first Marvin resisted, then agreed to the move, but Mifune refused. The same sense of honor that wouldn't allow him to take direction from Boorman kept him from dismissing the person he had agreed to work with! Marvin was badly injured in the battle of Saipan during World War II, so his return to the islands while filming Hell in the Pacific was an emotional one (you can read his harrowing, first-person account of the battle in Pam Marvin's book about her husband, Lee.) Boorman felt that Marvin belatedly finished his healing process while shooting the picture: "Reliving that period of his life provoked a kind of crisis in him. The producers wanted him to kill Mifune in the end. And perhaps that's also what the public wanted. But I refused. Everything that Lee was – his violence, his killer instinct – made him want to kill Mifune. The fact that we were able to film (a non-violent) ending was a kind of catharsis for Marvin. He said to me: 'I'm sick of killing people to gratify millions of spectators. From now on they can kill each other.'" SPOILER ALERT: Boorman originally intended to end the film by having Mifune's character kill two Japanese soldiers who stumble upon Marvin and decapitate him. But that idea was discarded, and Boorman shot an ending in which Marvin and Mifune drop their truce and return to fighting a pointless battle. But that wasn't good enough for executive producer Henry G. Saperstein, who later tacked another ending onto some of the prints without Boorman's consent. In that one, there's an explosion during a rather unlikely air raid, and both soldiers are apparently killed. But, then again, maybe they aren't. Marvin always said Hell in the Pacific was "about two men who can't kill each other," so you might as well think what you want, and just enjoy a rich character study that sports a truly ambiguous conclusion. Director: John Boorman Executive Producer: Selig J. Seligman, Henry G. Saperstein Producer: Reuben Bercovitch Screenplay: Alexander Jacobs, Eric Bercovici (based on a story by Bercovitch) Cinematography: Conrad Hall Editing: Thomas Stanford Music: Lalo Schifrin Art Design: Anthony Pratt, Masao Yamakazi Special Effects: Joe Zomar, Kunishige Tanaka Set Design: Makoto Kikuchi Makeup: Shigeo Kobayashi Cast: Lee Marvin (American Soldier), Toshiro Mifune (Japanese Soldier). C-103m. by Paul Tatara