Hell in the Pacific

Director: John Boorman
Year Released: 1968
Rating: 3.0

Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune battle each other with mind games and trickery on a deserted island - it's done with virtually no dialogue (the men can't understand each other, so the conversations are ultimately one-sided) and some gorgeous camerawork by the late Conrad Hall. However, the screenplay doesn't have a good third act (if what is there can be called a third act), and Boorman and his writers seem to have no idea as to how to end the movie. On the Anchor Bay release, there are two endings: one laughably abrupt and the other a lot more ambiguous, the two men simply drifting apart; it's obvious which one I prefer, although a third option would have been preferred.